Stall while approach

Hey there.

I am really new to heli flying in DCS. I just bought the Huey and I am learning right now. Hovering, starting, flying in 4 feet height with full speed, all that is no problem.

But I have a - for me - strange behavior while approaching to land.

You know, after a while u understand the physics. But, I don't know, when approaching for a smooth landing, I often get something feels like stall. the collective does not change anything. I just fall through the air, as if there is no rotor:

I fly about 100knots in about 80m. Smooth and nice. What I want now, is, to slow down but keep the height as much as I can. So, I pull up, all smooth. At the same time I push the collective lever smooth down, to compensate that climb. All instruments are showing nice values, I think.

And just before I would start to drop, I give more collective and rudder (still pulling slightly up) to compensate this. But - I don't know - the Huey keeps dropping and I am not able to catch the velocity downwards anymore -> Crash!

That all works, if I do all this veeeery sloow and smooth. But it feels like the Huey has so much power when climbing. But in this situation, it's gone.

What are ur experiences?

I have to do some more tests. And maybe someone could check a track file and give me a hint?

Best Regards

Vannipo

How fast are you descending? Sounds like vortex ring state (getting caught in your own downwash)

Yeah, it was something like that. There is one point, where the huey is very sensitive to stall. I have to be more careful. Thank u!

It’s also due to the loss of translational lift. As you decelerate under 40kts, your rotor starts to operate in its own turbulent air, reducing its efficiency. You will need to anticipate a marked increase in power as you decelerate through 40kts.

try to land with mi-8. after dealing with mi-8, landing with huey will be very easy job for you

ps: i am not trolling, i realized that after i got mi-8 and it is a fact for me

It's a lot easier to approach the landing by taking a curved approach - pick a spot on the ground and then basically fly in behind it and use the final turn to slow you down. It's also great fun to practice. Looks a bit like this: https://clips.twitch.tv/SwissFunWombatPMSTwin / https://clips.twitch.tv/NurturingInquisitiveWoodpeckerMrDestructoid

If you try and fly a straight-in approach you run the risk of entering VRS as the wash is directly underneath you.

This is in the wrong section, not a bug. Belongs in Peter Pilots.

Another hint: You can also try flying very low while decelerating. This gives you the benefit of ground effect which eases the loss of translational lift. It's also good practice to decelerate at a constant altitude.

If you try and fly a straight-in approach you run the risk of entering VRS as the wash is directly underneath you.

There's nothing wrong with a straight in approach. Just make sure it's not too steep.

To avoid VRS, or stall (sic) make the approach shallow, as if flying a fixed wing aircraft. Towards the end of the approach, reduce speed and altitude gradually together, so that your speed is 0 just as you enter the hover close to the ground.

Keep the RoD under 500ft/min and you'll never have that problem. It's because of multiple issues.

A. You're coming out of translational lift as stated above.

B. You're no longer outtravelling your own downwash so you're susceptible to recirculation.

C. The more you increase the pitch (collective) the faster you'll fall untill you settle it with enough power. The current version of the huey doesn't have that much power to spare even in a hover so you cannot overcome it that way.

Solution:

A. Lower your rate of descent.

B. Come in at sharper angles without striking the ground with your tail. Meaning with this. Hard up nose or banking turns so the turbulent air doesn't stay between your rotor disc and the ground but gets blown away to the side. (Very good also when you want to slow down in autorotation to 0 speed landings).

C. Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Meaning: Do everything very slow at first. Once you get the hang of it you'll notice you can start doing things faster with the same amount of safety/accuracy.

Good luck.

There's nothing wrong with a straight in approach. Just make sure it's not too steep.

 

To avoid VRS, or stall (sic) make the approach shallow, as if flying a fixed wing aircraft. Towards the end of the approach, reduce speed and altitude gradually together, so that your speed is 0 just as you enter the hover close to the ground.

Nothing wrong with it, just a bit harder - I find it easier to use the benefit of ground effect by coming in low and it's easier/quicker to slow down with a turn than coming straight in and risking either bashing your tail, taking too long or gaining unwanted altitude. I primarily sling in the Huey in MP, so I'm mainly interested in getting the job done as quickly as possible!

It shouldn't be easier if you fly a straight approach properly. You're probably slowing down too early and losing translational lift before entering ground effect.

Something else that's very important that's not been mentioned so far (and I neglected to include) is wind. Making your approach into wind makes things much easier, but is something that's easily forgotten about.

It's a lot easier to approach the landing by taking a curved approach...

Yes, that's my favourite landing style. This is so fun and u can come to a stop very fast. But... it needs a lot of practice, that it looks cool from the outside.:thumbup: