PPRuNe Forums - Rotor downwash and light fixed wing

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if you absolutely had to taxi near a fixed wing plane would it be better to hover in ground effect or in a high hover to increase the distance from the plane?

my first thought would be IGE because of the reduced power, but im not certain

Tim,

In response to the OP's query, there are two calendar photos from December 2005 which illustrate helicopter vortices quite well. The first, an R44, is quite a light aircraft:

http://www.helicopterservice.com.au/...2005%20R44.jpg

whilst the Puma, of course, is another kettle of fish!

http://www.helicopterservice.com.au/...005%20Puma.jpg

When the Sea King entered service with the RN we were in the habit of hover taxiing everywhere, and gave no thought to not continuing the practice with the King Dipper. RNAS Culdrose had (has?) an area of grass leading down to the bomb dump which was used for slope landings, adjacent to a taxiway: one lonely Hiller 12E was thus occupied with a stude Midshipman when one of us trundled past in a Sea King and casually blew the Hiller base over apex.

That wouldn't have been so bad in itself, but the incident went unnoticed by all until the Tower spotted a bedraggled pilot hobbling across the runway back toward 705's dispersal. Said pilot was a tearful Middie who had extracted himself from the wreckage and spent 10 minutes waiting to be rescued before giving up and seeking solace in the ACRB :p

The Sea King downwash was re-assessed to be of sufficient magnitude as to require ground taxiing from then on :ok:

Thanks, really useful photos (esp. as Pumas are rather common at home base!) Interesting how little the wake spreads out sideways (though I guess the Puma was doing a fair speed while chucking out all that chaff).

Tim

Updated AIC on Wake Turbulence

The Wake Turbulence AIC (Pink) P 072/2010 issued this month has been updated to give increased guidance on Helicopter downwash (following the Piper/S76 accident). See section 5.
NATS | AIS

Great, thanks. That AIC is very useful.

Tim

YES. You can see the Coconutty's picture is FAKE.
Not because I've seen the original with thongs on, but because they deleted the Bose X headset cable from under the lady while airbrushing the pic. Good job, though.

Oh!Its a headset! I thought it was a camera! ;)

Take a look at page 6 of GASIL Issue 8 2010
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/srg_gasil08of2010.pdf