PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Why do helicopters sound so "choppy" on windy days?
Old 2nd Aug 2018, 23:06
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tartare
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
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Remember flying many years ago to the scene of a light plane crash in Canterbury.
A poor stude had speared in, flying a Tomahawk solo cross country in a terrifying Nor-Wester - he should never have left the aero club.
Two things still stick in my mind decades later.
The hand still holding a map sticking out of the compacted wreckage as it rocked gently back and forward in that hot wind.
And that same wind blowing in howling gusts up through the disc of Alan Bond's 500 (may he rest in peace) as we flew back to Christchurch hugging the hillsides.
Was the first time I really thought about how those rotors really do look like one solid wing to the airflow, and how they're also a giant shock absorber when it's really windy.
Hence the noise I suppose...
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