Tag Archives: helicopters

Alaska in March

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A few notes from a brief trip.

I was in the Anchorage, Alaska, area this past week, from about 12:30 PM on Tuesday through 8 AM on Friday. I got home last night.

I was up there for a pilot job interview. The reason I needed 2+ days is because the weather is ever-changing and we wanted to make sure I’d have a chance to fly. I did, on Thursday, and surprised myself by landing atop a snow-covered ridge and making the steepest confined space landing I’d ever attempted. But all that is another story.

The Weather

Airplane at GirdwoodThis was only my second visit to Alaska. (The first was last June.) I expected it to be cold and miserable. I was pleasantly surprised. Although it was cold, it wasn’t nearly as cold as I expected. Daytime temperatures hovered in the low 30s each day, dropping down into the low 20s at night. With a borrowed down jacket and the right footwear, I didn’t feel that cold. And although there was some snowfall each day, there wasn’t enough to consider the weather bad. In fact, it was rather nice.

The way I’d describe it is this: March in the Anchorage area is like late January or early February in New York.

Of course, there was snow everywhere. I’d never seen so much of the stuff before. It was piled up alongside the roads and it blanketed the fields, hillsides, and mountaintops. In most places, it was the pure white, unspoiled stuff — the kind you see on Christmas Cards. Absolutely beautiful.

Girdwood

I spent most of my time in Girdwood, which is about 40 miles south of downtown Anchorage, in a little valley off the Turnagain Arm at the foot of Mt. Alyeska. The town is known primarily for the Alyeska Ski Resort. Snow-covered mountains tower above the town on three sides. Beyond them are seven glaciers.

I stayed at a B&B that I [sadly] cannot recommend. The place stunk of dog or cat urine — I suspect cat — that had obviously soaked into the padding under the carpet. I found it difficult to breathe. I think the lack of fresh air and my inability to get a good night’s sleep contributed to the cold that hit me at the end of the week. It’s a shame, because the place was otherwise very nice, clean, and well-equiped. If they’d replace the carpet and institute a strict No Pets policy, they’d have a place I’d be glad to recommend.

Girdwood has only about 1,000 year-round residents, but oddly enough, it has more (and better) restaurants than what one can find here in Wickenburg. So there were plenty of dining opportunities. The locals like The Bake Shop, which I’d been to on my first visit to Girdwood last summer. Great soup for lunch and good breakfasts.

Everything is absurdly expensive — about 30-50% more than what you’d pay in the lower 48.

Skiing

Alyeska SkiingIf you’re a skier or a snowboarder, Girdwood is probably someplace you’d like a lot. There were certainly plenty of people on the slopes of Alyeska when I was there — that might be because it was spring break. The mountains are steep and covered with trails. There are a handful of lifts, as well as a tram, to get to the top.

I took the tram up on Wednesday afternoon, when it was too cloudy to fly. The tram passed through the first layer of clouds, revealing the skiers and snowboarders coming down the mountain out of the second layer of clouds. Once outside, I walked around a bit, waiting for the clouds to clear. Occasionally, I’d get glimpses of the snowcovered mountains on the opposite side of the valley or the top of Alyeska. But it never cleared out enough to get decent photos.

From the Air

You really don’t realize just how much snow there is or how many mountains there are until you see the area from the air. As part of my interview process, I got to ride along on three flights in the Girdwood area.

The first was to a stretch on the Alaska Rail Road to pick up a worker. He was part of the team set up to clear huge amounts of snow dumped on the tracks by an avalanche. We saw the entire scene from the air — including the bulldozers and snow cats hard at work. This wasn’t the only avalanche we saw. Avalanches are quite common in the area in the winter time and we saw signs of past avalanches on each flight.

The other two flight were scenic tours with glacier landings. This is a relatively common type of helicopter tour in Alaska. We didn’t, however, land on the glacier. We landed on some snowy ground near its lower end, where it meets the sea. The pilot shut down and we stepped out onto the snow. It was quite tricky to walk on the stuff without sinking in. On the second flight, I stepped out onto the snow and my foot sank into it up to my thigh.

