Rotary Range And Endurance

[angelorange]

Happy with the basics of R&E for Fixed wing Piston, Turbo Prop and Jet. What is recommended power, speed altitude for Helicopter operations?

Thanks

[Shawn Coyle]

PM me with your email and I'll send you the chapter from my book that discusses range and endurance. Important that you use fuel flow and not power when making calculations.

[HeliTester]

angelorange,

Helicopter manufacturers do a pretty good job of providing range and endurance information in flight manuals and technical information publications. Cruising range and endurance data are provided for the range of gross weights, altitudes, and temperatures that describe each helicopter’s operating envelope. The following is a typical cruise performance graph showing fuel flow as a function of level flight speed, which also gives the best endurance speed and the best (long) range speed. Note that the specific range for 28,300 lb at the 138 kt long range cruise speed is 0.092 nautical miles per pound of fuel (138 nm/hr divided by 1500 lb/hr).

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4690877027_412485fb5f.jpg