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#21
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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
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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
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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
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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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