I should mention here that the glaciers look different in winter time than they do in the summer. In the winter, they’re blanketed with pristine snow. In the summer, a lot of the surface show melts, revealing the blue ice and glacial moraine beneath it. While the blue ice and the melted pools of water you may see atop it is a sight you’ll never forget, the clean winter show is equally beautiful, in its own way.

Once on the ground with the helicopter’s engine turned off, it was very quiet. But I could hear water dripping from the nearest of three glaciers. And the sound of tiny cracks. After a while, a chunk of ice from the most distant of the glaciers broke off and slid into the sea with a rumbling sound. Very cool.

During the flight, we also saw moose, mountain goats, seals, and sea otters. My big regret: I didn’t have a camera with me.

It thrills me to think that I might do flights like this throughout the day, every day, all summer long.

Clear Skies in Anchorage

After a side trip to Portage Lake, I took the rental car back to Anchorage on Thursday night. I was spending the night at a friend’s house.

DenaliWe went out to dinner, then took a drive to one of the overlooks near the airport. The view to the north, over the Knik Arm, was perfectly clear — so clear, in fact, that we could see all of Mt. McKinley (Denali) and the mountains around it — which had to be at least 150 miles away. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky in any direction, so we could clearly see all of the Alaska Range and whatever other mountains were nearby. My friend told me it was the clearest evening he’d ever experienced in the year and a half he’s lived in Anchorage. We watched the sun set — it was nearly 8:30 PM! — and headed back to their house.

I wanted to stay up that night to possibly see the Northern Lights — I’ve been told you can see them from points just north of Anchorage if it’s clear — but by that time, my cold had set in and my nose was running like a faucet. With an 8 AM flight the next morning, I figured it would be best to hit the sack early.

Alaska In March

I don’t know if the three days I spent in Alaska are typical of three March days in the area. I hope they are. It was a very pleasant time to visit, a time with no tourist crowds, a time to meet and talk to the real locals. I hope I get a chance to visit in the spring again.

Video: Landing at PHX Terminal 3 Helipad

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Join me for the last 2 minutes of a flight to Sky Harbor.

Well, I finally worked out the kinks in my POV.1 camera. This time, I mounted it to the outside of the helicopter on my door pointing forward, slightly right, and slightly down.

I took this video while coming in for a landing on the Terminal 3 helipad at Phoenix Sky Harbor airport (PHX). The helipad is on top of the parking structure beside the tower, between the north and south runways. It was a quiet morning; not much traffic at all.

Here’s a photo I snapped after I shut down and my passengers had gone away. (Yes, I used that darn fisheye lens again.)

On the Terminal 3 Helipad

And I Thought the Grand Canyon Was Windy!

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The weather in Anchorage.

I’m preparing to take a trip to Anchorage, Alaska next week for a job interview. If all goes well, I’ll be moving up there for the summer, flying tourists around glaciers and delivering 50-gallon drums of dog food to sled dog camps via long line.

In trying to get a handle on what to pack for my 3-day trip, I’ve been monitoring the weather in Anchorage, using the National Weather Service Web site. Here’s what I read this morning at 6 AM my time (4 AM Anchorage time):

Remainder Of Tonight…Mostly cloudy with a few sprinkles. Lows in the 30s. Southeast wind 40 to 55 mph along turnagain arm and the higher elevations with occasional gusts up to 70 mph. Elsewhere southeast wind 10 to 25 mph with localized gusts to 40 mph.

Okay, I added the emphasis. The NWS evidently doesn’t think 70 mph gusts of wind is unusual, since the forecast didn’t include a weather advisory. I know there would have been one in the Wickenburg forecast page if the winds were expected to reach 70.

My Experience with Wind

I flew tours at the Grand Canyon in 2004. In the spring, the wind was howling, occasionally reaching 50 mph or more at the airport. Because we flew Bell 206L (Long Rangers), which had a two-bladed rotor system that didn’t do well in high turbulence, we’d shut down if the wind got that bad. But the experience of flying at the Grand Canyon in spring and having to deal with all of that wind made me a lot more comfortable with high winds than the pilots who haven’t had to deal with it. That’s why I always recommend flying at the Grand Canyon as a first “real” job after flight school and duty as a CFI. Lots of good experience there.

