Humbled and Learning (Slowly)

Recently I bought a 1974 Helio Courier H295, which is a six place STOL
taildragger. Prior to last week I had never flown a tailwheel airplane.
Wow, this it hard! The Helio is designed for one purpose: to take off and
land very short. Everything is compromised to accomplish this. The main
gear is at the firewall so that you can land with the brakes on hard and not
nose over. The cg is much farther behind the mains than normal on a
taildragger. Because it is a six place, the tail is waaaay back there and
the wind has a lot of leverage to weathervane the airplane. It also has
295hp so the left turning tendancy under power is pretty strong. Today I
was doing great with several good (though not great) landings and takeoffs
where I was maintaining the centerline with a 7kt crosswind from the right.
Then we did power-off approaches landing the opposite direction (crosswind
from left). What a difference on takeoff! Even with full left rudder I
took the airplane off-roading into the weeds! There is a huge difference
between a left and right crosswind on takeoff. Then off to a small airpark
where we landed on a grass runway and came to a stop in under 300'. The
last landing was back at the airport and wasn't very good.

The airplane has tremendous performance, but it is going to take quite a
while before I can effectively use it.

Mike
MU-2
Helio Courier

Mike Rapoport wrote:
Recently I bought a 1974 Helio Courier H295, which is a six place STOL
taildragger. Prior to last week I had never flown a tailwheel airplane.
Wow, this it hard! The Helio is designed for one purpose: to take off and
land very short. Everything is compromised to accomplish this. The main
gear is at the firewall so that you can land with the brakes on hard and not
nose over. The cg is much farther behind the mains than normal on a
taildragger. Because it is a six place, the tail is waaaay back there and
the wind has a lot of leverage to weathervane the airplane. It also has
295hp so the left turning tendancy under power is pretty strong. Today I
was doing great with several good (though not great) landings and takeoffs
where I was maintaining the centerline with a 7kt crosswind from the right.
Then we did power-off approaches landing the opposite direction (crosswind
from left). What a difference on takeoff! Even with full left rudder I
took the airplane off-roading into the weeds! There is a huge difference
between a left and right crosswind on takeoff. Then off to a small airpark
where we landed on a grass runway and came to a stop in under 300'. The
last landing was back at the airport and wasn't very good.
The airplane has tremendous performance, but it is going to take quite a
while before I can effectively use it.

Learning new skills, are you? :-)
Was there anything in the way of a manual that came with your aircraft?
What do you know of the history?
Was it really built by Helio?
Was it used in SE Asia?
Did you use aileron into the wind on takeoff and landing?
Are you trying to hold the centerline, or are you cheating into the wind
on a diagonal to reduce the crosswind component?
When you use the rudder pedals, are you sliding your feet with your
heels on the floor or are your feet up off the floor on the rudder pedals?
Have you looked at the airspeed indicator at touchdown? What is the
indicated airspeed?
Questions, questions, questions...

Mike Rapoport wrote:

The airplane has tremendous performance, but it is going to take quite a
while before I can effectively use it.

You'll get there faster than you think you will!

George Patterson
If you want to know God's opinion of money, just look at the people
he gives it to.

Recently I bought a 1974 Helio Courier H295, which is a six place STOL
taildragger. Prior to last week I had never flown a tailwheel airplane.
Wow, this it hard!

Back in '75, I heard so much about how hard it is to converse from
tricicle to tailwheel that I decided to do the remainder of my PPL
training on tailwheel aircraft and "learn to land properly" from
the first. It must be a lot harder if you have a lot of experience
to unlearn.

Congratulations on your purchase! The Helio Courier is a remarkable
aircraft. You're right that it is a champion STOL machine and slow
flyer; those huge double-slotted Fowler flaps bring it right down to
twenty knots or so, and with a little wind you can easily fly backwards,
so beware of making any rash downwind turns.

I don't agree with you that everything is compromised to get the STOL
performance. The Helio has a huge envelope and it flies well at any
speed. It is sleek and glides very well. It's versatile. The big
engine (the Helio that I flew had 260hp and was a 5-6 seater) has quite
some torque and it's true that you almost need a ladder to climb into
the front, and taxiing is a bit of a drag for a small person like me,
and the coffee grinder takes a lot of turns before those flaps are
where you want them (does yours have a different flap operating system?),
but those are minor inconveniences IMO to get so much in return.
You're going to love this plane!

BTW, the one that I flew had a curious gadget called "crosswind landing
gear", with which the wheels could be turned up to 20 degrees to either
side off the centerline of the plane. It's simple in theory but it
always scared me -- what if the mechanism fails on one of the wheels
and you were stuck with converging or diverging wheels! -- but the
owner liked it. Once I flew with him into Ostend (Belgium) and we
were offered the use of the large empty platform instead of the runway
because of the strong crosswind, and he replied "Negative, we have
crosswind landing gear". I'm sure that they had never heard about it
or didn't understand what he meant. He continued on final for the
runway and landed. It's quite strange when you're in the plane and it
starts rolling sideways, but to ATC it must have appeared like a crash.
When the plane continued for the runway they had already dispatched the
fire trucks and when we rolled out they were driving along with us and
firemen were jumping out to grab a hold of the wings (which is rather
difficult because they are high and the plane has no struts). It was
like a scene out of a Keystone Cops movie. It took a while to convince
them there was nothing wrong with the plane.
I then discovered the big disadvantage of the crosswind landing system:
once the aircraft's weight is on the wheels, they won't rotate back to
the neutral position without the help of a lot of people to lift the
plane.

