08-28-2026, 03:28 PM
(Edited Yesterday, 05:15 PM by Orv Neisingh.)
The true account continues. The level of my frustration with this student ( he is a very educated individual who holds a doctorate but no common sense) grew by the day. At the conclusion of the first day down in at the valley airport, when we were finished with our day, we got into his Prius and headed back up the mountain toward his home. On the first straight portion of the road I observed him lay his forehead onto the top of the steering wheel and closing his eyes, this made me a bit concerned that he may be experiencing a medical emergency. As he did this the Prius drifted to the side of the lane and the tires hit the rumble strips in the concrete.
Feeling and hearing the rumble strips and with my left hand now on the steering wheel to correct the drift, he looked up, centered the car in the lane and once again laid his forehead back onto the top of the steering wheel and closed his eyes. I grabbed the steering wheel and demanded that he pull over, again thinking that he may be passing out.
He pulled over to the shoulder and we had a little conversation that went like this: "What are you doing!?!" His response was "You can't imagine the benefit of a short 3 second nap when you are tired". "You are taking a nap on the interstate??? You are going from one rumble strip to the other without watching the road!" " That is what they are there for" he educated me .
I told him that from that point on I would be driving the Prius if I was in the car with him. We swapped places and the settled into a solid nap as I drove us to his home. He would not let me drive over 55 mph on the interstate because any higher speeds would negatively effect his overall gas mileage and he was going for some kind of record. Ok, his car, and I am on his time by the hour. Works for me.
Back to the helicopter with the torn cog belt. I called Robin and she over-nighted a new cog belt for us. The next day as we were waiting for the cog belt to arrive I gave the helicopter a good inspection and determined that the cog belt, the secondary drive sprocket anti-excursion , and the secondary alignment was all that needed attention. Since the 5 screws that secure the ring onto the top of the drive sprocket had sheered off flush with the top of the sprocket I determined that the most expedient way to attach the ring was to rotate it so that the screw holes in the ring were now evenly spaced between the old screw holes in the sprocket. Now we needed supplies.
I made a list of what I needed and we headed for Home Depot across town. Needless to say, I drove the Prius. The central valley of California was very warm and that day the airport temp rose to 109 degrees F. I was not looking forward to working in the hot un-insulated hangar but we needed to get the helicopter repaired. At home depot I selected a drill, drill bits, a 10/32 tap, a pack of 10/32 socket head screws and some thread locker for the screws. I also picked up a case 24 bottles of drinking water to keep us hydrated.
As I was collecting my supplies my client came back with 200' of heavy 3/4" garden hose and a hand spray nozzle. I assumed that he needed those at home so I did not question his selection..dumb move! I drove us back to the airport and as I began working on the helicopter in the extreme heat, my client was laying out the garden hose across the concrete ramp to a hose bib around 150' away from the hangar door. Oh, he is going to hook up a mister system to keep us cool as I worked- good thinking I thought. Wrong again!
By this point I had downed two of the plastic water bottle contents as I worked and sweated. He sat in a chair in front of a large floor fan with the hose and spray nozzle at his feet. Soon I was ready for another bottle of water and as I reached into the plastic case where there were now 20 bottles left he stopped me. "Water is expensive so we are going to refill the bottles from the hose and drink the free airport water". I could not believe what I had just heard him say. We had just spent $2.49 on a case of bottled water. He had also purchased the heavy garden hose that was now stretched out across the hot tarmac for over $200.00. He thought that we would save money by drinking hot nasty water from a new hose laying in the sun at near boiling temps.
I did not want to argue with my client, I hesitate to call him my student because by this point I had determined that even though he had his doctorate, he was probably incapable of learning from me. I completed the repairs and by late afternoon had the helicopter flying once again. We hovered around for about an hour to insure that the cog system was operating correctly, rechecked all of the measurements and angles and belt tension. '
All was good so the following day I decided to do a few quick stops to put full power on the drive train prior to taking the helicopter to altitude. The wind was calm so I did a quick stop, turned the helicopter 180 degrees and saw a trail of fluid on the asphalt under our route of travel. I then noticed the water temp gauge climbing so I set the helicopter down and shut the engine down immediately. On examination, the coolant reservoir was nearly empty and steam was coming out of the coolant tank overflow. I really wanted to throw my hands up and tell my client "your helicopter, your problem" but I did not. He was incapable of fixing it so there I was.