Still, I don’t expect to fly in Alaska with 70 mph gusts. (I hope my potential employer doesn’t expect me to, either.)

Yesterday, I did a flight to Scottsdale with a client. Although the winds were relatively calm when we flew down there — variable at 4 mph according to the Scottsdale ATIS recording — they were forecast with gusts to 30 mph for that afternoon. Sure enough, when we left the area at about 5:15 PM, the wind was 16 mph gusting to 23. That’s certainly not bad enough to keep me on the ground, put I did have to give the pedals a workout as I lifted off the ramp. I also had to put in a lot of directional correction against the wind when I took off, just to prevent it from blowing us over the runway (which would have gotten me in hot water with the Tower there).

What’s Wrong with Wind?

There are two things that can make high wind especially bothersome for helicopter pilots:

  • When flying in mountainous (or even hilly) terrain, the wind coming over those mountains (or hills) makes the air turbulent. Here’s how I describe it to passengers. Imagine a stream with rocks in it. As the water flows downstream, it sets up eddies and weird water flows around the rocks. The water has to go up or around the rocks in its path. It then goes down or rushes in from the sides on the downstream sides of the rocks. Can you imagine it? Now imagine the mountains or the hills as those rocks and the wind as the water. The helicopter is like a little boat bobbing around in that water. That’s the turbulence you feel when you’re flying relatively close to the ground on a windy day near rough terrain.
  • A gust spread — that’s the difference in airspeed between the steady wind and the gusting wind — sets up what probably meets the definition of wind shear. Most pilots know that a wind shear is created where the wind suddenly shifts direction or speed. A gust changes the speed, right? The result, therefore, is the same kind of turbulence you’d feel in a wind shear. The bigger the gust spread, the bigger the shear, the greater the turbulence.

Not all helicopters handle turbulence the same way. Generally speaking, a fully articulated rotor system is better for handing turbulence than a semi-articulated system. But no matter what you’re flying, you’re going to feel those bumps. So will your passengers. Fortunately, they’re likely to get sick before the pilot does.

When I flew at the Grand Canyon, the wind was so bad a few times that I started feeling sick. Some of my passengers, as you can imagine, were making full use of the plentiful barf bags we had on board.

Will Alaska Be Worse?

Right now, I’m left to wonder whether Alaska will be more of a challenge due to wind than the Grand Canyon was. Although I’d prefer calm winds — who wouldn’t? — I’m up for the wind challenge, if I have to face it.

I just hope it’s not 70 mph.

Helicopter Training and Broken Promises

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A look back at the warning signs of the Silver State debacle.

I don’t know all the details about the rise of Silver State Helicopters (SSH) because I wasn’t looking for training when it began its phenomenal growth. Once I caught notice of it and learned more about how its training program worked, I began to suspect that it was what I refer to as a pyramid scheme. Not wanting to get myself in trouble with SSH’s legal department — and frankly, not sure if I was right — I kept my opinions to myself. I did, however, try to warn people to take a close look at what a helicopter training program would give them before signing up for one.

The purpose of this article is not to say “I told you so” to the folks who are now suffering from the demise of SSH. The purpose is to shed some light on what may have been going on and the realities of the helicopter industry.

A Look at SSH

If you’re unfamiliar with SSH — not likely but possible if you’re considering a career as a helicopter pilot — here’s a bit of background information.

SSH was a helicopter training organization that used a “program” approach to training. For a set fee of $70-$80K (I’ve heard several dollar amounts in that range), SSH would provide training that would take you through the following helicopter pilot ratings: Private, Instrument, Commercial, and Certified Flight Instructor (CFI). I’m not sure if it included a CFII rating (that’s for CFIs to do instrument training); perhaps someone reading this can clarify.

