"How can you use a yaw string in a helicopter? Doesn't
the rotor wash it around? Educate me.

(I had one helicopter ride in an H-13 in 1954; didn't
see no stinkin' yaw string.)"

Helicopter pilots have learned a lot since 1954. I fly helicopters (just
Schweizers). Perhaps the production crew kept putting them on from
sailplane days, but they work just like any other yaw string. And, they are
brightly colored yarn, too. Only one of the helicopters I have flown has a
turn and bank indicator - and all have the yarn.

When you are hovering, the yarn is meaningless - but you are not going
anywhere, either. As soon as you move to forward flight, the relative wind
goes from the front of the helicopter to the back, just like any other
aircraft.

At best glide ratio, I get just over 3:1, but with a headwind the glide
angle approaches that of an elevator.

Colin N12HS



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