How did all of the coolant depart the helicopter so quickly? I had not experienced this before. Sure it was hot out but this was way past fluid expansion from the heat, this was a serious problem. I decided to do a differential leak down test so I set up my test rig and tested each cylinder. Cylinder #3 would not hold pressure, hmm. If it was a hole in the piston then the combustion gases would have pressurized the oil tank and we would have lost oil, the liquid on the ground was coolant. How could the combustion gases pressurize the coolant?
I filled the now-cooled engine cooling system with water, from the hot hose, and put my pressure rig on #3 cylinder and added air. As the pressure increased it forced water out of the coolant reservoir and onto the ground. OK, we have a hole in the water jacket. If the leak had been at the base of the cylinder where it is pressed into the water jacket base we would see coolant in the oil. In this case we had combustion gases entering the water chamber, pressurizing it and forcing the coolant out.
This helicopter engine had sat for a total of around 6 years now with the original coolant and rust had eaten away at the steel cylinder liner from the coolant side until a small hole formed in the cylinder wall.
I called Robin and asked if she had a new set of water jackets with cylinders and piston rings, she did so I asked her to over night them to us. The next morning was spent disassembling the engine. Exhaust, oil drain and coolant hoses, intake manifold, sensors and wiring all had to be removed. My client did not have an engine stand, hoist, or much of anything so I improvised. I was able to do the work while the engine remained in the helicopter. I removed both cylinder heads and with much difficulty was able to get the water jackets unbolted and removed. My client played on his phone in front of the fan as he sat in his chair in the heat.
About the time that the new cylinder heads arrived it was already 110 degrees f. outside and nearly 120f in the hangar. Of course my client did not have a ring compressor, I needed two of them to get both sets of rings on each water jacket. I had brought a couple of bottles of water from the hotel and had consumed them but the water bottle Nazi wanted me to use the garden hose to refill my bottles. "Hey, I need you to get me four each 4" hose clamps for piston ring compressors. Also the Prius is almost out of gas so be sure to stop and the gas station at the airport entrance to fill up before going into town" I told him.
Well off he went and I continued to work on the engine. The trip to get the hose clamps should have taken around 30 minutes. After about an hour I was out of things to do, I needed those hose clamps. What to do? I sat in his chair in front of his fan and drank bottled water from the 24 pack. When finished I filled them from his garden hose and replaced them into the pack noting which bottles had the nasty toxic garden hose water and which had the clean fresh purified water. I tried calling my client several times but just got voicemail. I called my wife and told her that I was enjoying the fan in the now 120 degree hangar. She advised me to just come home.
After being gone a total of four hours my client finally pulled in with his Prius. I inquired as to what took him so long to get gas and 4 hose clamps. He replied that gas was ten cents per gallon cheaper at Costco so instead of stopping at the nearest gas station he felt he could make to Costco, after all it is a hybrid Prius. Well about half way there the Prius ran out of gas. He had to wait for a roll back tow truck to pick up the car and deliver it to Costco to get his gas, then had trouble getting the car started. At ten cents per gallon and about ten gallons of gas he saved about a dollar and paid me around $400 to sit in his hangar waiting for him to return.
The following day I was able to complete the engine reassembly, add fluids, and do the first start up. My week was finished and I got paid and headed for home. What a week and I did not ever want to return to this client again...ever.
I had not heard from this client for several months when my phone rang and caller ID showed his name. My blood pressure soared, I broke out into a cold sweat but I reluctantly answered his call. He reported to me that he had flown with Mark and another instructor that he had found but neither of them would return his phone calls for more instruction. He begged me to come back to finish his altitude training. I did not want to but I very reluctantly agreed to help him out, IF I was able to do so.