SSH attracted potential students by holding seminars in large auditoriums. It would come to a city and hold a seminar. Advertisements on the radio and elsewhere promised to explain to seminar attendees how they could become helicopter pilots earning $80,000 a year. This was enough to attract quite a few potential students. After all, what could be a cooler job than a helicopter pilot? And $80K/year is a great paycheck.

SSH arranged for financing at the seminars. So if you came and liked what you heard, you could apply for a loan on the spot and sign up. This immediately put you in debt. I believe money was drawn out to SSH in 1/3 increments, but I’m not certain how that worked. Again, I’m hoping someone intimate with the situation will clarify in the Comments here.

SSH grew incredibly fast. Founded in 1999, it reported revenues of $40.7 million in 2005 and was ranked number 12 on the Inc magazine 500 list of the nation’s fastest growing small businesses(1). They had training centers in 17 states and over 2,000 students enrolled. I heard a rumor that they tried to buy a fully year’s production of Robinson helicopters one year. (Can anyone substantiate that rumor with a reference?) Helicopter pilots were talking about SSH online and in person. And, unfortunately, many flight schools saw a formula that worked and began limiting their training to a “program” as well.

The Program

Many knowledgeable helicopter pilots had a problem with “the program” and the promises made by SSH. My biggest concern was the salary promise: telling people in their seminars that they could get an $80K job as a pilot. I never heard the promises firsthand, and I worried that they were leading people to believe that they could get that salary immediately after the 18-month training program ended. As I explained in “The Helicopter Job Market,” this is simply not the case. The comments on that post — many of which were written by experienced pilots — support my claims.

Then there was the quality issue. I received this comment on my August 2004 post, “Thoughts About My Summer Job“:

I have a question for you. I am looking at begining training, I already have my PPL fixed wing, and I have been looking at a few schools. But have you heard of helicopter academy? Look them up Helicopteracademy.com
0-300hrs. for 50k and a job offer after that. Your opinion would be great or if you have heard anythin about them. Thanks and thatr offer still stands for me to jump in your new bird. lol

(Oddly enough, the flight school he was referring to is the same one my friend Dave works for as the Chief Flight Instructor. And the post he was commenting on was a direct response to a question Dave had asked me. Small world.)

I responded to his comment with a lengthy comment of my own. In it, I listed a bunch of things a potential helicopter flight student needs to consider when evaluating a “too good to be true” deal on training.

At SSH, there were some problems with how quickly students could get through the program. They were supposed to finish in 18 months, but not all of them could do it so quickly because of other job responsibilities or shortages of aircrafts at SSH locations. There were also some problems with check rides — some students simply were unable to pass a check ride on the first try because of their lack of knowledge or skills. Although the FAA says you only need 35 hours of dual time to get a helicopter rating, not everyone can do it so quickly. (It took me 70+ hours; I like to think it was because I did it part time over 18 months and took a summer off.)

I also worried about the affect of releasing so many new pilots into the helicopter job market. If SSH was graduating 1,000 students a year, where were they all going to work? There simply weren’t enough helicopter jobs out there for all of them. As someone who likes to fly for someone else in the summer time, I saw a lot of potential competition for the usual entry level jobs.

In addition, having too many pilots to fill open positions could negatively impact pay rates. Why pay $700/week when you can easily find someone willing to take $500/week? I also saw a decline in helicopter pilot salaries because of a glut of pilots.

SSH Closes Its Doors

On February 4, 2008, SSH declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy. For those of you who don’t know the individual chapters of the bankruptcy code, Chapter 7 is the bad one. It means you’re definitely out of business for good and are liquidating assets. This action put over 700 employees out of work and left 2,000+ students in various stages of completion of their program, some of them owing $70K or more to a lender.

If you’re interested in more facts about the rise and fall of SSH, here are some excellent references on news sites:

The “Pyramid” — Or Borrowing from Peter to Pay Paul

My background is in accounting — indeed, I have a BBA in Accounting from Hofstra University. I was an auditor and financial analyst for eight years. So I think about numbers and I know how people can manipulate them.

