Kenny Keller explains why an Enstrom 280FX's published ceiling of 8,700 feet out of ground effect doesn't mean you can safely fly it there. Performance numbers are test-day specific, so proper loading and flight planning matter more than the book numbers, especially at altitude.
Man. What do you do when you fall asleep early watching the Walking Dead. Cold winter night, big pile of chicken and noodles out of crock pot, fell asleep early, wake up at 2 o' clock in the morning. What do you do? Make helicopter video or answering a viewer question. Video that is. And play with the new Mac. It's kind of fun. I like it. So I thought, what the heck, I'm up playing with the computer. Let's just answer this guy. So this gentleman is a fixed wing pilot and he says he has three questions. I'm considering an instrument 280 FX for flights in the higher elevations of Montana. The books say that the OG OGE at 2350 is 8, 700ft. I was wondering, in your experience is this realistic number? Seems a bit optimistic, but I have no experience with them. So on that first question, you know, whatever the book is showing you is something they tested on a certain day, certain altitude with certain conditions. Now with the instrument, every single one of them acts a little bit different. In any helicopter across the board, it doesn't matter. When you go up in elevation, you're going to fly differently. You're going to go with less fuel, you're going to going to find yourself flying at times when maybe the weather's cooler versus hotter. It's really more about learning how to manipulate the aircraft, how to properly load the aircraft and do the proper flight planning than it is really a problem with the aircraft. I know a lot of guys that are flying aircraft at those higher elevations and not having a problem. But again, doesn't mean you can top off your tanks and go do whatever you want. It's going to take the proper planning. Second question is I need a ground school for helicopters. Is your course something that would work for me long distance online? And it's like, well, heck yeah. That's why it's called online ground school, because it's online. And we have just launched this new mobile app. That's freaking awesome. Got a new community within there. So yes, my online course is great no matter where you're working or living. We're based on FAA standards, so if there's any testing involved. Of course we're based on the FAA standards, but we have members from all over the globe and a lot of people use our training because they're going to come over to the US to train, so that's cool. A lot of people in other countries, they train at home, learn the knowledge as much as they can and then come over here. The last question I'm looking for an instrument instructor in the Bismarck Bismarck, North Dakota area for myself. Any suggestions off the top of my head? I don't know anybody but putting this out there in video. If you're an instrument certified guy in that general vicinity, jump in the comments below and offer yourself up. Like I said, I don't know buddy. Offhand, instruments aren't real prevalent in the industry like we'd like them to be. I personally like them a lot, but there's just not a lot of them out there. So I would just call up, start calling the local area flight schools and and see what you can find. So I thought, what the heck. Cold winter night, like I said, fell asleep on the couch. My daughter, even so she woke me up at like 9. She's like get up dad, you're up in the middle of the night. I didn't listen and she was right. So there you go. I can ship this video off to this gentleman, make a comment down below and we should see you all in the next video. Calm. That's right. Nice.
