Hovering out of ground effect...
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 53
Likes: 0
From: Frozen North
More to the point is the penalty for getting it wrong. Sink a little in a low hover, the ground cushion increases, descent stops, end of story.
Start sinking in a true free air hover, apply power to stop the sink, re-circulate your downwash and end up in a vortex ring state, requiring determined inputs and possibly thousands of feet to recover. Not funny if you only start at hundreds.
OA
Start sinking in a true free air hover, apply power to stop the sink, re-circulate your downwash and end up in a vortex ring state, requiring determined inputs and possibly thousands of feet to recover. Not funny if you only start at hundreds.
OA
Joined: Jan 2000
Posts: 1,113
Likes: 1
From: UK
Someone mentioned Belfast.
Reminded me of “Number 32 of 101 things to do in a helicopter”
…. At 1500ft over the City it was important to keep your morale up when sent up for the umpteenth time that week on surveillance work. There was nothing to do but hover.
In one spot.
For a long time.
After flying to collect an "observer" you would fly over the City and stop where you were told by that person sitting beside you.
The civilian clad but heavily armed, operative sitting beside you would then start eyeballing something through high-powered gyro-stabilised binos. They had their own comms that the pilot could not monitor. You had no idea what they were looking for. All the pilot had to do was maintain position.
If you were lucky the operative was female.
So now the added challenge was to fly the helicopter without using your left hand!
The Gazelle you were flying was quite basic; no stabilisation, no stick trim.
The trick was to gently position the helicopter so that the observer ended up twisted hard to the left in order to observe. That way she was facing completely away from you.
After a bit of practice it became possible to almost “balance” the Gazelle using the tiniest movements on the cyclic to instantly correct for any immediate movement up or down showing on the VSI. A little headwind wind helped and the heading control had to be held nailed.
This meant that your left hand became “available”. The collective friction was set just enough to hold the lever where it was. It was possible then to move your hand away from the collective and towards……..the right thigh of the female observer!
The tension was great. First, the helicopter was at very low speed and at high power; an engine failure meant instantaneous recovery of your left hand to the collective (or die). The engine failure also meant an always very exciting auto entry from the hover and finally it would ultimately result in a sporty landing into somewhere quite tight in the City where people (then) weren’t all friendly.
Secondly though and perhaps even more seriously, what would happen if you didn’t just hover your hand an inch over the female operators thigh but accidentally touched it? What would the reaction be?
She had a Heckler-Koch and 300 rounds.
Just how long could you hold your hand an inch above her leg and hold the machine steady at the same time? Oh, the tension!
Sad days a long time ago.
Reminded me of “Number 32 of 101 things to do in a helicopter”
…. At 1500ft over the City it was important to keep your morale up when sent up for the umpteenth time that week on surveillance work. There was nothing to do but hover.
In one spot.
For a long time.
After flying to collect an "observer" you would fly over the City and stop where you were told by that person sitting beside you.
The civilian clad but heavily armed, operative sitting beside you would then start eyeballing something through high-powered gyro-stabilised binos. They had their own comms that the pilot could not monitor. You had no idea what they were looking for. All the pilot had to do was maintain position.
If you were lucky the operative was female.
So now the added challenge was to fly the helicopter without using your left hand!
The Gazelle you were flying was quite basic; no stabilisation, no stick trim.
The trick was to gently position the helicopter so that the observer ended up twisted hard to the left in order to observe. That way she was facing completely away from you.
After a bit of practice it became possible to almost “balance” the Gazelle using the tiniest movements on the cyclic to instantly correct for any immediate movement up or down showing on the VSI. A little headwind wind helped and the heading control had to be held nailed.
This meant that your left hand became “available”. The collective friction was set just enough to hold the lever where it was. It was possible then to move your hand away from the collective and towards……..the right thigh of the female observer!
The tension was great. First, the helicopter was at very low speed and at high power; an engine failure meant instantaneous recovery of your left hand to the collective (or die). The engine failure also meant an always very exciting auto entry from the hover and finally it would ultimately result in a sporty landing into somewhere quite tight in the City where people (then) weren’t all friendly.
Secondly though and perhaps even more seriously, what would happen if you didn’t just hover your hand an inch over the female operators thigh but accidentally touched it? What would the reaction be?
She had a Heckler-Koch and 300 rounds.
Just how long could you hold your hand an inch above her leg and hold the machine steady at the same time? Oh, the tension!
Sad days a long time ago.
Absolutely loving your work B.T., loving your work
Avoid imitations
Joined: Nov 2000
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 15,110
Likes: 1,083
From: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
10,000 feet (or more, depending on the windspeed) is an interesting altitude for an OGE hover, especially at night, lights out and transponder off, of course. We did have the luxury of cross hairs on the AI showing the along and across Doppler motion but it had to be flown by hand. The best / quietest way to get there was a climbing quickstop; less blade slap to alert those on the ground. Mind you, it was interesting when you ran out of power and the aircraft just fell out of the sky. In this case we gained some airspeed before vortex ring set in, flew away and came back a thousand feet lower and tried again. Once established, we used to set max. continuous power and accept the altitude it gave us and stay there for an hour or more. We couldn't tell ATC exactly where we were and we faded from radar once we slowed right down. We once watched a set of nav lights, travelling at speed, which turned directly towards us. We eventually chickened out and descended rapidly, only to see a B737 pass directly over us, exactly where we had been hovering. We discovered later that the military charts didn't yet show the new airway; we had been hovering right in the middle of it. I might have finished my days as a radiator mascot on one of the first scheduled aircraft to fly in it.
Joined: Apr 2000
Aviation Qualifications: ATP+Mil
Posts: 10,959
Likes: 1,814
From: EGDC
They come over to Ireland, once in a while...etc..etc
The ending of the song is the same - you just add 230 or 33 but the mists of time have dulled my memory - I forgot that 230 was still in RAFG then
The ending of the song is the same - you just add 230 or 33 but the mists of time have dulled my memory - I forgot that 230 was still in RAFG then
Avoid imitations
Joined: Nov 2000
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 15,110
Likes: 1,083
From: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
Well, I'm not quite that old (even though, as I'm sure you know, 230 never flew either of those types)!
It was Pumas (those plastic helicopters that folk said "will never last" - ever since 1971). They were getting a bit tired in 1979 when I first flew them but seem to have "settled in nicely" since their "end of life update".
36 years ain't bad for a plastic cab!
P.S. Bill Parry, one of the crewman I went through the OCU with, started life as a flight engineer on Lancasters!
It was Pumas (those plastic helicopters that folk said "will never last" - ever since 1971). They were getting a bit tired in 1979 when I first flew them but seem to have "settled in nicely" since their "end of life update".
36 years ain't bad for a plastic cab!
P.S. Bill Parry, one of the crewman I went through the OCU with, started life as a flight engineer on Lancasters!
Joined: Apr 2000
Aviation Qualifications: ATP+Mil
Posts: 10,959
Likes: 1,814
From: EGDC
No but they did have one or other type at Odiham during the war.
Yep the Puma keeps on going....it's a testament to how toothless our Flight Safety system is; how many BOIs have recommended the addition of anticipators? The same crashes keep on happening!
As for your crewman - I think we've still got some Masters in the SAR force who are nearly that old
Yep the Puma keeps on going....it's a testament to how toothless our Flight Safety system is; how many BOIs have recommended the addition of anticipators? The same crashes keep on happening!
As for your crewman - I think we've still got some Masters in the SAR force who are nearly that old
