Tiger Helicopters - Trial Lesson in a Robinson R22
A few years ago I was bought a pleasure flight as a gift and was lucky enough to sit in the co-pilots seat and after my wife bought me a 3ch Robocopter RC Heli for Christmas 2011, I have recently got into RC helicopters, so my wife decided it would be nice for me to have a go at flying a real one.
On arriving at Shobdon Airfield where Tiger Helicopters are based, there was a lack of signs directing you, so when you drive down the entrance road, don’t take the first left for visitor parking, drive to the bottom and turn left, which runs parallel with the runway and is only 10mph, as aircraft will cross this road, so be aware of aircraft and you may need to stop and give way to them.
As you drive along you will see the cafe on your left, where we stopped for some dinner first, but then you need to carry on past the cafe a little bit further, again watching out for aircraft wanting to return to hangers etc and you will see Tiger Helicopters in the distance on the left and a sign pointing left to take you around the back where there's a small car park. They have a reception area downstairs, but there is also a canteen area with balcony upstairs for your family and friends to watch you fly.
As you drive along you will see the cafe on your left, where we stopped for some dinner first, but then you need to carry on past the cafe a little bit further, again watching out for aircraft wanting to return to hangers etc and you will see Tiger Helicopters in the distance on the left and a sign pointing left to take you around the back where there's a small car park. They have a reception area downstairs, but there is also a canteen area with balcony upstairs for your family and friends to watch you fly.
The Robinson R22 has a unique "T" style central cyclic and I found you didn’t get much feedback and although I have learnt from my rc helicopters you only need small cyclic movements, it’s really difficult to make such tiny movements. The “T” style cyclic is almost like attaching an bar with handle to your gearstick in your car and asking you to change gear, so you feel a bit detached, however I have no experience of the standard joystick style cyclic, so a pilot would know better.
The pilot said they are only allowed 30 degrees roll with learners, which to be honest felt very unnatural and would take a while for me to get used to, however controlling the rudder I found a lot easier & with more practice I could probably master fairly quickly, but watching him control rudder, cyclic and collective, while keeping an eye on the gauges and listening to the radio transmissions, I'm not sure I could manage it after a 100 hours, but the minimum is only 45!!
The pilot was friendly, informative and made me feel calm and relaxed all the time, while giving me clear instructions to help me understand the helicopter and the controls and although I will probably never actually get a pilot’s licence, it was a great experience.
After the pre-flight checks and some explanation of the controls from the pilot, he finally takes us off for my lesson, the video below is from take off and when we get hovering above the grass, he shows me how to work the rudder and then lets me take control of the rudder, you can tell when it’s me, as it’s not a continuous smooth rotation, unfortunately my wife cut the video a bit too early. The second video the pilot shows me left and right cyclic control, which is literally a tiny movement on the cyclic lefdt or right, but it was a better feeling than the 30 degree rolls we did high up.
After the pilot decided to show me a simulated engine failure (not captured on the video), he then shows me the manoeuvrability of the helicopter, firstly using cyclic control to go backwards and then forwards again. Before returning to the helipad, he shows me his skills by keeping the nose of the helicopter pointed at a marker and rotating around it. My excitement shows by the over enthusiastic waving.