Life after the Lottery Ch. 78

"Where do we want to park it?" Samantha asked as we got to the house.

"Put it on the pad," Jeanine told her.

We slowed, and Samantha flew a circle and approached the house slowly. She descended slowly and hovered over the pad, then rotated to set it down in the take-off direction.

"Excellent, Sam!" Jeanine exclaimed.

They went through the shutdown procedures, and we opened the doors and started getting out.

"Wow, that was fun!" Samantha exclaimed. "It handles like a sports car!"

"I'll teach you a lot more," Jeanine told her.

"When!"

"Let me see what my schedule is this week. If I am busy, we may want to park it at the airport so the other instructors can train you."

"Ahhh!" Came from Samantha.

"When will you finish your IFR class?"

"We take the written test next weekend," Dawn said.

"Great. The instructors will need to fly with you after that."

"Can't you?" Samantha asked.

"Let them get you trained. I'll teach you what you really need to know. What about you, James?"

"Give me a couple of weeks."

We unloaded all our luggage and junk and carried it all up to the house. Amy and Samanta made us something to eat since we had skipped lunch. We sat at the bar and talked to them while they made some sandwiches.

"Well, Jeanine, I guess you'll have to fly with us the next when you can ride in the back!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Í'll see what I can do!"

"The pins are nice, honey. That is a real diamond," Dawn told her.

"Wow. Don't have one with a real diamond," Jeanine said.

"How many do you have?" Samantha asked.

"I have a few!"

Jeanine told us about some of her experiences earning her pins.

About 4:00, Jeanine and I got in the Escalade so I could take her to Linda's house. I had just pulled onto the interstate.

"Talk to Linda and Rachel. See if they will come next weekend. We can fly and fuck all weekend. Linda and Rachel need to earn their pins! You and Stan need to stay also."

"Okay! I'll ask them."

*****

Tuesday, when I returned to the house. Amy was sitting on the sofa working with her new camera.

"I guess they are down at the helicopter?" I asked.

"Of course! I am going to go down and take some photos."

Amy and I walked down to the helicopter, and Dawn and Samantha were going over some books and looking at things. Amy took some photos of them for a while.

"There is a shit load of things we have to learn about this one," Dawn said. "You won't believe all the things it has on it. I see why it was $3,000,000. You need to fly next," Dawn said to me.

"We have all of August. I guess we will all be cross-trained by the end of the month."

"I'm planning on being IFR certified by then," Dawn said.

"Me too!" Came from Samantha.

"Good luck with that!"

*****

About 7:30, I got a call from Jeanine.

"Hey, I wanted to check and make sure you all were home," she said.

"Where else would we be."

"They are at the helicopter?"

"What do you think."

"Good. I am going to come by about 8:00. I have something for the three of you."

"Okay. I guess Amy and I will be cooking dinner. Eat with us."

"I just have something to drop off, and I have to run."

"Okay. I'll see you about 8:00."

Amy and I were cooking, and about 10 minutes before 8:00, I called Dawn's cell phone.

"Yes?"

"Come eat. Jeanine is coming by. She has something for us."

"Okay, we'll be right up."

Dawn and Samantha came in at the same time that Amy let Jeanine in the front door.

"Hey, Jeanine," Samantha said.

I turned to look, and Jeanine was carrying a box.

"I didn't mean to interrupt dinner, but I have something for you three."

"Set it down here," I said.

She sat the box on the bar.

"What is it?" Samantha asked.

"I had a friend at the NTSB send this to me. It is some light reading for you three."

"It doesn't look like light reading?" Samantha said as she looked in the box.

"It is a reading assignment for you all. I want each of you to read everything in the box this week."

"What is it?" Dawn asked.

"These are the printouts of all the crash reports for the EC-135 worldwide and some others."

"What?"

"There are not a lot of them, but they are very detailed. These are from all the crashes around the world. As you read them, I want you to learn several things. First, what is the common denominator for the majority of crashes? Second, what time of day and weather conditions did the majority of crashes occur? Third, what was the most common cause of the majority of crashes."

"Well, that's a downer," Samantha said.

"During my military flight training, I spent weeks reading crash reports for all the aircraft I was certified on. Now you get to do the same. This is a very important lesson. One that most pilots will fail to learn until it is too late. Enjoy. I have got to run."

