UH60 pilot vis

[MBJ]

A question for you UH60/ Blackhawk drivers out there. Can you, if you want to, see the main wheel on your side of the aircraft when landing?

[Bob95fxdl]

I've flown Hawks since 82. I'm not quite sure the reasoning behind your question, but the answer should be "No," under most conditions. Since the main wheel is aft of the gunner's window, you will not normally be able to see the wheel, unless you have the bubble-style pilot window. The crewchief/gunner should be able to monitor the actual position of the wheel, if that is your concern. Of course, in a dust environment, that plan goes out the window.

Hope this helps a bit.

Bob:ok:

[MBJ]

Thanks, I was just curious. I was thinking back to the days when we used to sometimes put the mainwheel of a Wessex (Brit version of S58/H34 with twin T58 engines) on a tree-stump or rock to offload troops on a slope.

As you say, irrelevant in a dusty environment.

There's a big issue here in UK about our troops not having enough helicopters in Afghanistan and I wonder why we don't buy a big box of UH60s instead of frigging around trying to convert the Merlin to operate there. Too little, too expensive and too late, in my view.

[JohnDixson]

MBJ, it sounds like you have some serious experience in the Wessex.

Here is the background on slopes for the UH-60: The US Army required 15 degree lateral slope capability in their original request for proposal, and the ship was tested to that capability, both left and right ( full lateral control is allowed to meet this requirement). At 15 degrees, a big factor is what is in the LZ in terms of bushes, trees, big rocks etc, as you can appreciate, the main rotor being lower than on the Wessex. Since the main gear is close to the cockpit, one gets a feel for where it is after awhile, but in any case the CE or gunner can help, as the wheel is just below their windows.

Another small point is that having the cockpit closer to the ground makes slopes easier all around, compared to a machine with an elevated cockpit.

Thanks,
John Dixson

PS: As to getting UH-60's into the RA, maybe Westland and Sikorsky could resurrect a newer version of the 1980's mutual agreement and make that happen. I went on a UH-60 marketing tour of the Persian Gulf countries with a Westland team, and at the operational level, there can be none better. What a talented, hard working, and professional group!

[SASless]

Mr. Dixson,

Since the main gear is close to the cockpit, one gets a feel for where it is after awhile

You are as usual....quite correct...even on aircraft where the pilot and landing gear are quite a way away from one another....as in the Chinook.

In time, most pilots are able to "feel" where the landing gear and cargo hook are....although some never do but then I would suggest they are not "pilots".

Funny as it seems....I always felt the cargo hook was about eighteen inches behind my seat.....and could put it into the up held doughnut of an underslung load. Most of us got to the point we could put the aft gear down on a rice paddy dike without a lot of coaching from the crew.

One has to do far more than mere "currency" flying to achieve that kind of "feel" for the aircraft.

[JohnDixson]

SAS, your last comment is absolutely correct, and it sounded like MJB was in that category.

Just a back of the envelope ( literally ) estimate of upslope rotor to ground clearance in the UH-60 with an uphill lateral slope is just about 5 ft with the rotor at zero coning ( i.e., as the pilot is reducing collective during the landing, and in the 3-4 ft range when you get the downhill wheel on the ground, and the collective/cyclic holding into the slope. Certainly no place for troops, or tall flora. Then of course one can center the cyclic and the clearance improves.

15 degrees is a steeper slope than most people realize. For those that have been there, the midpoint of the hill elevating to the Merritt Parkway Bridge in front of the Sikorsky Executive Offices in Stratford is 15 degrees, although I thought it was near 30 before we measured it.

Thanks,
John Dixson