The Right Stuff
The LZ would like to introduce Shawn Coyle. Shawn is a pilot and author of many publications related to helicopters. You might recall his last book, The Art and Science of flying Helicopters. Now he has written another book titled, Cyclic and Collective - further Art and Science of flying Helicopters. This is another must read for all helicopter enthusiast. We are so fortunate to have Shawn as a staff member at The LZ and appreciate his expertise. Shawn is officially our Technical Advisor and has opened his door to help others. If you have any questions related to helicopters, we introduce to you Shawn "Hover man" Coyle.
I started flying fixed wing airplanes 1967, and had my pilot’s license courtesy of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets before I had my drivers license.
I joined the Canadian Air Force, and graduated from Royal Military College in 1973, and from flying training in 1974. The same year I started flying helicopters, and flew the UH-1N operationally for 4 years.
In 1979, I was fortunate enough to attend the Empire Test Pilot School, Rotary Wing Course, and then stayed in UK on exchange tour with Royal Air Force till mid 1982. During this time I flew test flights in a wide variety of British military helicopters. On the side I had the pleasure of working with International Air Tattoo, and perhaps the highlight of my military career was organizing and running Heli-Meet 82, first annual UK helicopter competition.
The next tour was at the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment, Cold Lake Alberta Canada which lasted till mid-1984. Did testing on composite modifications to the Canadian version of the CH-47 and other small projects.
The next big step was working for Bell Helicopter Textron Canada at Fort Worth during build-up of the Canadian Model 400 project. Mostly I instructed on Bell 206 series at training school, which was indeed educational – I learned a lot about flying and instructing from those folks. During this time, I became one of very few who ever flew the Bell 400.
I left Bell in mid 1985 to start flight test instructing at US Naval Test Pilot School, Patuxent River MD. Helicopters that I was lucky enough to fly included the UH-60, OH-58, CH-46 and HH-65. Additionally, there was a lot of ground school instruction on flight testing for performance and flying qualities as well as marking reports.
Left to go to UK in March 89 to International Test Pilot School, Cranfield (now out of business). I was the Chief Helicopter Instructor, flying the Gazelle and Jet Ranger. I had to set up the helicopter course, including ground instruction and flight exercises. I became self-employed in mid 92, and flew Jet Rangers for a local operator. One memorable contract took me to Indianapolis to fly the Agusta 109 on an FADEC engine development project. It was during this time that I started on ‘Art and Science of Flying Helicopters’, plus numerous pilot report articles for Rotor and Wing magazine.
From Jan 96 to Mar 2001 I was employed at Transport Canada (Canadian equivalent of FAA) doing certification flight testing of helicopters (Bell 407, 430, 427) and modifications. Did HV validation, performance, flying qualities, systems assessments of these aircraft, plus lots of work on CMC Avionics CMA 900 / 3000 Flight Management Systems.
In Apr 2001 I moved to Mojave, California to National Test Pilot School. Currently the Chief helicopter instructor, flying OH-58C, UH-1N (one of the serial numbers I flew in Canada, in fact), MD500 and S-55.
Total number of types flown – 102
Helicopters in size from UltraSport 331 to Mi-26.
Total hours about 5,500
Shawn's book "Cyclic and Collective - further Art and Science of flying Helicopters" is available now. Click on the book below to get your copy today. Lets help support someone who has been such an asset to us in the FS Helicopter community by producing such an informative and comprehensive book about what we love, Helicopters.
Got a Helicopter Question? Ask Hoverman
