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Old 19th Jul 2014, 15:02
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Shawn Coyle
 
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Philadelphia PA
Age: 73
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The Gazelle (circa 1975) had a tactile cue in the collective called Intermediate Pitch Stop (IPS). You could pull as fast as you wanted to the change in spring force and not exceed any engine or transmission limits.
Tried it in a very light Gazelle when I was at Boscome Down - 60Kg of fuel when we wanted only 40Kg, no other seats in the machine - I pulled sharply up to the IPS and generated a 0.25G. Impressive response - the engine didn't miss a beat.
Not sure of what other tactile cueing would be really useful. My personal pet peeve is the very low forces to move the pedals in all helicopters. The best I've seen there was in a 4-axis autopilot version of the Polish W-3. It had a large breakout force on the pedals so that you could rest your feet on the pedals and keep heading hold engaged, but it took enough force to 'break' the heading hold that you knew you were doing it.
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