What would be the "Issue" on the Fenestron?
If they got into trouble, something must have been stuck! Maybe they where freezing the pedals to each other, in a stress situation like this sometimes people do the weirdest things - if the student freezes the pedals there is no way to correct anything.
I never had a Fenestron stall, though I run out of pedal plenty of times - but that does not mean that the Fenestron is stalled, but just giving all it has.
That EC quit doing stuck-pedal training is more likely to the inherent danger of roll over if you do it wrong or something goes wrong.
I was lucky enough to do some training with a factory instructor and when he showed us "stuck-pedal" he was surprised how fast the EC120 comes around when applying collective to straighten out for a straight run-on. He said it was his first time to do that in a 120.
He also said the 120 was the lowest inertia helicopter he ever flew!
He didn't pick up on my invitation to fly a R-22 with him to show him a "no"-inertia helicopter!!
It seems rather curious, that SA EC120 guys where not able to stop the rotation with full pedal application.
When I check out people in the EC120 I let them "run away" sometimes in a hover to get them on the watch for the TR, as the Fenestron lags quite a bit over a regular TR and anticipation is the name of the game.
It is not so hard to keep the helicopter level and turning around itself fairly fast. This of course gets the students attention and a "big eyes" look towards me. After I tell him to do something to recover they step on the pedal (I will block the wrong side, as I don't know what the 120 does if accelerated beyond more or less neutral pedal position) and it takes up to 3 complete turns to stop the rotation.....
Anyone close to the guys to ask about the posibility of "pilot-froozen-pedals" in the case at hand?
3top,
