quick tips for landing?

for the god of life, i can't land this thing! and when i do its out of luck! how can i practice on getting better at landing ?

First of all, practice hovering. After you master that, start from landings without passing 40knots and then you have to practice when you are from <40knots to less, that change, when the helicopter enters in its own turbulences, is the most difficult to compensate :)

It is useful to have the 'controls indicator' up and become very familiar with the hover trim position (cyclic slightly back and to the left).

Something that worked well or me was trimming to this position reasonably early in the approach (before things get too busy). While I then have to provide quite a lot of stick deflection initially to maintain my approach, it eases up nicely the closer I get to the final hover position (with just a bit of fine tuning required occasionally) so I can focus more on collective and rudder inputs .

For initial landings, I recommend taking it slow with a long approach so you can get use to make a lot of small adjustments along the way, noting that adjustment of one of the primary controls (cyclic, collective and rudder) also then requires immediate adjustment of the other two. Making large adjustments can therefore quickly become unmanageable!

Learn to lift off the skids slowly and anticipate the forces acting on the Huey.

You counter rotor torque with the left pedal. The tail rotor produces side motion to the right which means you have to counter with left cyclic and the stinker wants to move forward so you pull back on the cyclic.

Any change of collective, rudder or cyclic has to be met with changes to all controls.

All forces acting on the Huey are tied together.

When you can lift off straight up at the same heading just hover in ground effect and try to stay in the same place with the same heading. Work on changing heading while staying over the same point. Work on putting the Huey where you want it while anticipating changes you'll have to make. Learn to stay ahead of it.

When you gain forward speed you'll feel transitional lift build - you'll need less collective to maintain altitude. The other side of transitional lift is when you slow down to land and have to add collective as you lose transitional lift. Do this way above ground effect and pull back on the cyclic to stop forward motion and you'll learn about vertical ring state - where air washing around the main rotor tips makes a downdraft for the rotor disk. The way out of VRS is to move forward into clean air where the downdraft isn't. After a while you learn to land with a little forward motion so you're always in clean air. Once you're in ground effect you can stop forward motion because you're safe.

To get a good feel for landing get on a shallow glideslope and fly above the runway staying above transitional lift speed until you get into ground effect. Just fly above the runway in ground effect. Then you can start pulling back on cyclic slightly to slow down while reducing collective slightly to keep from gaining altitude.

It's all about staying ahead of the Huey and training your reflexes not to crash.

Pretty soon you'll be doing stupid stuff like landing on strange buildings, circling backwards where you can't see where you're going. Next stop auto rotation and controlled crashing.

If you're into multiplayer, then it's also nice if you can practice it with somebody else. I learnt a lot this way.

Let's say you fly at 80 knots, you want to land.

Control your speed with the cyclic (stick), and your vertical velocity with the collective. First you've got to slow down. Pull back on the cyclic. This will want to make the ship climb, so lower the collective to compensate. Always aim for 1000 feet/min descent.

You descend, you're slowing down. As soon as speed goes below 40 you lose lift. You have to anticipate it and give more power by raising the collective. The slower the ship is, the faster it bleeds speed and lift so be prepared, and keep the VVI at -1000 feet/ min with the collective. If you go below that the rotors enter their own turbulence and the helo will drop like a stone. Eventually you'll be at 3-4 feet and hover. Then you'll just have to decrease power carefully.

During all this, compensate with the pedals. When you drop the collective it will need right pedal, when you pull it after slowing down, you'll need left pedal.

Practice helps, so does VR.

Bun has it right.

Assuming you can already hover, make a shallow approach, start to slow down at a couple of hundred feet above the ground, and make sure you're in ground effect before slowing into the hover.

Another thing that is almost always overlooked is the importance of wind. It is no less important to land into wind in a helicopter than it is a fixed wing plane. It's easier to land into a headwind than if there's no wind at all; you'll definately make things more difficult than they need to be by landing downwind.

Words are inadequate for teaching helicopter flight - fixed wing is much easier.

Just explore the different types of flight and train your brain.

Hover in ground effect

Hover out of ground effect

Transitional lift

Retreating blade stall - lots of right cyclic needed when moving fast

Vertical ring state - losing altitude rapidly in dirty air while stubbornly refusing to move to cleaner air

Dynamic ground effect - think landing on a pitching deck with ground effect changing under you - in ground effect out of ground effect with the deck jumping up to smack the skids

Partial ground effect - landing on a tall building where only one half of the rotor disk is in ground effect - I don't think this is modelled in DCS - ground effect is measured at the center of the disk because the calcs are cumbersome

Auto rotation - rock with rotors hoping to keep all parts in one general location

Much easier to show than to tell - get online with a patient soul on TeamSpeak

I'd do it but I'm on satellite internet and am allowed 25 Gb/month

It's a chopper, it's supposed to be hard... or else everyone would be fly'in them.

;)

Thecorrect procedure is come to a hover at 5-10 agl then slowly lower it to the mark.

