Why the MI-8?

As I ponder more and more on the reasoning behind Belsimtek's making the Mi-8, I realized that making the Mi-8 (The Soviet Huey), they can then make the Hind and Cobra. That would make things complete, the Huey and Huey Cobra for the Nato forces, and the Mi-8 along with the complementary Mi-24 Hind. Hmm, sounds like a deal, when I take more time to think upon these things. Oh well, I really look forward to these modules as the quality is what makes it for me! Belsimtek has shown they have the ability to make quality simulations.

It's a blurry image, but anyone read Russian well enough to see what's written on this panel ?

It's a blurry image, but anyone read Russian well enough to see what's written on this panel ?

Which panel? I don't read Russian, but I know very well what it says.

My response may be considered cheating, so I used spoiler tags.

It's a blurry image, but anyone read Russian well enough to see what's written on this panel ?

Autopilot. Автопилот in Russian.

Agile like this

Or this

...or...the fantabulous Bo-105

Do not get me wrong...I appreciate the hippo, like I appreciate the Sea King, but agile, they are not.

Autopilot. Автопилот in Russian.

(yes AlphaOneSix, that was cheating - I wanted someone who din't know it had an autopilot to read it and be surprised :) )

Exactly !

So is it harder or easier to fly than the Huey ?

Well - unlike the Huey - it has an autopilot, which is intended to make it easier to fly (or hover).

As AlphaOneSix said - 3 channels - heading, pitch and roll, and altitude.

I get the impression that the intention is pitch and roll always be engaged/on, while heading (yaw) and altitude get switched in and out as appropriate.

Is this autopilot as awsome as the one in the Ka-50?

It's not as awesome as the Ka-50. It can't follow a route, and it can't maintain radar altitude. The altitude hold can only maintain pressure altitude. The yaw channel will only maintain heading (unless your feet are on the pedals, then it's disabled regardless of whether it's on or not), and the pitch and roll channels will only maintain aircraft attitude. It is not designed to fly the aircraft for you (like the Ka-50 will) as much as reduce some of the workload on long trips.

The pitch and roll channels should definitely be on at all times. It's not impossible to fly without them, but it can be a real pain, at least in real life. The yaw and altitude channels are at the pilot's discretion, although where I work we always fly with the yaw channel engaged, even though the pilots never take their feet off the pedals. We almost never use the altitude channel.

The autopilot is basically good enough to keep you straight and level (assuming you started out straight and level) and on a desired heading for a minute or two so you can take your hands off the controls and do something else.

Oh and there is no auto-hover, technically, but with all of the channels on, if you establish a good hover, you should be able to let go of the controls and it should stay in a hover for a least a little while by itself.

So it is in effect, more like force trim?

No, force trim does nothing but maintain the position of the controls. This is more like SAS/SCAS.

So it kind of works like the system described below.:D

The aircraft knows where it is at all times. It knows this because it knows where it isn't.

By subtracting where it is from where it isn't, or where it isn't from where it is

(whichever is the greater), it obtains a difference, or deviation.

 

The Inertial Guidance System uses deviations to generate error signal commands which instruct the

aircraft to move from a position where it is to a position where it isn't, arriving at a position

where it wasn't, or now is. Consequently, the position where it is, is now the position where it wasn't;

thus, it follows logically that the position where it was is the position where it isn't.

 

In the event that the position where the aircraft now is, is not the position where it wasn't,

the Inertial Guidance System has acquired a variation. Variations are caused by external factors,

the discussions of which are beyond the scope of this report.

 

A variation is the difference between where the aircraft is and where the aircraft wasn't.

If the variation is considered to be a factor of significant magnitude, a correction may be applied by

the use of the autopilot system. However, use of this correction requires that the aircraft now knows

where it was because the variation has modified some of the information which the aircraft has,

so it is sure where it isn't.

 

Nevertheless, the aircraft is sure where it isn't (within reason) and it knows where it was.

It now subtracts where it should be from where it isn't, where it ought to be from where it wasn't

(or vice versa) and intergrates the difference with the product of where it shouldn't be and where it was;

thus obtaining the difference between its deviation and its variation, which is variable constant called "error".

I flew UH-1H Huey in Germany during the cold war and I have a great respect for the MI-8. I was stationed in Fulda Germany, guarding the

Czechoslovakian border and was taught that when the "Fulda Gap" was penetrated by the Soviet Army (as was expected), I would see more MI-8's than I would be able to kill, thus insuring domination over my area of operation. My job was to hold the Soviet Army for as long as I could and if I survived then fall back to Frankfurt Germany and join any unit still active, So the MI-8 has a special place in my mind.

Hot dang! Hope your Huey was heavily armed.

Wasn't the Huey underpowered back in the Cold War? I know these days they have much stronger engines and have gained size and weight, but I had heard that they, in their original early configuration, were underpowered. My cousin who was a marine in Iraq told me plenty of stories of how there were given Vietnam era Hueys which were so underpowered that when they took off from the side of an aircraft carrier they almost dropped off the side into the sea under heavy load. Don't know what model they were but it sounds like they had to be the earliest versions.

Me

Gentlemen, for your amusement you can take a look at some photos of the czech modernised Mi-171Sh :thumbup:

Link to Gallery (don't worry, the link is safe :))

Hello ;)

Suchacz, I really love your gallery and it's very hard to wait the release of the MI-8 for DCS...:dunno:

Thanks for this sharing, best regards. Skull

Gentlemen, for your amusement you can take a look at some photos of the czech modernised Mi-171Sh :thumbup:

 

Link to Gallery (don't worry, the link is safe :))

Thank you!

Nice picture-gallery!

From what I understand the Mi-8 is a very successful design, right? Does it have any big design-flaws, like the Uh-1's mast-bumping issues or the Ka-50's blades striking each other? What type of rotor design does the Mi-8 have? I am curious about which ways I am going to die once this comes out... ;)

Fully-articulated rotor head.

As long as its DCS UH-1H fidelity and clickable cockpit and AFM, I'll ALWAYS bite!!!

I think you will be very pleased with it.

EDIT: Also, not sure what "UH-1H fidelity" means. It will be DCS: Mi-8MTV2 fidelity for sure! ;)

It's not ugly... I always thought it's pretty hip

For some reason I couldn't rep you, so I'll just quote your subtle play on words there :)

EDIT: Also, not sure what "UH-1H fidelity" means. It will be DCS: Mi-8MTV2 fidelity for sure! ;)

Oh c'mon, stop teasing us... :cry: Better show us some screens, or even better, some vids! Prty pls :worthy:

Oh c'mon, stop teasing us... :cry: Better show us some screens, or even better, some vids! Prty pls :worthy:

Sure no problem, just get me released from my NDA and I'll be happy to post away!

The solution can be easier than it looks :lol:

I have a technical (little bit OT) question. What are those "paddles" on the rotorhead? The only thing that came on my mind is that they are some (adjustable?) counterweight to the rotor blades reducing(or absorbing) vibrations... :huh: