Do You Have the Monkey Skills?

So my first phase of training, the "contact" phase, is officially complete. During this part of training, we basically develop and refine our "monkey skills." Simply put, you learn how to fly a helicopter without crashing. You do this in the simplest and most forgiving environment - on a long, wide, flat runway; in broad daylight with an experienced instructor.

Now that my hand and eye coordination are up to standards, I progress onto the next phase of training, the "remote" phase. Now we start to see what a helicopter can really do. Runways have no use during remotes. Essentially, we try to land the helicopter in a field (see picture below). Simple, right? Yeah, that's what I thought.

You have to consider a lot of factors before deciding to set your bird down in a field. All of these factors must be considered in the air on the fly. Although it's pretty cool to land in a remote area, the margin for error narrows considerably.

For instance, what looks like flat terrain from the air can actually turn out to be quite rugged once you set your bird down. Stumps can be hidden by long grass. Trees don't look nearly as large at 500 feet. All of these things are waiting to mess up your skids or roll your helicopter.

Despite these threats, landing in a field is going to be super cool. I can't wait! I'll tell you more about remotes as I progress.