Idle hands

[Arm out the window]

Something to share with fellow AS350 drivers out there - I had a 20 minute dead leg today out over the water, and in an idle moment of curiosity stuck my arm out the window (as I like to, funnily enough) - never noticed this before, but if you do that, it can seriously play havoc with the pressure instruments.
I was experimenting with the effects of the 105 kt breeze on my hand when I saw the altimeter needle jump around like a punk in the mosh pit and the VSI waver crazily anywhere between +/- 1000 fpm. Thinking the static system might be playing up, I did some further exploration and found that, lo and behold, if you stick your arm out and move it around in various positions and angles of attack, you can confuse your static instruments no end - somewhat surprising when you consider that the static source is way down underneath the cabin, out of the way, you'd reckon. Obviously not!
Anyone else come across this phenomenon?

[Droopy]

Are you sure you didn't inadvertently have the standby static selected?

[sunnywa]

The only thing I noticed when I stuck my arm out of a Wessex window at 110kts was the thunk of my elbow on the door frame and two weeks worth of physio to get my arm back again. S..t it hurt. Haven't done that trick again.:ok:

[ericferret]

You could make a Bell 47 turn by sticking your arm out of the window.

[diginagain]

Cup your hand into the airflow, and it feels like you're fondling a tit.

Less than 40 knots and it feels a bit slack, over 60 it gets quite firm........

[Helipilot1982]

You guys are killing me!!!:):):):)

[md 600 driver]

Less than 40 knots and it feels a bit slack, over 60 it gets quite firm........

totally the oposite with tits then

[R1Tamer]

This is something of an amusing and interesting thread.
I once took my mother up for a flight in a warm climate with doors off. After giving her rather an extended pre flight briefing in the car on the way to the airport and again once seated inside the heli I figured I'd done my part.
Imagine my surprise when at 2000' feet and completely unannounced with camera in hand she threw her arm out the left side of the cockpit in an attempt to get a nice shot of the two of us whilst in flight.
Although I s*#t myself it was nothing compared to her. The airflow nearly ripped her clean out of the cockpit - the camera with lanyard round her wrist almost severed her hand off. Somehow she did manage to recover her arm and camera back into the cockpit but the battery compartment had loosed its contents like a couple of tiny drop bombs onto the unsuspecting world below and apparently not through the tail rotor!
Not much conversation for the remainder of that flight!
R1tamer

[ThomasTheTankEngine]

Cup your hand into the airflow, and it feels like you're fondling a tit.

Less than 40 knots and it feels a bit slack, over 60 it gets quite firm........

I dread to think what you were doing with you other hand :eek:

[the dean]

not a chopper driver, though when we had no pax on board the boys would let me drive our 222...as i fixed wing driver i am curious and have to wonder like droopy asked...have you checked to see if you outside static line is blocked or cracked and you're operating on the stand by one..???

the dean.

[fkelly]

I seem to remember this as being a very good way of losing an expensive watch

[ShyTorque]

Be careful! There was a case of an RAF pilot who put his head out of the window and couldn't get it back inside.

[Twiddle]

From experience, don't try and unfold a map when single pilot with the doors off.....:uhoh:

[Arm out the window]

I don't think there is a standby static source on the BA - could be wrong, but I haven't heard of one.

[kookabat]

We call 'sticking your arm out the window in flight' the 'intelligence test'. ie if you're intelligent, you don't do it again...:eek:

[The SSK]

Keep at it AotW, maybe with one arm you'll be slower typing your answers to the music quiz, give the rest of us a chance. :)

[Arm out the window]

Come on now, SSK - even though I've got two functional typing arms I seem to recall you blitzing me often enough! This week was a bit of a gift because of the Aussie theme.:ok:

[ATCO17]

I recall seeing some pictures of Keith Hartley flying a Tornado minus the canopy....There was some distrust amongst crew with the ejection sequence, shortly after the aircraft entered service. Think there had been a couple of unsuccessful abandonments. Hartley was tasked to fly the aircraft with no canopy and, the rear seat either removed or covered. Always remember the shot of Keith, arm resting on the edge, visor up, shades on, mask off and a cheesy grin. All at about 200kts! :ok: Anyone got the pics anywhere?

A17

[Twisted Rigging]

Surely I'm Not the only one to witness a goon suit being inflated like a Michelin Man, through the wrist seal out the window!!!:E

[stillnoeyedear]

Hey arm', the AS350 we used to have (your local ems crowd) used to read up to -20 KIAS if you extended the search light. Scared the crap out of me one dark night coming out of Palm I, thought the AI had just failed. Apparently it was a know effect (for that airframe) that no one thought I needed to know!

