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  #21  
Old December 16th 06, 05:39 PM posted to rec.aviation.rotorcraft
Stuart & Kathryn Fields
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 328
Default Different small helicopters

boB: Believe it or not, whilst I was down in Florida for a ride in the
Hummingbird, I stopped by the Mosquito guy down there for some photos.
While I was there he decided to fly his little bird so I stuck around to get
some shots. He circled the field a few times and buzzed us once and then
landed, got out and came over to me and said: " You want to fly it?" I
thought he was crazy. Let some yahoo get in a single seat helicopter that
weighed less than 300 # and go for a ride? He said take it around, I think
you can handle it. I got in the thing and the check out was "Engine 6,000,
EGT lesst than 1600 and he backed away. Knowing I was in a very light
helicopter and expecting the thing to be at least twitchy, I ran it up, felt
with the pedals to get the nose pointed and began to slowly ease the
collective up. The thing wanted to go sideways so I set it down and made a
small correction to the cyclic and again raised the collective. This time
the little bugger came up to 3' and just set there. Stable as a Huey. Less
than 15 sec later I was hover taxiing the thing all over the field. Set it
down, pick it up not problem. No nose wander, no sideways movement just a
very steady hovering little bugger. The blades were not symmetrical so I
expected to feel some varying collective pressure as the angle of attack
changed. I couldn't feel any change. I was impressed. However, with only
15 minutes of hovering about I decided not to put it in the air. Later
discussions with the owner showed that he had never had a lesson in any
helicopter. He had about 15 hrs TT at that time and was impressive in his
operation of the thing. Then I learned that there were two other guys
flying these buggers that had self taught with no prior helicopter
experience. Now it seems that some of them have taken some R-22 lessons and
found that the R-22 is much harder to handle.
I'm a 2 stroke phobic from my motorcycle racing days, but since they went to
the ceramic coated pistons, the Mosquito hasn't had any reported piston
problems. They are also working on using a twin cyl, turbo charged injected
4 stroke. I wouldn't mind having one with the 4 stroke.
BTW the Airscooter has no collective control. Autorotations are not
possible. We've been around the Ultrasports a bit but have no hands on
experience with them. At a recent event there were two flying quite a bit.
They did have to re-jet for the altitude.


--
Stuart Fields
Experimental Helo magazine
P. O. Box 1585
Inyokern, CA 93527
(760) 377-4478 ph
(760) 408-9747 publication cell
"boB" wrote in message
...
JohnO wrote:

One of the aircraft I had high on my list was the Mini 500. Thanks to
this newsgroup I've lined through that one.


Write 'helicycle' instead.


There are several videos of the helicycle flying and it looks very good.
Does anyone have any experience with the ultra sport helicopters?

http://www.ultrasport.rotor.com/ultrasport496.htm

or the Mosquito single place ultralight helicopter and the AirScooter?

--

boB
copter.six



  #22  
Old January 1st 07, 10:27 PM posted to rec.aviation.rotorcraft
Airman
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2
Default old days


Dear John Doe:

Interesting question and the answer lies with a great instructor. Go
fly with Chin Tu at Civic Helicopters in Carlsbad, CA or Western
Operations in Rialto, CA. I am sure there are other places with
qualified instructors (not some kid building time). I have trained
with both and I found on a MD500 down collective, brief tug back cyclic
(to get air up through rotor)forward cyclic, pull collective. Go fly
and train with the best you can find and they will teach you.

Stay safe,
Roger


On Dec 13 2006, 11:43 am, "John Doe" wrote:
"Jim Carriere" wrote in et...



Airman wrote:
I sure miss the old days when we had a lively discussion group with
some very experienced pilots opining upon matters. Poster were for the
most part civil and if you could ask the right questions then listen a
guy like Nick Lappos (or many other very experienced pilots) would
respond.


Roger, I miss the old days too. But I think there is still a significant
wealth of knowledge here, just a lot of quiet people (lurkers).


This is a little long and rambling, but I put a lot of thought into how
aircrew handle emergencies, however great or small the emergency and
whoever the crew is composed of.