I arrived back at his hangar and thoroughly inspected the helicopter. It had logged another 6 or so hours with two flight instructors but there was no indication in the log books that any changes had been made. I gave the ship it's overdue condition inspection then we fueled up and did some hover work. All went well. Time for some pattern work.
I instructed my client that I wanted him to take off and climb to 500 feet AGL straight ahead, we were now flying in a different heading over open fields. At 500' he was to clear the area and make a left turn and continue the climb to 1000' AGL at which time he was to make a left turn to head down wind. Simple yes? NO. He initiated a nice climb profile and blew right through 500 feet and kept going straight ahead. I reminded his to make his turn so he did at around 600' and continued to climb right through the 1000' limit that I had set. I told him to level off and turn, we were now at around 1100'.
We had rehearsed this pattern and altitudes and turns several times on the ground. He just could not put two and two together. Now remember that this man works in the medical field and has his doctorate degree. We did a total of 5 patterns that day. His takeoff and climb was good but each time he would fail to turn or level off or begin his descent or slow his descent for landing. I was beginning to loose my cool by this point. On the 5th approach to landing I decided to not save the helicopter with my control inputs as I had done every time previous. I coached him to turn, level, descend and told him that he had to slow the helicopter and level it for a landing, not me. He told me "I have this" RIGHT!!
As he approached the runway at 70 mph he made no attempt to shallow his descent or to slow down. I allowed him to continue to barrel in up to the point where it was not safe to not intervene. I took the controls and leveled and slowed to a hover, pointed the helicopter back toward the hangar, air taxied and set it down. I told him that he was on a trajectory to kill himself and that he needed to sell his helicopter and take up a safe hobby like basket weaving. He was very disappointed as the other two flight instructors had each given up on him in about 3 hours each. He explained that in the medical field that he worked in, those practitioners had to have one track focus to do the work that he did. He said that he had trouble multi tasking. Really??
This client is the only person who I ever told to not call me again because there is nothing that I could do to help him become a pilot. He sadly told me that he might just keep the helicopter and hover around the airport. I told him that if he took it to altitude he most likely would not live to fly again. I wish him the best of success in anything that he attempts outside of aviation.
Feeling and hearing the rumble strips and with my left hand now on the steering wheel to correct the drift, he looked up, centered the car in the lane and once again laid his forehead back onto the top of the steering wheel and closed his eyes. I grabbed the steering wheel and demanded that he pull over, again thinking that he may be passing out.
He pulled over to the shoulder and we had a little conversation that went like this: "What are you doing!?!" His response was "You can't imagine the benefit of a short 3 second nap when you are tired". "You are taking a nap on the interstate??? You are going from one rumble strip to the other without watching the road!" " That is what they are there for" he educated me .
I told him that from that point on I would be driving the Prius if I was in the car with him. We swapped places and the settled into a solid nap as I drove us to his home. He would not let me drive over 55 mph on the interstate because any higher speeds would negatively effect his overall gas mileage and he was going for some kind of record. Ok, his car, and I am on his time by the hour. Works for me.
Back to the helicopter with the torn cog belt. I called Robin and she over-nighted a new cog belt for us. The next day as we were waiting for the cog belt to arrive I gave the helicopter a good inspection and determined that the cog belt, the secondary drive sprocket anti-excursion , and the secondary alignment was all that needed attention. Since the 5 screws that secure the ring onto the top of the drive sprocket had sheered off flush with the top of the sprocket I determined that the most expedient way to attach the ring was to rotate it so that the screw holes in the ring were now evenly spaced between the old screw holes in the sprocket. Now we needed supplies.
I made a list of what I needed and we headed for Home Depot across town. Needless to say, I drove the Prius. The central valley of California was very warm and that day the airport temp rose to 109 degrees F. I was not looking forward to working in the hot un-insulated hangar but we needed to get the helicopter repaired. At home depot I selected a drill, drill bits, a 10/32 tap, a pack of 10/32 socket head screws and some thread locker for the screws. I also picked up a case 24 bottles of drinking water to keep us hydrated.