Saw ya ugly mug in the rag the other day, must catch up sometime, drop down at the shed. MM

[Arm out the window]

Hey big fella, good to hear from you.
Must've been fairly exciting getting that kind of effect on a black night, just what you'd want as you're departing over the water.

Yep, I think the cameraman just didn't get my best profile on the day - :eek: my so called better half was very complimentary and said 'Which one's you?'!
I believe we may be seeing you gracing our TV screens soon though?

[MightyGem]

From experience, don't try and unfold a map when single pilot with the doors off.....:uhoh:

Ah yes...I didn't really need that map after all. :O

[stillnoeyedear]

Yes, my ugly mug will have a gob attached, no doubt I'll hang myself. At least it will give the armchair crtitics something to chat about. Looks like Big Jeff may come up our way soon! Have fun and fly safe, I'll try and pick your voice on the airways.

[OCTANE100]

You might want to have your static system checked. It is likely the static plumbling is dis-connected/leaking between the instruments and the static port which is at the bottom of the fuselage centre (roughly below the aft cabin seats). This static tubing is a thermo-retensive plastic, you heat it up to push it on-to the alloy fittings. The 'B' nuts on one of the adaptors could also be loose.

Strange really, I have never come across a squirel where the cabin doors seal well enough to create a cabin pressure differential so easily.

Haven't touched a '350 for a while but I remember some S/n's have two static sources at the location I described (pretty much next to one-another) and some only have one.

Otherwise, stop sticking your bl..dy hand out the window!!:ok::ok:

[Arm out the window]

Thanks, Octane100. I'll look further into that. There's a couple of squirrels in the fleet so I'll see if the other one does it next time I fly it, too.

[Ascend Charlie]

AOTW,

You will see from old comic books that Superman used to fly with his fists clenched, and for good reason. Try it next time you stick your Arm Out The Window, and compare it to open palms - you will overcontrol to bu88ery with them open.:eek:

[Arm out the window]

True AC, although I've found it goes OK if you make a little aerofoil shape with your hand and use the little finger at the back as an elevator!

I miss the wire cutter support framework from the Huey, perfect for holding onto with the arm out in the airflow.

[fluffy5]

I know of an old boss who has a b2, who has it fully stabilised. we used to take the p*ss, so he could go hands free while his personal assistant in the second seat gave abit of light relief. Funny how she always re-applied her lipstick when they landed.:}:}:} :E

[[email protected]]

I was RHS captain in a Wessex doing SCT IF with the other guy flying in the LHS. We did all the normal up, down, left and right stuff and then decided to do some UPs (unusual positions or unusual attitudes). So, he closed his eyes, I did a couple of wingovers and then left him in a diving turn to recover with the usual 'You have control.' BUT, not wanting to make it too easy, I stuck my finger over the pitot head and the ASI went to zero. The attitude he then selected to try to recover from what he thought was a low IAS, high RoD UP meant I had to get my hand off the pitot and back onto the controls again bl88dy quickly to prevent us doing something the Wessex wasn't quite capable of!

Needless to say, I stuck to boring, easy UPs ever after that....

[ShyTorque]

Having started to read that, I was going to ask if you were the one of the chaps who allegedly accidentally looped a Wessex in cloud during inadvertant entry into cloud during a "practice limited panel and SAS off" UP, which got more than a little out of hand.

Probably a bit before your time though; it was a green Wx at Odiham in 1978 or '79.

Traffic on the M3 motorway near Basingstoke was supposedly slowing down due to the blade slap noises that one made.

They changed a few things, afterwards..........transmission, three pairs of underpants, SOPs etc.

Could name names, but won't :E

[[email protected]]

Shy, I remember the story you mention very well - I started on the Wessex in '83 and that story would be recounted at every opportunity - especially during the IF phase!

Someone managed to get a Wessex on its back in the Aldergrove zone in '85 or '86 (again on an IF sortie waiting for an SRA) which is why we never let ex-Puma pilots do wingovers again:)

And ex-Chinook pilots were even worse, especially if they were 'distracted' during the manoeuvre and forgot to avoid the ground:}

[Heli-Ice]

AOTW

Also try sticking your head out the window while flying and see what it does to your back-pressure relief valve :}

[ShyTorque]

Well, Crab - Wasn't the Princely moral from that "cripple a crewman and get promoted"? Sorry for the Dark humour.

At least my Puma wingovers were auth'ed by the AOC! ;)