Originally Posted by
megan
The technique taught by the USN when we trained on the H-34 in basic for an instrument take off. Once lifted into the hover feet were taken off the pedals, take off performed, feet returned to pedals when established in the climb. Anybody actually use this technique in the civil world?
Hi Megan,
I’ve had just the opposite demonstrated in training in Italy, Malaysia and Jersey and subsequently have always trained the opposite in the aircraft.
We pick up the aircraft with our feet on the pedals. Do the hover checks with our feet on the pedals. Rotate with our feet on the pedals. Take our feet off the pedals and place them on the floor when the airspeed hits 40 knots. When decelerating keep our feet on the floor until the airspeed hits 40 and then place them on the pedals.
That seems odd that you were trained to use the heading hold feature in the hover and departure but then placed your feet back on the pedals essentially “turning off” the system with the depressed micro switches when you were established in the climb.
There’s no way the yaw control would have the response time to be able to accurately hold runway heading on a CAT A clear field departure in gusty crosswinds on the AW139. We’ve tried it before a decade ago when we were new on the aircraft and it just didn’t work.
However, at speeds above 40 knots it was so solid maintaining coordinated turns and heading there was no need to keep your feet on the pedals. Tough habits to train out of old dogs like myself.
Love the H34 by the way!