09 February 2010

Interesting Aviation Stuff To Know And Share-

To take off in both an airplane and helicopter, you point your nose as much as possible into the wind. (Because the helicopter has no need for runways and taxiways, this step is more easily and efficiently accomplished in the whirlythingy.)

In an airplane you accelerate until the machine will fly, then pull the nose UP.
From a hover in a helicopter you push the nose DOWN to accelerate.
Knowing that going through translational lift the nose will try to pop back up, you are prepared to keep it from doing that.
If you don't physically nudge the nose down, you won't accelerate and take off.

You DO want to take off, don't you?!

13 comments:

jinksto said...

No! Gimme a stable platform that doesn't take three hands a both feet to fly any day. Airplanes make sense. Up is up, down is down. Left is left, right is right. Besides, if I'm feeling really wonky I can make an airplane go down by pointing it up... haven't figured out making it go up by pointing it down yet though.

Heck, I can even set the autopilot and read a book if I want... (not that I would; there are enough missile pilots out there without me adding to the mix).

Speaking of pointing it down... I used to ride helicopters in from offshore rigs. A favorite way for some of them to gain forward momentum was to hover over the pad and then nose it over the side and head for the water a couple of hundred feet below. I've seen full grown roughnecks scream like little girls.

Clint said...

I'm a fan of helicopters. Nothing says F-U-N like flying nap-of-the-earth in the back of a Blackhawk with the doors wide open. Sometimes I wish I had gotten my helicopter ratings.

Greybeard said...

"Sometimes I wish I had gotten my helicopter ratings."

Woulda, shoulda, coulda.
Two thoughts which some of my students/peers may verify here-
1. Learning to fly helicopters will make you a MUCH BETTER airplane pilot.

2. Once you start flying the helicopter, you'll be bored to tears in the starch wing. Be prepared for that.

When would you like to take your "Demo" ride, Clint? I can pencil you in for tomorrow!

The Old Man said...

As I told you a long time ago, there's no better way to see a country than 100 feet up at 100 knots lookin' out an open door...

Clint said...

The problem is GB that once I take the Demo Ride, I'm a little worried that I will get hooked. I don't have the funds to support that addiction.
But, I DO HAVE A PLAN to get it done...and it has something to do with the Federal Government. :)

Greybeard said...

C'mon Clint...
Just ONCE won't be a problem,
(said the heroin pusher to the gullible listener).

Bloviating Zeppelin said...

Back when we HAD a damned aero unit before the budget killed it last year, I would take the occasional Eurocopter ride with fellow deputies. One guy, CW, was a former Vietnam pilot who used to chop his own LZs with the blades in Hueys. And lived to tell about it. The guy was fearless, man. But he knew when to retire. I guess he saw the budget writing on the wall. Love helos. Unfortunately, two of our deputies were killed in 2006 when a Eurocopter mechanically malfunctioned, said the NTSB report. The pilot, rather than smash it down into a crowd of summer swimmers and boaters near a local river, took himself as far away as he could in the seconds he had. I still love helos. Wish I coulda learned to fly one years ago.

BZ

Ingineer66 said...

I took the USS Midway tour last week and they had an H-46 Sea Knight. They said that with the counter rotating rotors that it did not have to take off into the wind. I had never heard that before.

Greybeard said...

Who told you that Ingineer?
Horsewhip that person!
That's like saying "This airplane doesn't have to take off into the wind because it has a purple paint job."
I don't care how many rotors you have. I don't care if they intertwine and do the mambo...
If you have engine trouble and have to get back to the ground in a hurry, you're gonna want your ground speed reduced by having your nose pointed into the wind as much as possible. Always remember...
"It's not the fall that kills ya, it's the sudden stop."

Ingineer66 said...

It was on the audio tour of the flight deck where the helicopter is sitting. I am not a helicopter expert, especially not of Chinook style ships, but it just sounded weird to me. Now I want to fly back down there and do the tour again to see if I somehow misunderstood what the guy said.

Ingineer66 said...

I am well of aware of your sudden stop premise. The Challenger Astronauts survived the initial explosion. They did not survive hitting the ocean at 170 miles per hour.

Greybeard said...

Right, I66.
I met someone years ago with experience on that subject.

Ingineer66 said...

Interesting stuff. I knew NASA had the black box recordings and they played them for the family members. Last I heard everything from Challenger was sealed in an old missile silo. If there is anything useful for historic or scientific purposes maybe they could make parts of the tape public in say 20 years.