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Old 1st May 2022, 22:29
  #23 (permalink)  
Ascend Charlie
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Great South East, tired and retired
Posts: 4,388
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So the rotorcraft world is fundamentally different.
Yes, Mr Racer, because an aeroplane is dynamically stable and will fly, with the pilot dead in the front seat. Easy to add an El Cheapo autopilot to make it do stuff.

Helicopters are dynamically unstable, and need a brilliant, good-looking hero to FLY it the whole time. A small control diversion can be fatal. An autopilot has to work rather hard to make it stay pointed in the desired direction. Until a few years ago, chopper autopilots were very expensive, so you didn't see them in the single-engine machines - which stayed VFR anyway. Now, the autopilots are much cheaper, and when fitted with glass screens, a machine like a B206 can be made IFR without breaking the bank.

But choppers are used for the down-and-dirty work. The client catches an IFR plane to the airport, then gets in the VFR chopper to do the task.
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