Hi Guys, i have found this thread really interesting, and nearly all of it confirms what i had always understood, I have however found one major discrepency which regards the effect of gross weight on VRS. I had always believed the Hot/High/Heavy scenario, which i now understand is much more relevant to Settling with power than vortex ring itself, however from reading this I gather that at a lower gross weight/disc area loading, that VRS can be achieved at a lower ROD!?
I understand the reasoning for this from the explanations above however I had always believed the opposite & I would much appreciate if someone could clarify.
I used to believe that vortex ring state developed because a relatively high ROD airflow caused the blade root to stall due to the angle of attack being above the stall angle, as the pilot attempts to recover this he may apply more collective in an attempt to reduce the ROD, however this pushes the stall area over a greater area along the blade as greater pitch angle is selected and further reduces lift, further increasing the ROD, all of this time the tip vortices are also strengthening and a lack of translational lift causes them to recirculate into the disc reducing lift at the tips from a reduced angle of attack due to the large induced flow. In this case i figure that an increase is gross weight/disc loading is likely to make the situation worse because the initial stall may develop at a smaller ROD due to the higher collective pitch settings however is what i have described not VRS, (but SWP??)
I would not call this settling with power because however much power you had available applying power would not get you out of this situation it would actually deepen the effect of the recirculation at the tips and not improve the stall at the root?
Could someone possible clarify where i am going wrong if the aforementioned scenario is not VRS.
Aucky