I like Nicks definition about pilots screwing machines and machines screwing pilots!!
Didn't have the privilege to get my hands on a Blackhawk (or any derivative) yet, but I am still hoping!
When I started to fly the 206 I had about 1400 hrs on the Bell-47 and about 2000 on the R-44.
Generally I am slow to get used to a new machine, but after about 35 hrs I started to explore the limits of the machine ( or rather MY limits in the machine!)
It took me about 500 hrs to get to the edge in the R-44.
It took about 5 hrs to find the limits in the 206. Still I liked to fly it, until part of the compressor let go - down it went, it flew again 2 weeks later, but I prefer the EC120 hands down.
Back on track - LTE:
Nick talks about the upper edge (economically) of good TRs.
Let me give you a sample of the lower edge:
I don't know wether it still gets demonstrated, but at my first Robinson Safety Course the instructor would demonstrate
(albeit light wind, half fuel, 2 persons on board) a 1 foot hover at 75% RRPM!! This was not to show how a R-44 still stays aloft when RRPM is 29% below nominal ( R's fly at 104% RRPM), but to demonstrate the TE (Tailrotor Efficiency). He still could do a complete pedal turn either side!
He never demoed it at 70%, but would confess, that it gets hard to control there and he would run out of pedal at times!
The same demo in a R-22 is done at 80% - well it is a little more sensitive!
Now when I loose a little MRRPM a times when external cargo is heavy and Density Altitude is high - LTE is no concern EVER!!
If you can't afford a Sikorsky, go for the Robinson - LTE is NOT in the Robinson Vocabulary!
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