PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Jackstall: What is it? Any experiences?
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Old 1st Dec 2006, 15:33
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NickLappos
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
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Good question! In fact, EC uses that excuse as a justification for the weak servos, instead of also strengthening the blade horn and pitch links. Most helos are designed so those components cannot be harmed by anything that is aerodynamically generated, so the general answer to your question is no, but for some EC designs, the answer is yes, those components are also weak enough to be damaged, and have been bent in flight during maneuvers.

For US military helos, there exists a qualification test that proves the case against allowing jack stall. Known as a Structural Demo test flight, the pilot goes out at al weights and CG's and maneuvers to the maximum, to fully stall the system, and shows that there is sufficient strength margin so that no components can fail or "jack stall" in the process. These flight tests are the most critical, and most skill dependant of any except perhaps the H-V curve hard landing tests. I know for a fact that the argument made for allowing jack stall would get not 1 mm past a US Army/Navy/AF test engineer.
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