Video: 13 year old's first flight with a single rotor heli (Blade 400)

[racin06]

I met this kid, Spencer and his father back in November at a local indoor fly-in. Both were just beginning to learn to fly helis. Spencer started with a Blade CX and then spent many hours on the sim (Real Flight). Recently, Spencer flew his first single rotor heli, a Blade 400. This is the video of that flight. What's incredible is that this just wasn't a hovering flight, Spencer actually performed FF and demonstrated that he is very comfortable with all orientations. How about that nose-in landing too :cool:! I think Spencer just ended the debate about the importance of stick time on the sim ;).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw9GDF6bfGo

[jasmine2501]

Yeah I posted a similar video myself after my Trex 450 maiden flight. These types of examples are a testament to the power of simulation. Very cool :)

[1320fastback]

Wow, makes my 2 months of beginnerness look like garbage :(

Seriously though Nice Job :D

[DNO1BULL]

My first two flights didn't last long enough to film. But the sim is getting me better.

[arbilab]

Might note that most transport pilots actually fly their rated aircraft for the first time with passengers. Everything else they do in-type, they do in a sim.

Even so, they tell me that the $M airline sims do not necessarily mimic every characteristic of the real aircraft. (I hang out with American Airlines pilots. It's my job, driving them to stores and restaurants in a hotel van.)

[DNO1BULL]

funny my dad worked for american fo0r 36 years

[DNO1BULL]

but he did spend alot of time everey few years training in dallas. as did everyone on the flight crews. never herd of anyone going for the sim to the flight deck before. they had to have their hours in on heavys.

[jasmine2501]

That was in the old days when simulators were wicked expensive... these days, you can go down to Centennial airport and use their full-scale, full motion, panoramic simulator for something like $30 an hour. Can't even rent a Cessna for that, and they'll put you in anything on the simulator, from a Cessna to 747 to F-18...

My grampa worked for American after the war until retirement, probably more than 40 years, and Gramma worked at the Skunk Works... oooh... freeky ;)

That's how I got into aviation - my whole family is into it.

[DNO1BULL]

Did alot of work at the Skunk Works, in S. Calif.(Palmdale & Burbank). Yes it is!

[arbilab]

Yep, our hotel is where AA puts all their guys in training. Some for 2 days, some for 2 months, depending on what they're there for. Ask your dad if he ever ate at the Airways on Collins. It's a charcoal hamburger place owned by a retired pilot. Walking distance from the previous crew hotel, which has been bulldozed.

Small world. I've spent a week in both Burbank and Palmdale, though not related to Lockheed.

This will date me, but my first flight was on a Constellation. I was 6yo, and they let me in the cockpit during flight. If you know aviation, you know how long ago that was.

[DNO1BULL]

Would love to ask him. Im sure he knew it well. But we lost him last year to cancer.

[arbilab]

Sorry DNO. Lots of stuff I'd like to ask dad too, but he had a fatal stroke in 1987.

[Mike_Then]

I'm getting mine either Tuesday or Wednesday. I have renewed confidence in myself after watching this video. I hope I have the same amount of success on my first flight!

[heli555]

I am that pilot in the video. I am better now than then. i am doing flips and rolls. i am geting ready to start doing inverted hovers. :cool:

[Jeremymtc]

Nice flying Spencer. You put my efforts to shame :)


This will date me, but my first flight was on a Constellation. I was 6yo, and they let me in the cockpit during flight. If you know aviation, you know how long ago that was.

Semi-related, my grandparents met when they worked for TWA in the early fifties. My grandma was one of the airline's first stewardesses, and my grandfather was a ground mechanic - in a way, I owe my life to the Connie ;)

[jasmine2501]

Do you have any more videos?

[heli555]

i got one from a while back. in it i am doing flips with the heli. People say that in the video they see faces in the clouds. :rolleyes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XxoKXGmOeo

[jasmine2501]

Not bad :)

People see faces in everything.

[heli555]

Do you end up seeing the faces??

[arbilab]

Jeremy, was Grandma based in Kansas City? I mean, she might have been on my flight! Pittsburgh to KC, stopped in Chicago, and had to take one engine apart a couple times before it would pass runup. If Grandpa was in Chicago, he might have been the guy on the ladder. Small world.

[Jeremymtc]

Jeremy, was Grandma based in Kansas City? I mean, she might have been on my flight! Pittsburgh to KC, stopped in Chicago, and had to take one engine apart a couple times before it would pass runup. If Grandpa was in Chicago, he might have been the guy on the ladder. Small world.


I know that they were both based in the KC area for a while - long enough for my aunt and then my father to have been born there (after having kids, my grandma became a school teacher). It is entirely possible, however improbable, that you may have been on one of my grandma's flights. Next time I see her, I'll be sure to ask her about it.

[arbilab]

If she remembers an unescorted 7yo flying from Pittsburgh to KC via Chicago in 1953, very likely it was me.