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gas cap just in front of the windshield that was attached to a cork in the gas tank. When the wire was down to the last inch or so, it was time to look for a place to land. At that time, filling up with 80 octane gas rarely cost more than $1.25 per gallon. Ah, the freedom and simplicity.
Some years went by, and I slowly moved onto more complex and fast- er aircraft, some owned by me, oth- ers owned by various corporations for which I flew professionally. But as time passed, just like my friend Tom, I found a desire to return to simple flying.
To a certain extent, helicopters can provide this. They fly low and slow and almost always VFR. For more than a decade, I owned and flew an R44 from Alaska to California at or below 1,000 feet, landing wherever it looked attractive. With time, however, I realized as enjoyable as this was, it was not the same as the old Piper Cub.
The main difference is the mechani- cal complexity and noise level of the helicopter. There are many moving parts over your head and behind you in a helicopter, and they all have to work perfectly for the flight to be suc- cessful. This starts to play on your thinking after a while. A preflight in a helicopter is not an activity to be done quickly or taken lightly.
Helicopters also have a series of limitations you get accustomed to af- ter a while, but they still detract from the simple joy of flying. For example, in helicopters, there is something called the “height/velocity” envelop, also quite appropriately known as the “dead man’s” corner. This is an area starting at about 20 feet above the ground up through about 100 feet, in which hovering or f lying slowly (say below 60 knots) is quite danger- ous. If the engine quits from that low altitude without sufficient forward speed, there is not enough energy in
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Interestingly, the activity of restoring a very simple, single- engine, fixed-gear, piston-powered, 40-year-old Cessna to essentially new condition was a very satisfying experience.”
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November 2022 / TWIN & TURBINE • 5