I am presently a military flight instructor and have been for a bit less
than three years. I would hesitate to call myself "very" experienced.
Partly by choice and partly by circumstances, I have become specialized in
and good at instrument flying. Handling emergencies and crew resource
management both play a big part, and of course both relate to the study of
human behavior.


Today I was practicing emergencies in the simulator (required periodic
proficiency practice... say that three times fast!). Now, not because
I've become "that good" or salty (hardly), but I reacted very calmly to
one type of malfunction (erroneous engine out indication, think loud alarm
noise with bright red light and rpm gauge winding down) that usually
startles most guys. The common reaction is to be startled and quickly
lower the collective; my hands didn't even move... why? Note that an
actual engine failure is also accompanied by a physical reaction from the
aircraft and additional instrument indications. Now, I honestly wasn't
"spring loaded" in my mind for this particular malfunction, so why did I
react atypically?


It occurred to me that at my present experience level, I have grown to
regard many malfunctions and minor emergencies as a nuisance. I wondered
if this was bad, if this was a warning sign that I was falling into a
classic psychological trap of arrogance? I wondered if it was good, if I
was observing myself mature. Maybe it was neither good nor bad. Well,
what else is involved in my approach to flying? I am always willing to
learn, no matter what the source. Simulators are always educational for
me, just not usually in an introspective sense. I still have great
respect for the dangers involved with flying. I still think about "what
ifs" and work to maintain my own basic skills while building more advanced
skills.


I'm getting to the end of my line at my current job and won't be flying on
my next tour (the military likes you to be well rounded). It takes effort
for me to remain focused in the cockpit each day. Staying focused is a
conscious choice I make as part of a careful mindset. I believe I have an
overall healthy approach to flying. I believe that the fact that I have
grown to regard certain minor emergencies as nuisances isn't dangerous,
because it complements and is tempered by other facets of "how" I fly.


I probably thought waaay too much into this... thanks for reading and I
hope you don't mind my rambling Please do ramble... I have been reading the posts on this group for some

time and find it interesting at times. Unfortunately I haven't read the
posts in "the old times" and you could say I'm a frequent lurker
I'm currently working as a military instructor too.. but I suppose I haven't
got the hours or the experience like the guys in the USA.
Anyway, to start off a discussion - have been doing the what ifs and there
are several opinions on the particular emergency that I need to solve.
Engine failure during transition to forward flight. Specificaly after the
transverse flow effect (say doing 40 knots, around 50 feet AGL). What to do
with the collective? Do you slam it down to maintain as much RPM as you can
and then quickly pull it up to cushion the landing or is there not enough
time to lower the collective fully? Maybe a newbie question but as you
probably know once you ask the question a dozen theories pop up. Thanks...


  #23  
Old January 2nd 07, 04:04 AM posted to rec.aviation.rotorcraft
Don W
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 52
Default old days

Airman wrote:
Dear John Doe:

Interesting question and the answer lies with a great instructor. Go
fly with Chin Tu at Civic Helicopters in Carlsbad, CA or Western
Operations in Rialto, CA. I am sure there are other places with
qualified instructors (not some kid building time).


Actually, this is part of the problem with the way
aviation training is done today. Many (maybe
most) of the instructors are kids building time
with very little experience outside of flight
instruction. I don't know all of the reasons for
this, but I have sure observed it.

Don W.

  #24  
Old January 2nd 07, 02:36 PM posted to rec.aviation.rotorcraft
Ol Shy & Bashful
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 222
Default old days