When I first heard of SSH, my immediate thought was pyramid scheme. This is probably the term I used when discussing it with fellow pilots. In fact, however, it’s more of a case of Robbing Peter to Pay Paul.

What I saw going on was this: SSH was collecting money up front from students, supposedly to cover their training costs. But it was probably using this money to pay the bills on previously purchased goods and services. So it was always a step behind with payments and it always relied on new student revenue to keep the business afloat.

This would be fine if (1) the inflow of new students remained constant or increased or (2) SSH finally caught up with its debt and began paying current expenses with current revenues.

Unfortunately, neither of these scenarios developed.

The rise in interest rates soon discouraged the smart students from signing up. I was shocked in November 2007, when I read a comment from a reader on my “The Helicopter Job Market” post from earlier that year. In it, he queried:

I’m curious, has anyone ever heard of Silver State Helicopters? Are they reputable?

Also, how is someone to payback an $80K loan at 19% on an entry level salary of 30K/year? That’s a freakin’ house payment each month without having a house! My “off-the-cuff” figuring say’s that equates to about $800 a month for 20-30 years!

I pushed his numbers through Excel and came up with $1,271 per month over 30 years — which I find difficult to believe they’d offer. The total payments over that time would exceed $450K. Hell, he could buy a helicopter for that!

While I still find it difficult to believe that financing terms were that bad, it does tend to explain why SSH’s sign up rate declined to a slow trickle. It also explains why they closed their doors two days after their last seminar, which was held in Florida.

So SSH got to the point where there wasn’t enough new revenue in to cover their debts.

I got an inkling of their serious financial problems in the fall of 2007 when SSH did a major reorganization that eliminated several middle management positions. Later, in January 2008, I was told by a SSH employee that SSH was unable to pay overhaul centers to get their helicopters back from overhaul. As a result, they were running out of helicopters to do training in. Indeed, the Glendale, AZ location had a timed-out R22 sitting in the hangar because they worried that if they sent it to the overhaul center, they’d never get it back.

How I Know So Much About It

Even though I saw the writing on the wall, I had a relationship with SSH that began in 2006. Needing a qualified R44 mechanic for my helicopter, I made arrangements for SSH’s Mesa, AZ location to do my maintenance. The folks there were friendly and helpful and the mechanic did a fine job at a reasonable price. (He’s now looking for work; let me know if you need a full-time R22/R44 mechanic and I’ll put you in touch.)

When I decided to get my instrument rating, I spoke to the folks at Mesa and they set me up with their chief flight instructor in Glendale, which is much closer to where I live. After several false starts, I began my training in January 2008. I accumulated about 12 hours of instrument flight time — 10 of which was in a simulator — before they abruptly shut their doors.

I was surprised, although not shocked. I knew the end was coming, but didn’t realize it was so close. I was lucky, though. I’d been on a pay-as-you go program because of my unusual relationship with them and was paying by credit card in $2K installments. I’d used up my first $2K and had just paid my second $2K for the next month’s training. When I got the call that SSH had closed, I got on the phone with my credit card company and initiated a chargeback. It took three weeks for them to process it, but the money was recovered.

So I managed to emerge unscathed. I wish I could say the same for the rest of the SSH students.

[A side note here: I was notified of SSH’s shutdown by the FAA. My contact there knew I used SSH for maintenance and was worried that my helicopter was locked up in their hangar. His first question to me when he called was, “Do you have possession of your helicopter?” That’s a weird question coming from the FAA.]

Let This Be a Lesson

I hope this post teaches its readers a thing or two about the situation. If we learn from this experience, it’ll help protect us from being victims of similar situations in the future.

In short: if something sounds too good to be true, it might just be. Think things through, do your homework, be aware that not all promises are kept. Don’t sign on the dotted line with your eyes closed or seeing only half the picture.

One last word: I’ve tried hard not to bash or blame any specific person for what has happened and I will not tolerate any bashing or finger-pointing in the comments to this post. If you have something to say about your particular situation or experience, do use the comments feature to share your thoughts. But if you use them to personally attack anyone, your comment will be deleted. This isn’t a helicopter forum and I don’t tolerate the high school mentality that’s so common there.

