Next Generation Training Helicopter
It is my opinion that a training helicopter should have the following characteristics and attributes.
Flying Qualities
The aircraft should be easy to fly, therefore a very high level of flying skills, airmanship and safety can be produced in the short time period over which training typically occurs.
Furthermore, if students are able to master the required manoeuvres quickly then the instructor will be free to expand the training syllabus to cover more advanced topics and further enhance the quality of the budding pilots.
The helicopter should of course fly in a manner that is representative of larger helicopters and all of the typical helicopter traits must still be present, but they should be engineered (possibly using SAS) to occur slower to allow the pilot to learn to master the control quicker.
Hands off flight should be possible - i.e. Hydraulic controls are required in order to allow a right-handed pilot to right on his knee-board safely in flight and to aid map fondling and other in-flight tasks.
The aircraft characteristics should be modified such that with SAS selected the machine is inherently stable. In this sense inadvertent entry into IMC conditions need not result in a high likelihood of an accident.
The low-g push-over limitation must be removed.
The mast bumping problem must be removed.
The loss of MR control problem must be removed.
All manoeuvres required for flight training should be safely flyable with an amateur at the controls. i.e. the aircraft should be capable of tolerating large abrupt control movements on all of the controls. The aircraft should be robust to extremely aggressive manoeuvring.
Aircraft Attributes:
Training helicopter are inherently more likely to crash than commercially operated machines by virtue of the experience levels of the pilots that fly them. Therefore, it is essential that the basic training helicopter is highly crashworthy. Firstly silly mistakes such as ground role-overs etc should be protected against with a strong roll-cage, and within the cage the occupants should be secured by 4-point harnesses and bucket seats. The aircraft structure itself should be designed in such a manner as to protect the occupants in the advent of a high velocity impact. The criteria I use here is that the machine should be able to protect the occupants in the event of a 100mph impact. (Before you argue - think formula one!) A resultant crash velocity of 100mph is adequate for allowing the machine to be flown into the ground in autorotatative configuration 65kts forward and 15kts down without any attempt to flair - i.e. not seeing the ground until too late in poor vis at night!
Having crashed, the aircraft should then able to prevent itself from spontaneously combusting. The doors should be easily removed - even with a mangled fuselage, and the seatbelts readily released. The bucket seats and 4-point harnesses ensuring that the two occupants don't pin each other in as is often the case with R22.
The landing gear need to be highly robust and articulated at the rear. The rear articulation will allow for a slightly heels first arrival during full-down auto's without kicking the whole aircraft forward risking a toe dig-in and subsequent roll over. Undercarriage need to be designed in such a manner as to reduce the risk of toe-catches, the EC120 is a good example of this consideration being put into practice.
The cabin must be no smaller than R44 in width and height.
All flight controls should be conventional.
RRPM should be well correlated and governed. Flight training should be carried out in both flight regimes. The rotor should be a high inertia system. The rotor speed should remain in the stable speed range for at least 3 seconds following a instantaneous power failure at maximum contingency power - i.e. Towering/Max performance take-off. This in turn will provide a very benign H-V diagram and make the safe profiles much easier to fly.
The installed power should be plentiful in all parts of the world in which the aircraft is sold. The tail rotor should have a high degree of authority and have no sensitive quadrants - a strake may be necessary.
All start-up procedures should be automatic - including standard start-up system checks. This insures that they are all done correctly and quickly. The same principle applies to shutdown.
The machine should have half the DOC of R22.
130kt Cruise, 400nm Range 614lbs of passengers and bags with 3hrs of fuel on top.
Drop dead gorgeous looks inside and out, modern paint job, modern cockpit fit.
Price £140,000 inc VAT ($180,000 exc tax)
If you want one let me know!
For further details on this particular configuration do a search for:
What about the LIGHT helicopter needs fixing?