Took My First Helicopter Lesson
- Thread starter Turbolag
- Start date
Thing about the 60 is, you can punch 5 buttons with one hand and turn all that crap off.
The AFCC is nice, don't get me wrong. It just makes one lazy.
How come you guys aren't allowed to slew the stab to zero on a rolling takeoff? Why would you want the stab working against you instead of for you, when doing that?
There's a regulatory reason... IPs could do it but line pilots couldn't.... Outside of that, I'll have to think about it and get back to you. I've never heard it suggested before.
Its in your Dash 10, I know that. It's nothing but barndoor drag that pushes the nose over.
In the AF, we're allowed to and normally do so, because of the A/R probe sticking out front. Anything more than 10 degrees nose low or so, and that thing strikes the pavement.
I'm wondering about the difference between the drag vs. the downwash on a flat stab... I'll try both ways tomorrow to see the difference.
Yeah, we can't afford a nose-down moment when lifting off, as well as the drag not helping. So we commonly slew it to zero. But the Army doesn't allow it in normal ops for some weird reason.
Probably because we can't be trusted to remember to mash the auto control reset button.
I wonder what the 160th does?
Lawman
Well-Known Member
It's zero'd out in Apache.
We are allowed full use of our stab slew during all modes of flight.
Don't know what's wrong with the Hawk people but that's a much longer list than just "why don't you use the stab."
What's the list? I'm always up for poking fun at myself.
Lawman
Well-Known Member
Eh, we all have stuff the other guys can't seem to stop pissing each other off with.
My biggest Hawk peeve is stop being flight lead and wasting time and fuel to fly your TDH card. Even with moving maps it's like watching some old lady drive lost looking for old country buffet from the back of a mixed formation.
And if you are gonna do that, don't freak the hell out on me and my pilots when we throw half of the knee board packet away after the hours long AMB for what is essentially a ferry flight.
I'm with you... There's a time and mission for long briefings, big packets, and following a specific route... And then there are A to B flights where only the basic contingencies need to be briefed. If the big planning and packets are for training ground purposes, I get it, but you're right, they aren't always needed.
dustoff17
Still trying to reach the Top Shelf
@MikeFavinger, @MikeD, @Blackhawk, @Lawman, etc;
Did any of you get a chance to read the article entitled "Flying Through the Vortex" that was in the Sep issue of Rotor & Wing magazine? It's a short bit on settling with power, VERY interesting read. The aerodynamics of it makes perfect sense to me, I'm just wondering what you thought/think. Also wonder why the military isn't teaching the same.
Did any of you get a chance to read the article entitled "Flying Through the Vortex" that was in the Sep issue of Rotor & Wing magazine? It's a short bit on settling with power, VERY interesting read. The aerodynamics of it makes perfect sense to me, I'm just wondering what you thought/think. Also wonder why the military isn't teaching the same.
I just read it. Very interesting. On one hand I think we've taught a lateral movement is an option over the forward for a while, but this is different and makes a lot of sense. Adding power would be very counter-intuitive thanks to primacy, but I could get on board with using tail rotor thrust to help a lateral escape.
How do these guys practice settling with power?
Lateral or any direction. Same with teaching guys quick stops when they need to, with regards to coming upon something they need to check out on the ground and not lose sight of, etc. Teach them to end a quick stop in a climbing vector to a stop or turn/stop, in order to negate any power settling by completely removing one of the three required items.
Oftentimes, guys will get tunnel visioned on something they're trying to track on the ground, and not notice in a quickstop that they actually have a vertical velocity going that they didn't notice. Combine that with power being brought on and airspeed approaching zero, and before they know it, they've impacted the ground.
Lawman
Well-Known Member
I honestly think a big chunk of the problem stems from the way we teach and then reinforce the VMC approach in Army aviation.
Preach all they like about power management and not getting into a bad situation but when IPs beat it into people's heads to ride that ETL shudder and basically live in the avoid region for 400 feet to final touch down you are gonna have problems. ATM standards inducing negative habits to the real world. And the real world is where we are killing guys, not in the pattern at home station trying to grease on that smooth pretty 3 pt VMC approach.
Preach all they like about power management and not getting into a bad situation but when IPs beat it into people's heads to ride that ETL shudder and basically live in the avoid region for 400 feet to final touch down you are gonna have problems. ATM standards inducing negative habits to the real world. And the real world is where we are killing guys, not in the pattern at home station trying to grease on that smooth pretty 3 pt VMC approach.
You talking school house or unit IPs?
Lawman
Well-Known Member
Both, the ones that spent time at Rucker eventually end up back in the line units.
They bring with them that flight line mentality. Along with typically a dot worth of "experience" that was all Rucker and no line unit/deployment/etc.
I don't see nearly the problem with IPs that stay away from Rucker. Unfortunately though a lot of people that shouldn't be teaching anyone take the branch ticket of go to Rucker, track IP, let the fleet pilots deal with the afterward.
Hm. Guard may be different. We keep non-school house IPs for decades. And all those IPs have multiple deployments. And usually, none of those IPs have taught at the school house.
Blackhawk
Well-Known Member
It "does so much for you" because it is not very stable without those systems. Kind of the trade off in a helicopter when on the one hand you want it to be maneuverable, capable of negative g pushovers; yet still demand an aircraft stable enough to hover over a sling load and fly in IMC (it can't even do the latter without the SAS/FPS operational).