Ahhh, the joys of flying the Sycamore.
The collective was actually "L" shaped, with the throttle on the end facing right. Early Syc. were flown from the left and had a conventional left collective, but I can`t recall that later models had one, only the one in the middle.The throttle/ collective cam arrangement/linkage was pretty variable , so on raising the lever, if the RRPM weren`t right you had to wind on/off throttle as the case may be. Taught you to have a well-tuned set of ears, so you could concentrate outside to see where your next problem was.
It also had: Wooden matched blades
Manual controls, and trimmers( big wheels like f/w!)
An electric pump for the Cof G compensating system( as pax were carried in the cabin, the c of g went fwd, so you pumped fluid from the front tank to the aft one in the tail boom-- and vice-versa as pax were deplaned) Victor Borge wrote about a similar system ! and it was easy to get it all wrong.
As the hover trim control positions and forces were different from fwd flight, you had to set the manual trimmers as you were doing the approach, and remembering to adjust the Cof G compensator as well, and of course vice-versa.!!!!
If you got the touchdown ok, as you lowered the lever, you had to trickle fwd, as the tyres would roll off the rims--- at this point, as there was a change in RRPM, YOU WOULD INVARIABLY BURST INTO GROUND RESONANCE, especially on concrete /tarmac !!
So, it was either, full power and get airborne, or if the RRPM were well down, then ride it out.
On the other hand, it was the only helo that I`ve done max- rate turns in-- full power and pull as hard as you dared....
Oh yes, nearly forgot; you could als do a "jump t/o", by overspeeding the RRPM, then pulling pitch and hoping you got to TL speed before the RRPM had decayed too much , or you touched down at high speed and then got ground resonance, and............%$&(*???
So, anyone think they`d like that as a basic trainer??
Great aircraft , sorted the boys from the men... on our basic course , it was the "old farts", ex -fighter pilots who had all the problems; us lads just didn`t know any better.......