As nice as fast descents are, for a noob I'd keep VSI at or below 500/min starting 1000ft/min will get a noob into VRS real fast which will no doubt accelerate the landing process but not allow the pilot to actually get a feel for coming out of ETL or transitioning into IGE from OGE.

I'd suggest slow at first get a feel for what happens and what inputs are needed to maintain control of the aircraft. Don't get me wrong some of the descriptions are great but there is a lot to take in.

@OP a lot of the inputs will become automatic e.g. you'l notice a bit of yaw or roll and you will simply correct for it without thinking about it with practice. :thumbup:

Happy to jump onto a server if times work out.

Start on a farp and just practice hopping from one pad to another for repeated practice.

As nice as fast descents are, for a noob I'd keep VSI at or below 500/min starting 1000ft/min will get a noob into VRS real fast ...

VRS can only occur without ETL though, so keep your speed up a little until you're almost in the hover and you'll be fine.

VRS can only occur without ETL though, so keep your speed up a little until you're almost in the hover and you'll be fine.

Sure but for a noob it's amazing how quick 1000ft/min becomes 2000ft/min when approaching for a landing I'm

assuming they are also slowing air speed so as to land at some determined point, they will find themselves running out of height and power. Kinda setting themselves up for creating another crater.:D

watching VSI is elementary ;-) However, I went through the same issues. As mentioned above, it will take time and practice.

The explanations above all seem pretty good. You may start with something "easy" though? You may try to simply practice descents. Don't care about "where to land". Watch your VSI and try to keep it between minus 2-3 m/s. Then slightly pull back the cyclic (to slow down a little bit) and slightly drop the collective to maintain your sink rate at 2-3 m/s (well, you'd also need some pedals, but that's another topic).

To me, the hardest thing (when I started with DCS) was recognizing that I need to add collective when getting into an out of ground hover.

watching VSI is elementary ;-) However, I went through the same issues. As mentioned above, it will take time and practice....

No, there's no need to look at the VSI, it's an unnecessary distraction. Concentrate on looking out the window to judge descent angle with regular checks on airspeed.

Personally I also fly more on the visual (focusing on the landing point), but I thought it would be a good practice. Get a feeling for "what's gonna happen" if I push back the cyclic. You could also practice the same by staying on the same altitude.

Especially when flying in formation, the FL should have an appropriate glide angle. Checking the VSI seems logical to me in this situation. Also, you may also have bad visibility. It's for sure not bad if you do instrument scanning. Therfore I don't completely agree with you. However, I'm no RL pilot.

Personally I also fly more on the visual (focusing on the landing point), but I thought it would be a good practice. Get a feeling for "what's gonna happen" if I push back the cyclic. You could also practice the same by staying on the same altitude.

 

 

 

Especially when flying in formation, the FL should have an appropriate glide angle. Checking the VSI seems logical to me in this situation. Also, you may also have bad visibility. It's for sure not bad if you do instrument scanning. Therfore I don't completely agree with you. However, I'm no RL pilot.

If you watch your glide angle and speed, vertical speed takes care of itself :thumbup:

In instrument conditions you'd need to use it, but that's a whole other story.

I treat it like a slow plane. To begin with, line up a good distance away. aim for a point at the start of the runway, and fly towards that point, losing altitude as a plane would. Very gradually reduce thrust (collective). As you do so, the copter will lose altitude quicker (like a plane), so you'll need to nose up a little.

Hopefully, you'll be fairly slow and low by the time you reach the runway. Final adjustments to slow to a hover, and then drop gently as possible.

It's not how the experts do it, but for me it minimises the required sudden and pressurised movements.

...It's not how the experts do it....

Doesn't sound like you're too far off.

Well I'm not an expert, but I am not too far off getting my license.

No, there's no need to look at the VSI, it's an unnecessary distraction. Concentrate on looking out the window to judge descent angle with regular checks on airspeed.

Yes this although it takes a bit to get your head around at first. :thumbup:

@animaal, I think that's a quite counter productive way to do it. As he tries to reduce the descent by pitching up he will lose speed and therefore lift too, so he will pull back on the cyclic even more. Before you know he's falling like an axe without a handle.

Vertical speed should be controlled with the collective, and horizontal speed with the cyclic, not the other way around.

Too fast? Stick back

Too slow? Stick forward

Wanna go up? Raise the collective

Wanna go down? Lower the collective

This way a desired descent rate can be achieved that matches the rate at which he's pulling back on the cyclic and braking the ship.

Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred

in a book; he hath not eat paper, as it were; he

hath not drunk ink: his intellect is not

replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in

the duller parts:

And such barren plants are set before us, that we

thankful should be,

Which we of taste and feeling are, for those parts that

do fructify in us more than he.

For as it would ill become me to be vain, indiscreet, or a fool,

So were there a patch set on learning, to see him in a school:

But omne bene, say I; being of an old father's mind,

Many can brook the weather that love not the wind.

I do it like the 'Nam Pilots did, SLIDE it in ;) Quick & Dirty

I just grabbed a stick extension for the Warthog so now it’s floor mounted. It has made landing, hovering and everything else in the Huey so much easier. I do need to work on the curves now but.