Hi everyone,

This feels a bit stupid, but I just had the GREATEST time of my life flying a small helicopter today and I am so excited I wanted to tell someone. It was incredibly fun and extremely difficult.

It was my first lesson in the Robinson R22 helicopter. This is a very small piston-engined helicopter commonly used as a trainer.

We spent the first 40 minutes or so doing level flight, climbing, descending, and turns at altitude. The last 20 minutes we spent with me trying to hover. Apparently, it takes an average of 5 hours of cumulative hover practice for most people. I can see why! It is extremely difficult. I had read a lot about it, had flown computer simulators, and I am a mechanical engineer who knows a bit about controls (and over-controlling), so I knew beforehand that the biggest issue was over-controlling the system. It didn't matter... I *did* manage about a 10 second controlled hover, though. That may not seem like much, but it IS. After about 10 seconds, I started drifting some way (right, I think) and when I corrected the right drift I ended up flying backwards, then I corrected that and was flying right again and I ended up "chasing" it and was out of control in a few seconds.

By "out of control" I mean that I would have crashed and died if there hadn't been an instructor along. The thing is *so* twichy and unstable. I was told to rest my right forearm on my leg and control the cyclic (the stick that controls fore/aft, left/right -- the center stick) using only very small wrist movements. Flying the thing requires CONSTANT adjustment to the controls because the helicopter is inherently unstable.

Anyhow, sorry to blather. I could go on and on. It was so much fun. I can't wait to go up again!

I recommend it to anyone!

Jim