Need to contact us? Visit www.criticalangle.com I am currently a Helicopter Air Ambulance Pilot. This channel is my journey from student pilot to flight instructor and beyond plus the adventures along the way.
Great video! This video was helpful for me because I am reviewing content to get back into flying helicopters after flying airplanes for the last few years. Thanks!
Thanks for making this video. I just got my airplane instrument 2 days ago and now I’m going for the Heli add-on. Nice to see a sneak peek of what to expect.
might as well fly a helicopter to the place when eating over priced BBQ. The Saltlick back in the turn of the century was a great treat with just a drive up from New Braunfels, but $50 for a few ribs isnt fun anymore.
Slightly off topic, but was this video done with Veracity Aviation? Just realized this R22 is 223MG, Ive flown it quite a few times at Veracity’s Pearland location, didn’t think I’d see it in a RU-vid video 🤙
hi ! do we have any chance to have part 3 and 4 ???? I am planning to fly from Uruguay to USA with my RH44 and this is a very valuable information. Thank you.
Ian, it makes me wonder if he reset his altimeter after taking off. Flying too low isn't a typical mistake for an EMS pilot. Since he was never in or under the C airspace he probably never talked to OKC and got the current pressure from them. I'll bet he screwed up and never got the weather.
I worked with a guy that wore a bracelet like your co pilots. Has little screw drivers and wrenches on it. He was a crew chief on a gunship in Vietnam. He probably still wears that bracelet.
@@CriticalAngle Right! I've been watching another 505 departing from CSW5 Canada. currently on their way to Brazil. it's a quite interesting trip. best luck to all of you doing these amazing feats!
The Air Force even said this was nonsense. Air evac fucking sucks I worked there it’s the worst job I ever had, I guarantee you they were being incompetent idiots like they always are and then pulled the bird excuse out of their a$$.
Believe it or not, cheaper and faster. South American governments are kind of notorious for corruption. If you ship it on a boat, they’ll hold it up in customs at the docks for up to a year and demand a ton of fees. You skip all that flying it in and it’s a nice little break in period for the aircraft. Plus, it has to be disassembled and re-assembled for transport. Brand new aircraft can be a little spooky to fly since there’s often little issues from the manufacturing process that might not be apparent until they’re flown for a while.
My first solo in a helicopter, I lost comms with the tower. I was able to reach an instructor with the school on another channel and he was able to relay with the controller. Quite the first solo. 😅
Still don't understand why outside the US airports require runway landing and air taxi for helicopters. Waste of time and fuel, especially if the airport is busy and planes are waiting.
It's a weird swing one way or the other though. Either they'll give you all kinds of taxi instructions while you're in a hover, or they'll only tell you to report just 1nm away from the field to land at the ramp which is basically on top of it. It seems to correlate a bit with English proficiency as well.
Great vid! Anyways, I think you can't park a heli at another spot than all the way down near Hotel taxiway at TNCM! Weird that the FBO didn't mention you anything when planning the trip
Yeah it’s really not a great option for transient traffic for sure. The next trip that I took to South America went a lot smoother because we hired a company to coordinate permits, fuel, and local liaisons at each stop. It was so worth it.
So much of aviation is learning from your own mistakes and the mistakes of others. It's amazing how much we evolve as aviators. Even looking back at myself in this video knowing that I would handle this approach much more differently if I were to do it today.
Hah, oh boy it's not even close. We are so much slower and we have to stop much more often for fuel. Going through customs/immigration with all those different countries is really what adds a lot of time. The entire trip took us about 2 weeks in the helicopter. Shortest flight option I'm seeing on a commercial airliner is just under 16 hours.
Yeah the R22 is a pretty popular airframe due to its low operating costs. I should say relative to other aircraft. It's still ridiculously expensive per hour to operate compared to most forms of travel.
Hah. It looks worst than it is because the camera is so close. That's the compass and it is loosely mounted like that on purpose. If it was more securely mounted, then the vibrations would be transferred inside of that box and most likely stress the equipment more. It's a helicopter and more importantly, a Robinson. They always have a bit of a shake to them.
Great interview. I also went from High School to Basic training, graduated on Thursday left on Monday. On a train from Chicago to Fort Dix NJ. I knew I wanted to be in Aviation, long story short I was a Huey crew chief from 1977 to 1980. Wanted to try the Warrant Officer pilot thing but color blindness eliminated me. Nice to hear a story about guys who make it from enlisted to the cockpit.
Thanks Ron, glad you enjoyed it. They’ve actually got new color blindness tests out now. Buddy of mine thought he wouldn’t be able to get an aviation medical due to it. I told him to go to the medical examiner just to be sure and he came back with a medical and is going to start flight training soon.
