CHECK RIDE: Helicopter Commercial Pilot License!

After a couple months of hard work, I successfully completed my Helicopter Commercial Pilot License check ride with DPE Mike Hill at KHWD! Given that I did my PPH-H with Mike on this past Summer (see video on my channel), I felt that Mike had a good baseline of my abilities, which made for a slightly more relaxed day. The events leading up to the day were a little chaotic, I had to switch airports the day before due to aircraft availability, and after not raining in California for nearly the entire year, there were showers forecasted for the area.

The ground portion last about 3 hours in total, including some time to iron out an issue with my IACRA. Once we got started, it was fairly standard testing right out of the Practical Test Standards (PTS). A good portion of the questioning was scenario based, i.e. how I would handle various situations, whether from long lining to off airport pickups in places where there wasn't a local altimeter setting available. I had definitely put in a lot of work to prepare, but I still found the ground portion a lot more straightforward than my private check ride, but perhaps I went into this one more confidently, but also with a larger knowledge base and more experience.

After a short lunch break, the rain and clouds were subsiding, so fortunately we were going to be able to fly after all. I pre-flighted the aircraft, installed my cameras, and it was time to go. One advantage I had at KHWD as supposed to KWVI was that I could showcase my radio skills, which wouldn't have been as obvious in an uncontrolled environment, as I know a lot of other pilots just don't have the same experience in busy airspace as we do in the Bay Area. On the other hand, tower at first told me they couldn't really hear me, and I was hoping I wouldn't have to spend too much time fiddling with the radio.

The flight itself was fairly straightforward. I had only a touch of nerves, but still enough to make me feel I wasn't at the very top of my game, but I suppose that's to be expected. We started out with a quick stop, which didn't feel like my best one but was okay. In my opinion I ran probably a little more than I should've, then ballooned a little too much and exited with a little too much forward airspeed. I chalked that one up to a little nerves, but I didn't think it was a bad one per se, just not as good as I'd been doing in my previous flights.

Next was a hover auto, of which I ended up doing two. The first one I did was also just okay. I felt that I pulled collective a little early, which resulted in a slightly harder landing, but I thought it was passable. He asked for another though, and when I mentioned the landing, he said that he wanted to see my nose more aligned, i.e. to the standards. On the second try, I nailed it.

The next maneuver was a pattern with a steep approach. Once again, I did two, as the first one I came in a little too steep and the aircraft sort of floated for a little bit even at 30 kts / 15" thereby preventing me from descending as I needed. In order not to enter a settling with power scenario, I elected to come up a little long from my spot and hear what he had to say after, as I felt it was better to do the approach safely, even if not exactly where I wanted was better than doing an unsafe maneuver to the spot. I had thought about a go around, but he hadn't said to the spot exactly, so I had some wiggle room. Still, he had it in his right to say do it again to that spot, so I gave it another shot. I nailed it on the second shot!

After that, we did a straight in auto-rotation. Normally, I do these from 1000 ft AGL, and while tower gave us permission to select altitude at our discretion, the smaller pattern for that spot only allowed me to gain 800 ft or so, which isn't a huge factor. Still, it was a fairly unfamiliar spot for me for auto-rotations, but fortunately it went fairly smoothly and I came up a little short at about 25 ft, but well within standards.

Afterwords, we embarked on the cross country portion, but quickly diverted to do some pinnacles between KHWD and my first checkpoint, KLVK. It was a little tough with a lower ceiling over the hills, but it was fairly standard. After my approach, he told me to divert to KCCR, and after I calculated the distance, time, and fuel to get there, he said take me home. I took it down for a normal approach to the ramp, and I was a newly minted commercial pilot!

After the paperwork was submitted, I asked him for his feedback, and he said I was a good stick and that he thought my talking out loud throughout was great, as a lot of people clam up. The only real thing he said I could've done better was turn base to final earlier on my pinnacle, i.e. keep it over my shoulder the entire time. I had thought extending downwind was better to approach with more time to adjust. He said regarding the hover auto and steep approach, it was fine, though he wanted me to nail it, which I did.

Special thanks to my CFI Paul Henrichsen!

Видео CHECK RIDE: Helicopter Commercial Pilot License! канала Eddie Santos