R44 Pop-out floats

[TiPwEiGhT]

Yep, that's correct. It's a locking pin to prevent inadvertently firing the floats. If I am right in thinking it says "LOCKED" and "ARMED".

[Alex_Ford]

Thanks TiPwEiGhT, but what action do you take (pull, rotate or?) to change it from saying 'Locked' to 'Armed'?

Thanks

Alex Ford.

[scooter boy]

The control has "LOCKED" on one side and "READY" on the other.

You push it in and twist it through 90 degrees while pushed in. This removes the final safety catch from the mechanism. To reinsert the safety catch the procedure is similar - i:e push in and rotate 90 degrees the other way. It can easily be done with the left hand but is probably best done prior to an emergency autorotation!

I was very happy to have it set to "READY" over the water when I popped over to Tresco last month.

SB

[helicopter-redeye]

SB has got there first. You can make the move to 'ready' and then fire the trigger while in the descent. If you have the 'ready' shown and catch the trigger then its £900 up the spout (or up the floats!).

Personally I fly pin out, safety on (incl to Tresco). h-r

[Alex_Ford]

SB and H-R,

Many thanks for your answers - much appreciated.

Regards

Alex Ford

[rudestuff]

With quite a few hundred hours over water with pop-outs, I never once touched the safety - it was off and ready to fire at all times. Philosophy? one less thing to remember when you're trying to recover rpm, talk on the radio, judge a flare etc.. Same reasoning as why you don't want a safety catch on a gun - too many people have been killed because they couldn't get the safety off in time. (and a fair few by accidental discharges of course!)

[Helinut]

I was under the impression that floats needed to be tested at least once, as part of their certification. No doubt a test pilot or similar could confirm........?

[helicopter-redeye]

Floats are inflated annually at the CofA using air and every three years using the bottle (which means a discharge and reload)

h-r

[Helinut]

h-r,

sorry my post was confusing. I meant prior to the aviation authoirty giving certification for the floats to be fitted to any hele. So, if Robinson make them, they would have had to have used them once in anger as part of the testing to get initial certification from the Feds.

I do remember seeing a video at the RHC factory of a Clipper doing EOLs to the water. (I think it was fixed floats though).

There are a few pics of the R22 on floats. The freeboard looked pretty minimal to me!

[helicopter-redeye]

so is the R44 Clipper sim I'm seeing in LOOP this week the end output of this? h-r

[Alex_Ford]

Hello Helicopter-Redeye,

Yes it is.

Regards

Alex Ford
Just Flight.

[scooter boy]

Redeye they even chose your colour scheme for the sim!
What an accolade!!

SB

[helicopter-redeye]

To paraphrase what The Hood used to say

"What a simulator - I must one at any cost"

h-r

Having said that, it does not appear to float very well (sunk straight into the river at Newark, oh well, cheaper than doing it for real..)

[Martyn Northall]

Please install the update:

http://www.justflight.com/faqs.asp?d...0R44#Update339


Should fix your sinking problem

[helicopter-redeye]

Its still got that sinking feeling after SP 1 ...

Do SAP have this problem?