copters.com

Helicopter Bookstore

You see the coolest things on CSPAN sometimes. One night I woke up and turned it on, and saw a Sikorsky SkyCrane lifting the statue off the top of the U.S. Capital.

Another time I woke up, and saw Jeff Bezos of amazon.com giving a lecture about his online bookstore. He happened to mention that they have an associates program where people on the web can list books related to their web site topic. I checked out amazon.com to see whether they would have any of the books I normally recommend to students, and I was totally blown away that they list a bunch of books that I usually recommend, but are sometimes hard to find…

I’ve only listed the books that I’ve read and can recommend. There are many other books out there on helicopters, you can just go to amazon.com and do a web search to find them all, but here is a list of the books I’ve read and think are the best:

• Chickenhawk A must have for anyone interested in helicopters. The book was written by Robert Mason about his experiences as a Vietnam helicopter pilot. I first read this while I was working on my private pilot license, and probably learned as much about subtle helicopter techniques from this book as from any of the FAA books. It also provides a lot of insight into what it was like to fight and fly in that war, but I would strongly recommend this book even to people who have no interest in learning about the Vietnam war.I’ve probably re-read this book a dozen times now, and when I’m trying to get a heavilly loaded helicopter in or out of a confined area, or other such challenges, I’ll think of one of the many lessons Mason learned from Leese, and then I’ll fly the maneuver the same way Mason did…I can’t say it enough: get this book!

• Rotorcraft Flying Handbook (Updated Edition) The FAA had this book written in 2000. It is head and shoulders above the old “Basic Helicopter Handbook”. I highly recommend it. It is available for free on the FAA web site or you can order it from Amazon if you like a book you can read anywhere. The link above is to a new editions which isn’t out yet. If you can’t wait, you should use this link.

• Principles of Helicopter Flight - W. J. Wagtendonk. I used this book this summer while I was on a training contract. It’s much more in depth than the rotorcraft handbook, but it’s not filled with equations (well, a few). If you are instructing I would especially recommend this book.

• Helicopter Aerodynamics This is the first in the 3 part series by Ray Prouty. He
  writes a monthly column for Rotor & Wing magazine. It’s a collection of past articles. It’s required reading for my students who are going on to get their Flight Instructor rating. This is the best book for learning about detailed helicopter aerodynamics without having to read a lot of mathmatical equations. Ray Prouty wrote these articles for pilots to be able to read. However, if you don’t know anything about aerodynamics, these books might be a little tough to start with, but someone who has read the “Rotory Wing Flight” ASA reprint, or the aerodynamics section of my web site, will probably enjoy these books. The other two books in the series are More Helicopter Aerodynamics and Even More Helicopter Aerodynamics One thing about these books is that they go in and out of print. When they are out of print you’ll see them on Amazon for insane prices (up to $200). If that’s the case, I would suggest you wait or look around other places and try to find them. They’re not that expensive when they are in print.

• Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators This is the book on aerodynamics. If some math doesn’t scare you, and you want the book that everybody goes to when you need the final answer, this is it. It has chapters like Development of Aerodynamic Pitching Moments, Planform Effects and Airplane Drag, Turbojet Operating Characteristics, High Speed Aerodynamics – Concepts and Supersonic Flow Patterns, Stability and Control. Keep in mind that it is an extremly technical book, and is not for the casual reader… It’s a college level text, and facinating if you want to understand the real details of aerodynamics.

• Cyclic & Collective More Art and Science of Flying Helicopters by Shawn Coyle who is a regular poster on one of the professional pilot web sites I frequent.