R44 owners or light category, question about SAS and autopilot in helicopter...

[monkeyking]

I know it... I said that because I read that it was designed for small helos

Anyway, 4 sec is not too much when you ride with no hands

[HeliChopter]

"We should be discouraging pilots from raising the likelihood of Inadvertant IMC encounter above REMOTE."

I understand that during WW1 that they didn't allow pilots parachutes, didn't want to encourage them to be cowardly, what!

[RVDT]

In the future you will just buy a UAV and become SLF!

[Runway101]

Originally Posted by monkeyking

I know it... I said that because I read that it was designed for small helos

My guess would be that a hydraulic pump and a few other parts are minimum requirement for something like SAS or AP retrofit.

[Runway101]

R44 STC for HeliSAS, not being sold due to insrance issues

Here is a post that Roger Hoh made to the Robinson Helicopter Owners Group in March 2010:

The HeliSAS autopilot and stability augmentation system received STC for installation on the Robinson R44 on Oct 30, 2009 (STC SR02254LA). It is installed on one R44 helicopter, which has a standard airworthiness certificate and it works great.

HeliSAS consists of an attitude-command-attitude-hold SAS that can be engaged from engine start to shutdown. With the SAS engaged, the helicopter maintains level flight with hands off the controls, and has been demonstrated to automatically recover from extreme unusual attitudes. Hands-off hover, takeoffs, and landings have also been demonstrated. HeliSAS will be offered as a SAS-only or full autopilot option. The full autopilot option includes heading hold, altitude hold, GPS and VOR navigation modes, ILS, backcourse, and LNAV/VNAV approach capability.

Unfortunately, HeliSAS is not being sold for installation on the R44 at this time because of liability insurance issues. The problem is that the Robinson Helicopter Company does not carry liability insurance. Therefore other insurer's are unwilling to be "first in line" . Work is in progress to resolve this issue.

Work to achieve approval for HeliSAS as a factory option was halted in April 2009 so that Robinson engineering could focus 100% on R66 certification. It has come to our attention that there is a rumor circulating to the effect work was stopped at the factory because the technology is "not sufficiently mature". This is not the case. HeliSAS has been certified to the latest FAA rules including extensive DO 160F environmental testing (including the new HIRF rule) and the software was certified to the highest available standard (DO 178B Level A). This is the same standard that is used for certification of software for fly-by wire transports (e.g. Airbus).

The market for HeliSAS for R44 helicopters is not known. Any input from members would be very useful to understand the viability of this product for the R44/R66 market.

[EN48]

My guess would be that a hydraulic pump and a few other parts are minimum requirement for something like SAS or AP retrofit.

HeliSAS does not utilize hydraulic components - servos are electric. However, it is designed to be used with helicopters with hydraulicly boosted controls, presumably because hydraulic boost isolate the HeliSAS servos from aerodynamic loads and provide a light, consistent control force.

[Runway101]

That's what I meant. Attaching those servos directly to control rods of helicopters without hydraulic system (or at the wrong end of the hydraulic system) would probably turn out very ugly.

On page 8 of this document you can actually see the components used (for a 206B):

http://www.helisas.com/UserFiles/Fil...alOverview.pdf

[glockrecoil]

the link above is a good read...

It seems that it is updated...

When will robinson approve it for their units...

Can't wait for the reviews...

Thanks for the link...