John Doe et al;
Happy New Year and I wish a safe one for all of you. To respond to your
specific question about an engine failure, in many years of crop
spraying with helicopters, I often wondered how to respond to an engine
failure at low level and have had opportunity to challenge my logic at
least two or three times! I was pleased to note in conversation with
other pilots who do similar operations, they had come up with the same
technique. We simply call it the "Double Pump".
On recognition of either an engine failure or an impending one, we pull
the collective and do a collective/cyclic climb to avoid a tail strike,
followed very quickly with down collective to avoid losing turns whcih
puts us in a flare attitude followed by a cyclic pushover and pulling
pitch to cushion the touchdown.
I experienced an engine failure at night while spraying cotton and had
an altitude of roughly 5' above the crop with about 50kts IAS. I did
the above manuever and just as I was trying to flare, the machine
turned about 90deg as I was descending for landing. It all worked out
as if I had planned it. The spray booms were aligned with the rows and
I didn't knock off a single nozzle. The tail rotor got a little green
on it but it too was just above the crop when I touched down cross row
to the irrigation lines. It was nearly a perfect landing to salvage
pilot error from running out of fuel in a strange machine. This was in
a Bell 47 at least 15 years ago. Fortunately I had figured out that
maneuver five years earlier and had used it twice prior to trying it at
night!! I retired from crop dusting/spraying this summer after 40 years
of low/slow back'n forth.
Cheers
Ol Shy & Bashful
John Doe wrote:
"Jim Carriere" wrote in message
...
Airman wrote:
I sure miss the old days when we had a lively discussion group with
some very experienced pilots opining upon matters. Poster were for the
most part civil and if you could ask the right questions then listen a
guy like Nick Lappos (or many other very experienced pilots) would
respond.


Roger, I miss the old days too. But I think there is still a significant
wealth of knowledge here, just a lot of quiet people (lurkers).

This is a little long and rambling, but I put a lot of thought into how
aircrew handle emergencies, however great or small the emergency and
whoever the crew is composed of.

I am presently a military flight instructor and have been for a bit less
than three years. I would hesitate to call myself "very" experienced.
Partly by choice and partly by circumstances, I have become specialized in
and good at instrument flying. Handling emergencies and crew resource
management both play a big part, and of course both relate to the study of
human behavior.

Today I was practicing emergencies in the simulator (required periodic
proficiency practice... say that three times fast!). Now, not because
I've become "that good" or salty (hardly), but I reacted very calmly to
one type of malfunction (erroneous engine out indication, think loud alarm
noise with bright red light and rpm gauge winding down) that usually
startles most guys. The common reaction is to be startled and quickly
lower the collective; my hands didn't even move... why? Note that an
actual engine failure is also accompanied by a physical reaction from the
aircraft and additional instrument indications. Now, I honestly wasn't
"spring loaded" in my mind for this particular malfunction, so why did I
react atypically?

It occurred to me that at my present experience level, I have grown to
regard many malfunctions and minor emergencies as a nuisance. I wondered
if this was bad, if this was a warning sign that I was falling into a
classic psychological trap of arrogance? I wondered if it was good, if I
was observing myself mature. Maybe it was neither good nor bad. Well,
what else is involved in my approach to flying? I am always willing to
learn, no matter what the source. Simulators are always educational for
me, just not usually in an introspective sense. I still have great
respect for the dangers involved with flying. I still think about "what
ifs" and work to maintain my own basic skills while building more advanced
skills.

I'm getting to the end of my line at my current job and won't be flying on
my next tour (the military likes you to be well rounded). It takes effort
for me to remain focused in the cockpit each day. Staying focused is a
conscious choice I make as part of a careful mindset. I believe I have an
overall healthy approach to flying. I believe that the fact that I have
grown to regard certain minor emergencies as nuisances isn't dangerous,
because it complements and is tempered by other facets of "how" I fly.


I probably thought waaay too much into this... thanks for reading and I
hope you don't mind my rambling




Please do ramble... I have been reading the posts on this group for some
time and find it interesting at times. Unfortunately I haven't read the
posts in "the old times" and you could say I'm a frequent lurker
I'm currently working as a military instructor too.. but I suppose I haven't
got the hours or the experience like the guys in the USA.
Anyway, to start off a discussion - have been doing the what ifs and there
are several opinions on the particular emergency that I need to solve.
Engine failure during transition to forward flight. Specificaly after the
transverse flow effect (say doing 40 knots, around 50 feet AGL). What to do
with the collective? Do you slam it down to maintain as much RPM as you can
and then quickly pull it up to cushion the landing or is there not enough
time to lower the collective fully? Maybe a newbie question but as you
probably know once you ask the question a dozen theories pop up. Thanks...


 




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