Forms for Funding Airports

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Thoughts on FAA Form 1800-31.

On Saturday, I received FAA form 1800-31 in the mail. Titled “Airport Activity Survey (by Selected Air Carriers),” it’s headed up with the following description as part of its Paperwork Reduction Act notice:

Submission of this form is voluntary. The purpose of this collection is to capture passenger enplanement data to be used to allocate Federal funds to eligble airports. The public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour and 30 minutes per response.

The form requests me to enter the names, states, airports, and airport identifiers for all airports where I picked up passengers for on demand commercial operations. For each airport listed, I need to provide a count of the passengers I picked up.

To gather this information, I’ll need to go through my aircraft logs for 2007 and look at each flight conducted. If it was a revenue flight, I need to note where I picked up the passengers and how many passengers I picked up. I then need to tally these for each airport and summarize it on the form. Ninety minutes sounds about right for this chore.

Although this task is voluntary — frankly, I don’t think I bothered last year — I’m looking forward to doing it this year. It might be the bean counter in me — once an accountant, always an accountant. But there are two good reasons why it interests me more this year:

  • A line-by-line review of my log books helps me to remember individual flights. I’m in the process of drawing together material for a book about my flight experiences and I’m sure I’ll be reminded of a few flights that are interesting enough to write about.
  • I’m curious to learn which airports I did the most business at last year. I’m pretty damn sure it wasn’t Wickenburg. Hell, I picked up more passengers in Buckeye in one day than I did during a whole year at Wickenburg.

Not Wickenburg? you may ask. How can that be? Aren’t you based there?

Yes, I’m based at Wickenburg. But sadly, very little of my business originates here. The vast majority of my revenue comes from flights out of Deer Valley, Scottsdale, and Sky Harbor, with the big revenue charters originating in places like Page and Yuma. Try as I might to market my services here in Wickenburg, the population simply isn’t interested. I’m probably too costly for most of the fixed income folks who live here, while the folks who don’t worry about money would prefer a pickup from a turbine helicopter based in Scottsdale. (How’s that for ironic?)

I’ve actually gotten to the point where I don’t bother marketing much in Wickenburg anymore. Sure, my original tri-fold brochure is still out there. Why not? I have about 10,000 copies of it left. It emphasized my Wickenburg tours and, when I realized that my market was in the Phoenix area, I had it redesigned to emphasize tours from there. The leftover copies of the original are in my hangar, slowly making their way out into brochure racks around town.

And this year, I pulled the plug on my local Yellow Pages ad.

I’m even in the process of turning off my local phone number, preferring my cell phone for all communications with current and future clients.

Hermosa RanchIt’s odd, in a way. I’m the only aircraft charter operator based in Wickenburg. The town has a very nice little airport that recently got a bunch of funding from the Federal Government that added 1000 feet to its runway. But when finally given the opportunity to set up an office on airport property, I turned it down. I, like many other business owners (or potential business owners) here, have learned that dealing with the Town can be a nightmare of bullshit politics conducted by men who get their kicks controlling this insignificant corner of the world. They have no regard for the future of the airport — a fact they’ve made clear by allowing housing on three of the airport’s four sides, including less than 4000 feet from the approach end of Runway 23. Why would anyone in their right mind put up a building or hangar or anything else at an airport that’s likely to be closed in 10 or 15 years due to residential encroachment and the accompanying complaints? Or, for that matter, sign a land lease agreement that can be cancelled at any time on the whim of the Mayor or a Council member?

So my business languishing, as far as Wickenburg is concerned, but doing quite well everywhere else. And that’s unfortunate for Wickenburg. Not only is the Town losing out on sales tax revenue generated by my scenic tours, but FAA Form 1800-31 will not indicate Wickenburg as one of my major operating airports.

And if the only charter operator based in Wickenburg has more passenger operations at other airports, then how many passenger operations will be recorded for Wickenburg’s final tally? And how will that affect future airport funding?

I’m learning not to care.