As I was collecting my supplies my client came back with 200' of heavy 3/4" garden hose and a hand spray nozzle. I assumed that he needed those at home so I did not question his selection..dumb move! I drove us back to the airport and as I began working on the helicopter in the extreme heat, my client was laying out the garden hose across the concrete ramp to a hose bib around 150' away from the hangar door. Oh, he is going to hook up a mister system to keep us cool as I worked- good thinking I thought. Wrong again!
By this point I had downed two of the plastic water bottle contents as I worked and sweated. He sat in a chair in front of a large floor fan with the hose and spray nozzle at his feet. Soon I was ready for another bottle of water and as I reached into the plastic case where there were now 20 bottles left he stopped me. "Water is expensive so we are going to refill the bottles from the hose and drink the free airport water". I could not believe what I had just heard him say. We had just spent $2.49 on a case of bottled water. He had also purchased the heavy garden hose that was now stretched out across the hot tarmac for over $200.00. He thought that we would save money by drinking hot nasty water from a new hose laying in the sun at near boiling temps.
I did not want to argue with my client, I hesitate to call him my student because by this point I had determined that even though he had his doctorate, he was probably incapable of learning from me. I completed the repairs and by late afternoon had the helicopter flying once again. We hovered around for about an hour to insure that the cog system was operating correctly, rechecked all of the measurements and angles and belt tension. '
All was good so the following day I decided to do a few quick stops to put full power on the drive train prior to taking the helicopter to altitude. The wind was calm so I did a quick stop, turned the helicopter 180 degrees and saw a trail of fluid on the asphalt under our route of travel. I then noticed the water temp gauge climbing so I set the helicopter down and shut the engine down immediately. On examination, the coolant reservoir was nearly empty and steam was coming out of the coolant tank overflow. I really wanted to throw my hands up and tell my client "your helicopter, your problem" but I did not. He was incapable of fixing it so there I was.
How did all of the coolant depart the helicopter so quickly? I had not experienced this before. Sure it was hot out but this was way past fluid expansion from the heat, this was a serious problem. I decided to do a differential leak down test so I set up my test rig and tested each cylinder. Cylinder #3 would not hold pressure, hmm. If it was a hole in the piston then the combustion gases would have pressurized the oil tank and we would have lost oil, the liquid on the ground was coolant. How could the combustion gases pressurize the coolant?
I filled the now-cooled engine cooling system with water, from the hot hose, and put my pressure rig on #3 cylinder and added air. As the pressure increased it forced water out of the coolant reservoir and onto the ground. OK, we have a hole in the water jacket. If the leak had been at the base of the cylinder where it is pressed into the water jacket base we would see coolant in the oil. In this case we had combustion gases entering the water chamber, pressurizing it and forcing the coolant out.
This helicopter engine had sat for a total of around 6 years now with the original coolant and rust had eaten away at the steel cylinder liner from the coolant side until a small hole formed in the cylinder wall.
I called Robin and asked if she had a new set of water jackets with cylinders and piston rings, she did so I asked her to over night them to us. The next morning was spent disassembling the engine. Exhaust, oil drain and coolant hoses, intake manifold, sensors and wiring all had to be removed. My client did not have an engine stand, hoist, or much of anything so I improvised. I was able to do the work while the engine remained in the helicopter. I removed both cylinder heads and with much difficulty was able to get the water jackets unbolted and removed. My client played on his phone in front of the fan as he sat in his chair in the heat.
About the time that the new cylinder heads arrived it was already 110 degrees f. outside and nearly 120f in the hangar. Of course my client did not have a ring compressor, I needed two of them to get both sets of rings on each water jacket. I had brought a couple of bottles of water from the hotel and had consumed them but the water bottle Nazi wanted me to use the garden hose to refill my bottles. "Hey, I need you to get me four each 4" hose clamps for piston ring compressors. Also the Prius is almost out of gas so be sure to stop and the gas station at the airport entrance to fill up before going into town" I told him.
