The flight to Seattle from Phoenix (for 2011) will be on Memorial Day weekend. Although I have a possible passenger for the flight, she is not willing to commit to the flight. So the flight is up for grabs. 10 hours in an R44 at $300/hour. I can accept credit cards. I am NOT a CFI; you must have an R44 endorsement to be pilot in command. If interested, contact me.

Springtime means high winds in Northern Arizona, where I do much of my flying. I've been doing a lot of aerial survey flights that require a lot of low-speed flying beside cliff faces and in/over canyons. Obviously, wind is a factor in maneuvering and the more wind, the tougher some maneuvers are.

What I'd like to know, however, is how much wind is TOO MUCH wind for flying?

At the Grand Canyon, they'd shut our operations down when the wind hit 50 MPH (seriously!) or one of the pilots claimed it was too windy to fly. Because none of the pilots wanted to be thought of as cowardly, we very seldom stopped flying because of a pilot's call. We were flying Long Rangers, with two-bladed rotor systems like my R44. My understanding is that 2-bladed systems are more vulnerable to problems than fully-articulated rotor systems. Indeed, the EC120s would often continue flying for another operator after we'd stopped.

But is there an actual NUMBER for windspeed that I should use as a rule of thumb? 50 MPH is a lot more wind than I want to be flying in. What's the "right" number to pull the plug on the type of flying I do for these surveys? Anyone have any insight on this that they might want to share?

This weekend's survey flights were postponed because of expected gusts up to 55 MPH in the area I was supposed to fly in. Fortunately, the client made the decision before I had to. But I'd like some feedback from more experienced pilots to help me set my "magic number."

Sometimes I wonder why companies even have public job postings. Just let word out through the grapevine and people will come.

Thanks. I'll likely follow up in a week or so. But I know from experience that the best way to get interviewed for a pilot job is to have a connection in the company. They get so many applicants. It's the only way they can distinguish who might work out for them.

translift said:
You should be able to get in with Helicopters Inc with those type of hours.

I sent Helicopters Inc a resume before Christmas but haven't heard anything. I don't have enough turbine time -- only 350 hours. That's a big problem for a lot of employers -- although frankly, I don't see much difference between turbine and non-turbine aircraft once you get the engine started.