Helicopter Main Rotor Blade In Flight: Super Slo-Mo

[Vondon302]

@ttyymmnn It reminded me of what I do when I stick me hand out the window of a moving car.

[pyroholtz]

@Hike said in Helicopter Main Rotor Blade In Flight: Super Slo-Mo:

@ttyymmnn I know the idea of a helicopter is relatively simple, but the fact that it actually works is kind of mind blowing.

I've been told by helicopter pilots, the first thing that a helicopter wants to do is kill you, everything a pilot does is to avoid that and attempting to get you to the destination.

[іди на хуй Влад - formerly known as Distraxi]

@pyroholtz When I was in engineering school, one of the final year assignments was to build a simulator of helicopter flight dynamics. Gave me a serious respect for chopper pilots - every damn thing on a helicopter is dynamically unstable.

[ttyymmnn]

@pyroholtz said in Helicopter Main Rotor Blade In Flight: Super Slo-Mo:

I've been told by helicopter pilots, the first thing that a helicopter wants to do is kill you,

What happens when you try to fly a helicopter with zero experience and no lessons.

[pyroholtz]

@ttyymmnn like most things in life, professionals make what they do look easy and there are those who think it must be just that....those are the ones who end up with a broken whirlybird crumpled around themselves, if they're lucky.

[FourMalibus]

@ttyymmnn That's cool. I wouldn't have guessed there were that many oscillations, but I guess it makes sense when you think of how relatively soft and flexible the blades are.

[Turbineguy-Nom de Zoom]

@ttyymmnn Love this video. Probably safe to assume somebody named Hog isn't the brightest of the bunch.

[Cé hé sin]

@ttyymmnn

He was doing quite well up to the point where he crashed it.....

[Mr.Ontop]

@ttyymmnn I love this video. It's a prime example of what happens when someone thinks their money equates to common sense...pro tip....it doesn't.

[3point8isgreat]

My group at work got to try one of the helicopter flight Sims, not a full motion one but still quite fancy.

I think every one of us crashed. Even the intern with a fixed wing pilots license. I got close to landing, but over corrected on the tail rotor for the changes in torque and lost control at the last minute.

[ttyymmnn]

@Cé-hé-sin said in Helicopter Main Rotor Blade In Flight: Super Slo-Mo:

@ttyymmnn

He was doing quite well up to the point where he crashed it.....

Any landing you can walk away from....

[ttyymmnn]

@3point8isgreat said in Helicopter Main Rotor Blade In Flight: Super Slo-Mo:

My group at work got to try one of the helicopter flight Sims, not a full motion one but still quite fancy.

There is an excellent book about a Huey pilot in Vietnam titled Chickenhawk. The first time he got into a helicopter at Ft. Rucker, the instructor flew and all he had to do was keep the helo pointing straight ahead using the rudders. He failed miserably, and it took a couple of days just to figure out that much.

[Ad absurdum per aspera]

@ttyymmnn -- If memory serves, the book also has a passage about how fixed-wing hotshots attempting to hover usually failed. Helos and airplanes have some broad conceptual similarities, but the implementations require you to do different things with controls that work in different ways and apparently the skills don't transfer that well.

There was also a quote from one of the journalists of that place and time that I really should look up and get down properly, with attribution, but the gist of it is, "Airplanes keep flying unless something really big goes wrong. Helicopters stop flying unless every little thing goes right."

[ttyymmnn]

@Ad-absurdum-per-aspera

I'm reminded of a similar sort of comparison with the Osprey. The anniversary of the first flight (1989!) is tomorrow, and this is from my TDIAH article about it:

As with many modern military aircraft built entirely from scratch, cost overruns began to plague the Osprey, as well as a number of high-profile fatal training accidents. Detractors believed that the Osprey was an inherently dangerous aircraft, particularly in the case of engine failure, even though one engine can drive both rotors through a system of interconnected drive shafts. Pilots also had to learn how to fly the Osprey, because it was neither an airplane nor a pure helicopter. According to Bell’s chief Osprey test pilot Bill Leonard:

One of the biggest problems we’ve had in the [pilot] community is getting past the idea that it’s a helicopter that flies fast. It’s not. It’s an airplane that hovers. And if you fly the airplane like a helicopter, yes, it’s very difficult to fly as a helicopter. And if you do that, you have a very good chance of having a problem with controllability because of the way the aircraft operates. If you fly it like an airplane and you are willing to take the time to understand the capabilities of it in helicopter, it’s a very, very easy airplane to fly.

[ike808]

@ttyymmnn All these rotor threads lately. I think Mrs. Ike and I are going to head up to the local school to get our rotary license. I just can’t keep ignoring the Robinsons flying overhead.

[Skyfire77]

@Cé-hé-sin Helos don't fly, they're so ugly that the Earth repels them

[Skyfire77]

@3point8isgreat

"I AM THE GREATEST!"

[Turbineguy-Nom de Zoom]

@Skyfire77 Thanks for the reminder of just how dopey that movie was.

[ttyymmnn]

@Turbineguy-Nom-de-Zoom said in Helicopter Main Rotor Blade In Flight: Super Slo-Mo:

@Skyfire77 Thanks for the reminder of just how dopey that movie was.

I've never seen it, but about one minute of that clip was enough for me to know I don't want to see the rest of it.

[Skyfire77]

@ttyymmnn said in Helicopter Main Rotor Blade In Flight: Super Slo-Mo:

@Turbineguy-Nom-de-Zoom said in Helicopter Main Rotor Blade In Flight: Super Slo-Mo:

@Skyfire77 Thanks for the reminder of just how dopey that movie was.

I've never seen it, but about one minute of that clip was enough for me to know I don't want to see the rest of it.

It's Top Gun for Army Aviation, except with no volleyball, and we're fighting drug dealers who have their own air force.

[drVanTraveler]

@ttyymmnn The big changes in rotor blade pitch are mainly in forward flight where the rotor gets uneven airspeed. The advancing blade has less pitch due to a higher airspeed, and the retreating blade has higher pitch with lower airspeed to balance the lift on both sides.
That's the real trick in leaving hover and going forward. Takes a bunch of changes, all happening at the same time.

[Turbineguy-Nom de Zoom]

@Skyfire77 I saw it when it came out. Back before Sean Young got all loony.

[ttyymmnn]

@Turbineguy-Nom-de-Zoom

Blade Runner, Stripes, No Way Out. She was certainly easy on the eyes.

[Turbineguy-Nom de Zoom]

@ttyymmnn Yep, but there was a whole lotta crazy behind hers.

[ttyymmnn]

@Turbineguy-Nom-de-Zoom

Didn’t she officially go off the deep end when she wanted the role of Catwoman?