Jeanine left the box with us. I looked in it, and there was a big stack of printouts.

*****

Jeanine came by Wednesday at lunchtime, and she and Dawn flew the helicopter to the airport. I went in the Escalade to pick them up.

"Now you can get more training this week," Jeanine told us as we drove back to the house.

"Can you fly with us this weekend?" Dawn asked.

"Yes."

"Good. I got permission for us to practice landing at the hospital if we can do it early Sunday morning. They always get busy on Sunday afternoons."

"Okay. I can be at the house by 7:00," Jeanine said.

"Perfect. We will be ready."

*****

I tried to get Dawn and Samantha back into a regular routine during the week. They spent as much time as they could at the airport flying. They went ahead and took their instrument written test on Friday afternoon and passed it, of course.

We were all eating dinner Friday evening.

"We are all going to Krav age class tomorrow," I told them.

"Ahh!" Came from Samantha.

"Sam..." I said.

"We need a break anyway," Dawn said. "Don't forget about Sunday morning."

"You two both need to remember that there are other things you need to be doing other than flying," I told them. "Samantha, I don't want you switching from one project to another."

*****

Sunday morning, we were up early. Jeanine had let them fly the helicopter to the house Friday afternoon. We all boarded the helicopter and headed toward the hospital. Dawn was upfront with Jeanine.

"Let me radio the hospital on the other radio," Dawn said as she dialed in the radio.

She talked to them for a few minutes, and we were cleared to land. Jeanine spent sever hours training us to land on the elevated pad while it was clear.

Jeanine and I were practicing landings and takeoffs. We had left Samantha and Dawn at the hospital while we flew. We had the second radio on tuned to the med-comm frequencies to get permission to land and take off.

"November-Three-Six-Nine...med-comm-one."

"Med-comm one...November-Three-Six-Nine," I replied.

"Three-Six-Nine...your two passengers are ready to leave."

"Okay. We will be landing in about one minute."

"See you then."

After I landed, Samantha and Dawn came and got in the back.

"Are you two ready to go?" I asked.

"Yep!"

"Med-comm-one...November-Three-Six-Nine," I radioed.

"Three-Six-Nine."

"Med-comm-one...ready to depart."

"Thank you, Three-Six-Nine. Hope everyone learned something."

"We did. Thanks for letting us practice."

I lifted off and flew away a little, then headed south toward the house. It was about ten minutes back to the house.

"Can you three fly tonight after dark?" Jeanine asked.

"Yes!" Came from Samantha.

"I'll be at the house about 9:00, then. You three need to start practicing taking off and landing on your pad at night."

"We will be there. Do you want to come for dinner?" Dawn asked.

"I guess we could. Stan and I will be at Linda's new house checking on the pad construction."

"Okay. Plan on eating at 7:00."

*****

We were at the helicopter just before 9:00. Jeanine was talking to us about night landings.

When I took off, all the lights around the pad were on. It was different taking off in the dark with all those lights on. I flew away from the house for about ten minutes, then headed back. Most of the pad lights were off as I approached the house. I keyed the radio on the frequency for the lights, and they all came on.

"That is so cool," Dawn said.

"That is a great feature," Jeanine said. "Now, one question for all of you? What do you do if the lights don't come on?"

"I would call the house and see if someone can turn them on from the house," I said.

"What if there is no one there?" Jeanine asked.

"Then I guess I could turn on the big ass spotlight!"

I flipped the switch on the stick, and the spotlight came on."

"You could. After you get a few more landings at night under your belt, I'll teach you why that is not as good an idea as you think."

"Okay, why is it not a good idea?" Dawn asked.

"You will find out the first time you try and land in the dark with just the spotlight...it is not as easy as you think it may be. I will have to teach you how to do it."

The three of us practiced takeoffs and landings until nearly 11:30. Once we shut down, Jeanine instructed us again on the proper way to refuel and to make sure we grounded the helicopter frame before we did.

As we walked back to the house, Samantha asked, "Does night flying count as IFR hours?"

"Not in my book, it doesn't," Jeanine replied.

"But it does?" Dawn asked.

"It can count as part of them. I am going to teach you that when you fly at night, you always fly IFR, no matter how clear the sky is or if the moon is out."

"Why?" I asked.

"Safer."

Once we were back at the house, we grabbed something to drink and sat in the den.