Well off he went and I continued to work on the engine. The trip to get the hose clamps should have taken around 30 minutes. After about an hour I was out of things to do, I needed those hose clamps. What to do? I sat in his chair in front of his fan and drank bottled water from the 24 pack. When finished I filled them from his garden hose and replaced them into the pack noting which bottles had the nasty toxic garden hose water and which had the clean fresh purified water. I tried calling my client several times but just got voicemail. I called my wife and told her that I was enjoying the fan in the now 120 degree hangar. She advised me to just come home.
After being gone a total of four hours my client finally pulled in with his Prius. I inquired as to what took him so long to get gas and 4 hose clamps. He replied that gas was ten cents per gallon cheaper at Costco so instead of stopping at the nearest gas station he felt he could make to Costco, after all it is a hybrid Prius. Well about half way there the Prius ran out of gas. He had to wait for a roll back tow truck to pick up the car and deliver it to Costco to get his gas, then had trouble getting the car started. At ten cents per gallon and about ten gallons of gas he saved about a dollar and paid me around $400 to sit in his hangar waiting for him to return.
The following day I was able to complete the engine reassembly, add fluids, and do the first start up. My week was finished and I got paid and headed for home. What a week and I did not ever want to return to this client again...ever.
I had not heard from this client for several months when my phone rang and caller ID showed his name. My blood pressure soared, I broke out into a cold sweat but I reluctantly answered his call. He reported to me that he had flown with Mark and another instructor that he had found but neither of them would return his phone calls for more instruction. He begged me to come back to finish his altitude training. I did not want to but I very reluctantly agreed to help him out, IF I was able to do so.
I arrived back at his hangar and thoroughly inspected the helicopter. It had logged another 6 or so hours with two flight instructors but there was no indication in the log books that any changes had been made. I gave the ship it's overdue condition inspection then we fueled up and did some hover work. All went well. Time for some pattern work.
I instructed my client that I wanted him to take off and climb to 500 feet AGL straight ahead, we were now flying in a different heading over open fields. At 500' he was to clear the area and make a left turn and continue the climb to 1000' AGL at which time he was to make a left turn to head down wind. Simple yes? NO. He initiated a nice climb profile and blew right through 500 feet and kept going straight ahead. I reminded his to make his turn so he did at around 600' and continued to climb right through the 1000' limit that I had set. I told him to level off and turn, we were now at around 1100'.
We had rehearsed this pattern and altitudes and turns several times on the ground. He just could not put two and two together. Now remember that this man works in the medical field and has his doctorate degree. We did a total of 5 patterns that day. His takeoff and climb was good but each time he would fail to turn or level off or begin his descent or slow his descent for landing. I was beginning to loose my cool by this point. On the 5th approach to landing I decided to not save the helicopter with my control inputs as I had done every time previous. I coached him to turn, level, descend and told him that he had to slow the helicopter and level it for a landing, not me. He told me "I have this" RIGHT!!
As he approached the runway at 70 mph he made no attempt to shallow his descent or to slow down. I allowed him to continue to barrel in up to the point where it was not safe to not intervene. I took the controls and leveled and slowed to a hover, pointed the helicopter back toward the hangar, air taxied and set it down. I told him that he was on a trajectory to kill himself and that he needed to sell his helicopter and take up a safe hobby like basket weaving. He was very disappointed as the other two flight instructors had each given up on him in about 3 hours each. He explained that in the medical field that he worked in, those practitioners had to have one track focus to do the work that he did. He said that he had trouble multi tasking. Really??
This client is the only person who I ever told to not call me again because there is nothing that I could do to help him become a pilot. He sadly told me that he might just keep the helicopter and hover around the airport. I told him that if he took it to altitude he most likely would not live to fly again. I wish him the best of success in anything that he attempts outside of aviation.