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Feb
22
2021
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Posted by Admin
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I recall starting the day with excitement, yet nervous anticipation as my civilian helicopter maintenance career began. As a young man, I didn't have a taller-than-me stacked toolbox filled with every possible combination of tools one can imagine. What I had was a two-drawer portable toolbox that was stocked with the bare minimum. When my new boss and future mentor saw this, he asked, “What are you going to do with those plow tools?” By his raw honesty, he certainly succeeded in his intent to change my perspective. If I was going to be a professional aircraft mechanic, then I had to be equipped for the role.
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Tags:
Customer Service
Maintenance Minute
Mark Tyler
Categories:
Maintenance Minute
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Feb
22
2021
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Posted by Admin
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In all my years of pilot training, I have never taken a position on a particular piece of training equipment—until now.
Several months ago, I was introduced to a young pilot flying in the National Guard. He is both a pilot and engineer with a healthy passion for helicopter safety, and he introduced me to a new world of technology related to training pilots on inadvertent/unintended instrument meteorological conditions (I/UIMC).
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Tags:
ICARUS
Randy Rowles
Rotorcraft Checkride
Categories:
Rotorcraft Checkride
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Feb
22
2021
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Posted by Admin
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I’ve observed, from 9 years speaking at Helisuccess in Las Vegas, Nevada, that most if not all attendees have had that special someone at their side acting as their ‘wingman’. In the context here, wingman is the person who knows your back story, knows the struggles you’ve made, someone who not only believes in you, but actively cheers you on in private and in public; a close confidant, someone who lends a sympathetic ear and encouragement during times of your self-doubt. A wingman may help you study your emergency checklist and will very often make numerous personal sacrifices in doing so, be it financially or gladly give you their personal time so that your career may progress. A wingman unselfishly does this as a way to boost you up so that you may someday accomplish your dream, whatever your dream may be.
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Tags:
Cherish your Wingman
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Jan
22
2021
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Posted by Admin
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One maneuver that offers many variations in the methods by which flight instructors teach is Confined Area Operations. Over the years, helicopter pilot applicants have approached this topic with a wide variety of acronyms and procedures. Passed down from instructor to instructor, this is often more tribal knowledge than fact.
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Tags:
Randy Rowles
Rotorcraft Checkride
Categories:
Rotorcraft Checkride
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Jan
22
2021
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Posted by Admin
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It was April 1990 and my day one as a new helicopter mechanic for Carraway Methodist Medical Center. I was not quite thirty years old and had previously served in the US Air Force and for the helicopter maintenance contractor at Fort Rucker. My prior duty and experience were to support and defend and train but at Carraway it was helicopter emergency medical service. With no idea what was about to happen or how it would impact my life and work and even my view of life, the squelch of the radio broke the silence with” Scramble Lifesaver, Scramble Lifesaver - self-inflicted gunshot - Scramble Lifesaver.”.
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Tags:
Maintenance Minute
Mark Tyler
Categories:
Maintenance Minute
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Jan
22
2021
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Posted by Admin
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Erik Sabiston, founder of ICARUS Devices reached out to me on Linkedin to let me know of a product he’s promoting, a vision-limiting device for IMC training which seems to me to be very unique. I am a flight simulator instructor and examiner and know the value of a flight simulator to access a pilot’s reaction to IMC events. Erik’s product seems to be very useful in the actual aircraft that can be used on a student with a safety pilot of course. The clear plastic mounted on either a baseball cap or a helmet flips down over the face of the pilot flying. Then, controlled by an app by the instructor, they can reduce the visibility slowly to simulate going into an IIMC event slowly or suddenly.
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Tags:
M2C
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Dec
28
2020
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Posted by Admin
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My first exposure to aviation began in the U.S. Air Force. When training in my chosen field was postponed, I was asked to crosstrain to a secondary career field. “We really need aircraft mechanics,” I was told. I readily agreed, and so the adventure began. Later, as a crew chief for the F16 Fighting Falcon, I quickly learned the importance of marshaling aircraft and the use of hand signals…flight controls-check, speed brake-check, stop, go, chock, and the aircraft salute. Little did I know at the time that these simple hand signals would become part of an especially important essential tool that we must use every day. We have already discussed the tool of integrity: doing the right thing, and the tool of commitment: the fuel for action. Let us now look at the essential tool of communication.
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Tags:
Maintenance Minute
Mark Tyler
Categories:
Maintenance Minute
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Dec
28
2020
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Posted by Admin
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A commercial pilot student transferring to our pilot school provided training records that included a cross-country flight that met the requirements of 14 CFR 61.129(c)(3)(iii). It was a 2-hour cross country flight in a helicopter in nighttime conditions that consists of a total straight-line distance of more than 50 nautical miles from the original point of departure. However, it was conducted prior to his private pilot check ride. My initial response was that the flight time was unacceptable because it was pre-private and would not count toward commercial pilot requirements.
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Tags:
Randy Rowles
Rotorcraft Checkride
Categories:
Rotorcraft Checkride
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Dec
28
2020
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Posted by Admin
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What can the helicopter world learn from NASA’s mistakes? I’m specifically talking about the Challenger disaster and the cancer of “normalization of deviance” that was the root cause of that tragedy.
On November 3, 2014, NASA Chief of Safety and Mission Assurance Terry Wilcutt and Deputy Chief of Safety and Mission Assurance Hal Bell, put together a presentation entitled “The Cost of Silence: Normalization of Deviance and Groupthink.
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Tags:
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Nov
17
2020
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Posted by Admin
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After many years of administering FAA Instrument Rating examinations, a consistent trend remains the cause of Unsatisfactory check rides. Having seen this trend develop, we as Pilot Examiners will mentor and train flight instructors to ensure their students not only know the material, but more importantly know how to apply the material in given situations.
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Tags:
Randy Rowles
Rotorcraft Checkride
Categories:
Rotorcraft Checkride