Helicopter Flight Information
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Helicopter Flight Information |
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About This Web SiteThis site is primarily aimed toward students and those pilots with low flight time therefore some content may not be absolutely applicable to those pilots who are significantly more experienced. This site is designed to be in layman's terms making the understanding of what occurs easy for all. There is much material available which goes into extreme scientific detail about how and why things occur the way they do. It is my belief that a simple explanation is often better and easier to understand when possible though sometimes we may seek scientific explanation. My name is 'Rodney Barnett', I am the author of all content on this site unless otherwise noted. I am 53-years-old and have been highly active in aviation for over 14-years. I hold a Commercial, Instrument, and CFI in Helicopters and also a Commercial, Instrument Airplane certificate. I currently fly helicopters full time for an HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) carrier which in my opinion is the cream-of-the-crop helicopter job; it pays well and the schedule is easy (7-days on, and 7-days off). Over the past several years, I have flown many commercial jobs which have included part 135 cargo and passenger operations in fixed wing; and also part 137 Ag, ENG, Mountain flying, Tours, and part 135 operations in helicopters. I have managed several aviation companies and assisted in the starting of four flight schools over the past several years, three of which I am still involved in today. I have also flown nearly every island country in the Caribbean which has been some of the most enjoyable experiences I have had in aviation. Although I no longer instruct full-time, I do instruct part-time. I have also assisted in the development of part 135 and other commercial helicopter businesses. When I was taking flight training, material on helicopters and helicopter flight training was minimal to say the least. The rotorcraft flying handbook did not exist, instead it was a very thin and vague manual called the helicopter handbook which was written perhaps in the '50s. There was only one web site with information on it, but it was really good. Today there are good web sites all over the internet although some can be hard to find. I encountered a lot of students who were having a hard time, and who did not understand what was occurring, or why it was occurring; I also encountered a number of students who had been ripped off and as a result, they had not been able to proceed with their career development; these incidents still occur frequently and/or are true today. There is a surprising number of poor instructors out there who don't really care about the product they are passing on to their students, and who do not take professionalism seriously. Those are some of the reasons I started and continue to maintain this web site. In my relatively short career, to date I have accumulated approximately 6,000 hours of flight time, most of which have been conducting commercial operations, and also of which more than 1,500 hours has been instruction given in helicopters. I have devoted the majority of my spare time to accident studies, and as a result I have seen my share of mistakes, most of which are caused by pilot error. I detest slop in aviation, and even more, I detest foolish actions which result in accidents, many of which cost lives. This site is intended to improve awareness, and to spread knowledge to ALL pilots, and even more to unsuspecting students who could end up with a bad instructor or at a pilot-mill-school that does not look out for the long-term well-being and safety of students which ultimately spreads the disease of bad technique and consequently results in accidents. |
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