About
My name is Jeff and I am living the dream, I am a professional helicopter pilot flying turbine helicopters to offshore oil platforms in the gulf of mexicoFollowing
My 5th hitch is coming soon. I drive down on Wednesday to begin on Thursday and it looks like I am going to get wet. This looks like it will be my worst hitch for weather- we’ll see. Weather changes fast here in LA and meteorologists are wrong alot. They have the only job where they can be wrong everyday and still keep their jobs.
Terrafugia Transition $194,000
The Transition, expected to sell for $194,000 had its maiden voyage this week, although not exactly eye candy, it might give the Ferrari a run for its money - if say there was a really bad traffic jam.
well I finally updated my logbook - I thought you all would like to see my totals for the year.
Hours Flown: 380.8 (thats over 2 weeks in the air)
Night: 11.7
States flown in: 4
Number of aircraft flown: 23.
My total time is up to 1380 hours as of today
And I’m on pace to get 600 hours this year, hopefully that goes up about 200 hours and I will hit 2000 hours by the end of the year.
Expiramental aircraft association (EAA) is having a sweepstakes where you can WIN a Rotorway A600 Talon among other things, And for all you non pilots it comes with $20,000 flight training at Rotorways Flight training school. It is a home build kit- thats the catch - they say the build time is 300-450 hours but also tell you to expect it to take much longer. I actually hope i win the camera.
A team effort between Honeywell, Sierra Nevada and Sikorsky began testing in January with success, The so called sandblaster system - mounted on the nose of the aircraft gives the pilot a 30X30 degree view on a small screen in the cockpit. This view allows the pilot to land without outside visual reference.
Although the article does cop up to the fact that scientists took advantage of the automated hover capability of the UH-60 that allows the helicopter to maintain a hover over a predetermined landing spot. - so no telling how long this would take to reach the civilian market and be installed on HEMS helicopters.
but good news for our troops in the sandbox over there.
Jim Cheatham has flown his last show, He passed away on wednesday from a sudden illness. He is famous for “Showcopters” the only helicopter aerial stunt team. and for uncapping bear bottles with a helicopter. Jim was a character among characters in the helicopter world, and he will be missed. see the full article at aero-news network here.
Jim Cheatham in the yellow helicopter, well known for Showcopters.
