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Kick The Tires And Light The Fires!


Cole

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*whispers quietly* I'm sure you won't need it, but good luck, Cole!

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Sorry to leave you guys without a fix!

 

After more work on all kinds of confined areas we started nav last week with a diversion type trip to goat river introducing more confined areas, then back to creston.

 

After that one, it was a dual trip from creston to cranbrook and on to the three lakes at N49'30'' W116'30''... this is where I confirmed that having three on the map, doesnt limit the earth to only having three. The point of the excersize was obvious haha.

 

Next trip was supposed to be Creston (CAJ3) - Elko (CBE2) - Cranbrook (CYXC) - KVH Hangar... which was postponed to this morning due to a lack of daylight left last night after I returned from a few days off in Penticton that we arranged because Wendell went away for the weekend.

 

So last night became a flight to a small town called Moyie about 30 miles away and return, which seems easy enough, but when I turned around to head to duck lake, a spot where we do alot of confined areas just about 8 NM the north of creston, the valley I wanted to fly up was completely blocked by low level cloud. At that point I decided to turn around and head back the way I came... which was no problem until a town called Kitchner which had been obscured after I flew through it the first time. This lead to about half an hour of searching every valley I could find for an opening to pop through befor finally returning to Kitchner from the south and spotting a hole I decided to try... I paralleled the hole until I decided it was safe and made a left turn through it bringing myself back into the valley where I had just enough daylight to set down at the hangar with a comfortable buffer for error.

 

Today was... yes, more nav... to start we did a diversional flight to a selected point on the map, and then a diversion from the original diversion which involved alot of valley crawling and technique to ultimately end up at both destinations. On the final leg we popped down a hole into a valley where a pad had been cut for a medium to land at the peak of a smaller mountain. Im really getting into mountain flying and really enjoying every aspect of it! The flying is unreal and a tonne of fun.

 

Once we returned home it was a hand off for the other student to complete the Elko trip while I entered the variables for my nav log. When he returned I went right back up and did the same trip with a little bit of manipulation due to some cap clouds and a solid layer at about 6000 feet ASL. When I left Elko I was debating skipping Cranbrook all together as I would only leave about 10 minutes for unforseen circumstances but opted to finish the leg anyway. When leaving cranbrook I switched on the gps in flight to confirm and cross check all the numbers I came up with after the first ground speed check, they were all right on the money.

The second ground speed check had me slightly more concerned as it put me back in creston with only about 7 minutes to spare. This was about the point of no return to cranbrook so I again chose to continue on to creston.

Of course 'if something can go wrong, it will', as everything had gone so well so far I found that my primary route of choice was blocked in so I followed the powerlines to the south as they follow a good set of vallies. Problem solved... Until the next set of clouds.

At this point Im still confident Ill meet up with the road and return to creston with about 5 minutes befor I was supposed to be back, giving me 20 minutes to go befor I would have to make an approach to wherever I was and pack it in for the night while trying to figure out going home.

I turned up the speed a bit a while earlier and was tweaked up pretty tight and with about 4 minutes left I came around the corner to see the valley.

I knew I still want out of the fire yet, but I pressed on to make the landing slightly overdue, but none the less legally and above all safely back at the KVH hangar, 4 miles south east of the airport.

 

A small update on the acedemic portion of schooling, weve decided to do the exam between Cristmas and Newyears and fly right up to the 23rd in order to meet the hour requirements for the flight test on January 8th and our last day of January 13th.

 

After some quick math today I confirmed that Im on budget, in fact, I have a $100.00 surplus :lol: .

As you may have already assumed Ill be going straight back to work for a company in Penticton for a week or two in order to save some money for a road trip and mabey even a loan payment haha.

 

Thanks for all the job finding tips and leads left via PM. All of them have and will come into play and Ill be leaving no stone unturned.

 

Video and pictures unfortunately may have to wait until Christmas time as I dont have a strong enough connection at the hangar, and am on dial up here at my place.

 

Thanks

Cole

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Very, very cool. Sounds like a challenging and fun day! Thanks for the update.

 

---Darren in Invermere

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Hey Darren I heard you sent Wendell an email, he said he got it... but the same day he dropped his laptop so it couldnt hurt to resend it haha.

 

No flying today as the morning was less then a mile vis so we continued with the ground work. It started with a written exam practice... 90% overall with several mistakes again that I shouldn't have made... im confident im capable of more though, and certain the next one will be soon... back to the books haha.

 

The afternoon was flyable, but by 1500 we were emersed in the books again so we ended the day around 1730 still buried in them.

 

Tomorrow brings on more flying, up over 40 hours in less then 3 weeks with the remaining 60 to be done in 20 days of school.

 

In all not much to report on but still having a great time, back at it tomorrow at first light.

 

Cheers,

Thanks again,

Cole

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Im running out of milestones as far as my training, today was another one!

 

Showed up at the hangar at about 0830 to find the 300 still in peices as its down for a day or so on a maintainance snag. So I figured it would be another day pushin the broom, doing some studying, cleaning the helicopters again and then mabey another written practice test.

 

Boy was I wrong.

 

We opened up the hangar and rolled out the jetranger and for the first time it wasnt to access the 300.

 

After a briefing and rundown, there was a coin toss. The coin toss had me flying second but I managed to get some good pictures of the other student befor my flight.

 

1100 or so rolled around and it was my turn, what a fun machine to fly! Pick it up nice and slow into the hover and make every movement really relaxed while keeping the hands really slow.

 

The first thing you notice is the severe lack of feedback in the controls. The 300 is amazingly responsive and doesnt require the patience that the jetranger does. That being said, its not a large jump because Ive been taught to fly as smooth as possible and just relax. With that in mind we continued with basic flying to the airport. At the airport I was to hover in a 10knt wind, not to bad straight into wind, downwind is a whole nother story haha.

 

All sorts of stuff today with a few hours in the helicopter.

 

I cant wait to get paid to do this!

 

Will have more tomorrow, time to get some sleep as I think were continueing with the emergencies tomorrow morning.

 

Cole

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We opened up the hangar and rolled out the jetranger and for the first time it wasnt to access the 300.

 

Whoa! How COOL is that !?!?? My eyes were reading your post faster than my brain could register. Reading threads like this make me all excited 'n' stuff. :P

 

Have a great day in the Jet-box!!

 

---Darren

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Well today we finished the jetranger exam but I didnt get any flying in unfortunately.

 

Tomorrow though, Im really happy with the way things are going so far, As of yesterday I have 43.9 Hours in helicopters.

 

On the subject of short and tall guys... does anyone have a suggestion for the jetranger, im only about an inch or two to high after taking out the stock seat and using a new pad but it leaves the back feeling sore after a few hours of flying.

 

Tomorrow may bring up to 6 hours starting with the jetranger for a few hours of emergencies followed by a few hours of mountain time in the 300.

 

Darren I was witting on that side of the fence this time last year watching Matt and hanging on his every word, Ill take some more time from now on to get some blog posts up for you and others like you, Thanks for your support!

 

Cole

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