EC-120 TR done!

[perfrej]

Just finished my type-rating on EC-120 - some notes and comments.
It is my first type with clock-wise rotating rotor, and the only "thing" I had with that was the fact that the tail is pushing the machine to the left. Coming from the opposite scene, where a compensation of right drift has become second nature, this made me wander slightly to the left. I guess I'll get used to it, though. Pedal directions was not an issue as I had feared it would be.

Now, that fenestron is something else. I find it requiring constant adjustments to a much greater extent than I'm used to, especially in low hover. Maybe the main rotor is a bit "messy" close to the ground. Even small pedal inputs require massive effort as the thing is extremely heavy to pedal. Apart from the small pedal adjustments in hover, intended yaw manouvers require a lot of pedal travel. Again, something to get used to and maybe some time at the gym.

The general "layout" of the pilot environment is good. I would, however, like to request larger instruments, especially the altimiter which requires a magnifying glass when setting the QNH... Why, why, why?

Switches appear not so immune to wear. Toy stuff, kind of.

One great thing is the presence of hydraulic accumulators on each servo. They last long enough to establish a pleasant speed for flying without hydraulics. Said flying was surprisingly easy to accomplish and didn't require massive amounts of force to control.

Some say it autorotates slightly better than a piano. I disagree. Full autos where very nice and failrly easy to get right.

Simulated tail control failure to full landing was not that bad either.

I find the vibrations at high speed to be a sad story. Apparently they can track them well for either high or low speeds, and this machine is mainly used for power line inspections. Hence, it is good in the low speed parts of the envelope.

Performance is not that great, but I guess that depends on what you intend to use it for. Most people say it is great for PAX transport, but I would argue that a good old Longranger is better. If you fuel up the EC-120 and fill all the seats there isn't much left for baggage. All passengers are in front of the mast, counteracted only by fuel so you can guess what happens if you have heavy passengers and become low on fuel. The cyclic has fairly small travel towards the aft which is definately a problem in that scenario.

Anyway, apart from the fact that the first few hours were spent in southerly winds of 25G35, it was a very nice experience and I will probably become friends with the machine given some time.

All the best from a not so wintery Sweden.

/p