X-wind systems seems to be an anomaly; I've never seen any used before
or since. It would make the Helio's extremely short landing roll even
shorter, but it's so short already that you can land almost anywhere
at a pinch -- a short taxiway intersection, for example. My friend
said that he could land on a postage stamp and I believe he could manage
very well with a garden. He used the plane for aerial photography and
said it was ideal because it could fly slowly and had no struts to get
in the way of a good picture.
Helio Couriers are very rare in Europe and it was difficult for him to
find spare parts. Perhaps parts and planes are more plentiful in the USA,
but it's still an unusual aircraft.

No matter what your mission is, you're sure to find that the Helio can
do even more than you thought, and far from any reasons to buy it you'll
have more reasons to keep it. Have fun!!

Effie.

Mike,

Take it from a fellow low time tailwheeler - you'll get it! Everyone
seems to overcorrect with the rudder at first. I've never flown a Helio
but I've read a fair amount about them and seen videos of their amazing
performance. AOPA had an article about the Helios in the January 2001
issue. What a fantasic airplane. They even made a tricycle version.

Good luck

Dave
68 7ECA

Mike Rapoport wrote:
Recently I bought a 1974 Helio Courier H295, which is a six place STOL
taildragger. Prior to last week I had never flown a tailwheel airplane.
Wow, this it hard! The Helio is designed for one purpose: to take off and
land very short. Everything is compromised to accomplish this. The main
gear is at the firewall so that you can land with the brakes on hard and not
nose over. The cg is much farther behind the mains than normal on a
taildragger. Because it is a six place, the tail is waaaay back there and
the wind has a lot of leverage to weathervane the airplane. It also has
295hp so the left turning tendancy under power is pretty strong. Today I
was doing great with several good (though not great) landings and takeoffs
where I was maintaining the centerline with a 7kt crosswind from the right.
Then we did power-off approaches landing the opposite direction (crosswind
from left). What a difference on takeoff! Even with full left rudder I
took the airplane off-roading into the weeds! There is a huge difference
between a left and right crosswind on takeoff. Then off to a small airpark
where we landed on a grass runway and came to a stop in under 300'. The
last landing was back at the airport and wasn't very good.

The airplane has tremendous performance, but it is going to take quite a
while before I can effectively use it.

Mike
MU-2
Helio Courier

On 21 Aug 2004 02:31:41 -0700, (Effie Andree
Wiltens) wrote in : :

... you can land almost anywhere
at a pinch -- a short taxiway intersection, for example. My friend
said that he could land on a postage stamp and I believe he could manage
very well with a garden.

Legend has it, that once a Helio demonstrated its phenomenal
performance by landing and taking off in the center of the Pentagon
building!

I have also read, that many good military pilots had difficulty
mastering the Helio's unique abilities, and many crashed.

It's definitely the stuff of which dreams are made. Congratulations
Mike.

"john smith" wrote in message
...
Was there anything in the way of a manual that came with your aircraft?

The usual.


What do you know of the history?

Some probably no all.

Was it really built by Helio?

Yes

Was it used in SE Asia?

No

Did you use aileron into the wind on takeoff and landing?

I'm not certain.

Are you trying to hold the centerline, or are you cheating into the wind
on a diagonal to reduce the crosswind component?

I have been trying to hold centerline. I realize that, by diagonalling, the
cross wind component can be reduced, but I don't feel that I would be
developing skills.

When you use the rudder pedals, are you sliding your feet with your
heels on the floor or are your feet up off the floor on the rudder pedals?

Even with the rudder pedals in the furthest position (they are adjustable),
I can barely bend my ankle enough to land without the brakes on so I have
been using the balls of my feet on the lower part of the pedals. I am
getting and using full rudder.

Have you looked at the airspeed indicator at touchdown? What is the
indicated airspeed?

Actually I have been pretty busy at touchdown! I can tell you that it is a
lot slower than the MU-2 at touchdown!

Mike
MU-2
Helio Courier

"Effie Andree Wiltens" wrote in message
om...
I don't agree with you that everything is compromised to get the STOL
performance. The Helio has a huge envelope and it flies well at any
speed. It is sleek and glides very well. It's versatile. The big
engine (the Helio that I flew had 260hp and was a 5-6 seater) has quite
some torque and it's true that you almost need a ladder to climb into
the front, and taxiing is a bit of a drag for a small person like me,
and the coffee grinder takes a lot of turns before those flaps are
where you want them (does yours have a different flap operating system?),
but those are minor inconveniences IMO to get so much in return.
You're going to love this plane!


Fortunately mine has electric flaps and the control is located so you can
bring the flaps up or down without taking your hand off the throttle. The
pitch trim is electric too.

Mike