"Quiz time," Jeanine said. "From your review of all the EC-135 crash data, when did the majority of crashes occur?"

"Most were during IFR conditions," Dawn said.

"What was the ruling by the FAA on the majority of the crashes?"

"Pilot error," Samantha replied.

"Why?"

"The pilots either exceeded their abilities or exceeded the abilities of the aircraft," I told her.

"What about those that crashed because they got into IFR conditions and they were only VFR capable?"

"The pilots thought they could handle it," Dawn added.

"And what resulted?"

"They got disoriented and crashed."

"And for the crashes where the aircraft and the pilot were IFR certified?"

"Two reasons. They didn't have enough stick time in IFR. Second, they didn't trust the instruments," Dawn replied.

"The biggest mistake too many pilots make is that they get IFR certified and then don't practice. That is a recipe for a crash. They get into IFR conditions and forget everything they learned because they think their brain knows more than the instruments. You will find out that you can and will get very disoriented in IFR conditions. When that happens, you MUST trust the instruments. You will think you are ascending when the instruments say you are descending. You will think the instruments are wrong because your senses say otherwise."

"Why does that happen?" Samantha asked.

"Panic sets in when you realize you are in trouble and disoriented. That is why you must practice and practice until flying IFR is as second nature as flying VFR. You have to be able to fly by the instruments without hesitating. That is also why you learn to fly by the feeling of the aircraft."

"How do you practice at that level?" Dawn asked.

"I'll make you do something that your instructor probably will not do."

"What is that?"

"Fly in a cloud."

"Oh..."

"At night."

"Fuck..." came from Samantha.

"That is about as disorienting as it gets. The next worse case is landing in the snow, and it blows up and circulates in the rotor wash, and you can't see shit. That also happens in the desert from the sand."

"I don't think we will run into that problem," Dawn said.

"When fog moves in, and you have to land in it, it is similar. If you have to fly to another location, always, always try and not to land in fog. You have ground radar in the EC-135, but still...avoid it."

"One of the crash reports was about a pilot that crashed while landing at night. It said he stalled the helicopter."

"I know you have read and studied about stalling a helicopter when taking off or landing. That doesn't happen often. But, while you are hovering, you can do what is called a stall with power. That is a bad situation because if it happens, you are usually screwed. You will be too close to the ground to recover. You need to make sure you understand what can cause it and never let it happen. In the crash you read about, the pilot was not paying attention to his RPMs and let them fall too low to maintain lift. He let his RPMs drop too low, and he reacted by applying more lift. It finally stalled. When he realized it, he applied too much power and ended up in a stall with power. Then your aircraft either falls out of the sky or rolls to the right because of the torque, and you crash onto the side. One thing you have to teach yourself is if you are in trouble, never make drastic adjustments. Another thing is to learn to feel every situation you can get into, so if your attention comes off the gauges, you know what is going on by feel. That is why I will make you practice things over and over in different situations."

"Sure seems like a lot to learn," Dawn said.

"It is, but you learn it all as you go. Adding more and more variables and situations as you learn. You can't learn it all at once. A lot of dead pilots that thought they could."

"Are you trying to frighten us?" I asked.

"Yes. The day you get overconfident and think you know it all is the day something will happen you are not prepared. I learned an old saying in the military. In an emergency, you do not rise to your level of training. You fall back to your level of practice. Does that make sense?"

"A lot."

"That is why I want you to practice and practice, so you can fly with your eyes closed...because I will make you do just that!"

"When I flew that big helicopter, the pilot said it was the only one with rotor deicing. Is that problem when it is cold?" Dawn asked.

"Oh yes. You don't fly when it is cold and wet."

"So we have to be careful in the winter."

"Really? Just in the winter?"

"No, we have to be aware of the temperature at altitude also," Samantha said.

"Temperature, humidity, and other things. You can ice up at higher altitudes if you get around a thunderstorm. Even when you are IFR qualified, there are times you fly around storms. You have to know the outside temperatures in high humidity."

"I'm not sure that was covered that much in our training," I said.

"I'm sure it wasn't. You can be flying along at one altitude and go up 100 feet and suddenly start icing. The fixed-wing pilots in the military were always talking about that happening. In a helicopter...that is usually fatal."

We talked until about midnight before we all went to bed.