another " is it just me or ............."

could we not have some technical description of what it does or how it works ?

just a picture of a robbie on a stick doesnt tell me much !

e.g

1. where is it?
2. is it CAA approved? and can a hours dispensation be given on your ppl
3. what is the hourly cost?

just basic info might help a lot

i presume it is because you would have airspeed at 14000 , ie best ROC speed 53 kts, but you would not be able to hover,

the graphs show what has been calculated or demonstrated.

A helicopter on a stick!!!

Where does this end???
Amazing what people decide on putting on the other end of a stick, Optimist (the guy on the other end of a fishing pole), helicopter pilots, HELICOPTERS! :hmm:

Augusto SVH3
 

headsethair.

Have a look at http://www.usbusiness.com/helicopter/sim01.htm

The contraption you saw may have been the Augusto SVH3 training helicopter. a google search will bring up loads of information.

They have one of these trainers at Bankstown airport here in Australia. CASA will allow you to credit up to 10 hours on this trainer towards your PPL(H). Not sure about the CAA's or FAA's position.

Basically the helicopter (a single seater, piston engined, two bladed, semi rigid rotor) is as you describe attached to a "trolley" and you can bring it up to the hover, do turns and fly forwards/backwards etc within the confines of a perimeter. The instuctor has a hand held contol unit where they can control those vitally important things like engine power available and rotor rpm and I suspect do their very best to keep you working hard!!!!

Hope this info is of interest to you.

Fly Safe.

heli_spy

for the record I haven't personally had a go on one of these trainers

The thing in your picture is actually an R22 wreck that a guy in the Midlands has converted into a sort of theme park toy helicopter. It was at the Air Sports show at Telford last year and both Whirlybird and I had a go for £10 for about 15 minutes. The engine has been replaced by a pair of hydraulic rams that tilt the body in two axes rather like a full motion simulator. It is powered by a 4 stroke lawnmower engine that pumps up the hydraulics.

The basic idea is OK, but the concept has not been developed past a very iffy prototype. The cyclic has been desensitised to such an extent that you have to waggle it from side to side like stirring a big pudding just to get the airframe to respond - nothing remotely like an R22.

The guy uses it at events like country fairs and shows to give farmers a sort of self drive fairground ride. A simulator it is not!

Learning to fly a Robinson
 

Well! its quite obvious Muffin was not impressed with the STIMULATOR. It was never intended for hot shot fliers. One knows when one has a hot shot in the right hand seat because they tell you that just before they tell you what a load of !!!!e the machine is. But lets imagine you have never got close to a helicopter, you cant afford the hundred quid for a trial lesson, you dont even know about trial lessons, you never dreamt of sitting in a helicopter . Okay ,the control responce is not what you get in a 3million pound SIMULATOR but the general public never get near those anyway. The machine does exactly what it was intended for, it allows the public to get the flavour of flying a helicopter together with as much technical info as they can take in during the flight experience. As for being nothing like a Robinson, as it is a complete Robinson less its original engine and lifts and moves on all axis , how real does one have to get for a tenner a go.

Is it me or doesn't that sound like great fun for a tenner?

I've used it and it is great fun. It does have one important thing in common with the R22 and that is that the cyclic is incredibly sensitive once you get it going - you soon get the idea that small control input are the order of the day.

Chaps - don't criticise until you've had a go!

CRAN
:)

I wanna go! Where can I find it?

Will frank be offering to fit a lawn mower engine as an option in the future!

1) It's great fun
2) It's well worth a tenner
3) It bears little resemblence to flying a real helicopter

ASnd as Muffin's already told you, I speak from experience.

Hilico - Why? are you great fun for a tenner? ;)

Whirlygig

It couldn't be the 7 degree washout on the R22 blades could it?

bugdev :

I think you need to see an AME. The blades can seem to bend forward or backwards, depend on where you look at them from. Personally I think they're straight, just like most other helicopter blades.

R22 blades
 

Thanks for the feedback so far,but i have checked the set of blades i have spare, and they definately have a curve on them. when you consider the torque involved in spinning up around 30lb of blade in which there is a 2lb tip weight plus the forces induced when the pitch is increased it would not seem surprising for some distortion to take place after a couple of thousand hours.If my theory is correct then it follows that there should be an increase in blade thickness at about 6 feet out from the root.Iwill check this tomorrow. Is this possibly one of the reasons the blades have time limit on them?

Like Nr said: If these blades are secondhand and "bent", then you should be getting the appropriate info from the manufacturer to determine their servicability. This could save you from any grief.

Are you using a reference point to see the curve (ie have you measured it?)
Is the curve at the LE as well as the TE ?

Saw something somewhere (?!) recently that makes me think there's a heli sim at the "Star World" (??) leisure complex alongside the M6 at Birmingham.

Was up there a couple of weeks ago and planned to have a look, but time ran out.

Sorry to be so vague; can't remember exactly what I read or where, but it's some hovercraft like jobby? Anyone know any more?

RC

It looks great!!!! can't we turn EVERY robbo into one? Just think of the lives that would be saved!!:O

When you learn to fly a robbo, what do you do for the rest of the day:rolleyes:

learning to fly a Robinson
 

I recently purchased a book entitled "how to fly helicopters".just to be on the safe side, i tied the machine down on four corners just leaving enough slack so that i could get the skids six inches off the ground. my first attempt without the ropes resulted in a one eighty turn before i could flick to page two.(I find it damned difficult to hold the book). After a few goes , no problem, cracked this hoverin job. Question is, should i cut the ropes and go for it.