VFR flight South Shore Kauai!

-I finally got some aerial pictures! Took my first real VFR flight on Kauai today. That trip to Honolulu was VFR but didnt get to see much since it was offshore 90% of the time. Which technically is IFR if you ask me, or any pilot.

Todays flight was a 1.3 and we primarily practiced off-airport stuff and mainly autorotations (straight ins and 180's)

-I'll start off by saying doing auto's in 20 knot winds is a new one for me. You drop a helluva a lot slower and dont go as far. Im used to dropping like a rock and gliding a lil further. But despite all that I did pretty well and nailed my spot just about every attempt. I'm not used to the floaty feeling when you level off near the ground and do the power recovery.. Thats an attribute of the wind tho. Usually things happen differently in low-wind situations when you start to flare at the end of the auto. You come down and a lot faster.

They're pretty hardcore out here on Kauai in both their off-airport stuff (confined landings and pinnacles) but also their autorotation practice. Hell their IFR training is way more hardcore.

-The way they practice their autorations out here is literally as close to real as you can simulate. Back home if we ever practiced an auto off-airport the CFI would say "simulated autorotation" and then lower the collective ... or "slowly" roll of the throttle but prior also letting me know whats going to happen. Out here they said "simulated Auto" and chop the throttle. You have to react as if it were real because.. it is.. if you dont react in less than 1.1 seconds the blades stall and you die. hehe... i just like to make it sound more serious than it is. But really.. you have 1.1 seconds.. its a gut reaction tho to enter the auto..and this is a good way to train that gut even harder.

-But you really get the feel for what a real auto WILL feel like. Instead of gradually going into a descent, establishing the collective full down then throttling off yo dont get the "immediately falling from the sky" feeling that you get from a real auto. Throttle chop then lowering the collective you fall about 50+ feet before you have time to react to it. It's a pretty intense feeling and is very realistic. And its exactly how a real engine failure would feel.

***** enough jabber

-We attempted a pinnacle landing (holy shit batman they mean business with their pinnacles out here)... It was to turbulent for my comfort level and experience to do it. I've done pinnacles in the Cascades but nothing in these winds or on a ridge line like this. I tried two attempts than decided to skip it and try something else first. Heres the 1st pinnacle attempt, isn this nuts?



So we went further along the South shore heading West. Then we went in and landed on tiny lil beach in a small cove. This was a steep and confined approach. But I made it on the first attempt.



That was pretty cool =) Out of the picture...well from where Mauck took the photo is thick jungle, the wind is coming in straight off the ocean so we came in over the jungle and dropped down. Theres not enough room to swing around completely. hence why we call it a confined. :)

Mauck will have his 25 hours in the 44 real soon so the next VFR island flight might be in the next week or so. We'll be heading out to the Nepali coast for that one =)