Some questions..

1) Is there a way to lock nose wheel? My nose wheel often tends to turn to the right for some reason, and I have to compensate it by applying left rudder. If I don't be careful during vertical takeoff, there's a very high chance that my heli would yaw to the right hard, possibly causing a flip.

2) Is there such thing as 'combat landing' for the Mi-8?If so, how do you do it? It wouldn't make sense having to set up a slow approach at 120km/h & 3~4 m/s decent rate while in the heat of battle,right?

3) How does one perform a nose wheel take off? I managed to flip forward initially, but then the main gear would immediately drop back down, end up rolling with 3 wheels on the ground at 150km, even If I have full forward cyclic.

Thanks!

1) Nope but you can keep the brake applied to stop your movement.

2) You can land fairly dynamically and pull pitch to flare but it takes control or the VRS will bite or the tail boom will hit first and snap.

3) keep pulling power once your tracking down the runway, careful your rotors don't hit tarmac as the rear lifts first.

Yawing the helicopter sideways and using combination of bank + pitch feels quicker when slowing down. You can come back on power a bit earlier when you are about to exit ETL so you can do a more gradual increase of collective so you down let the rotor rpm decay when you go back to hover power.

One wheel takeoff requires a light load and just as Cibit says you need to keep increasing collective as you gain speed. At the beginning of the run you have excess power to lift the rear wheels off the ground by forcing the front one into the runway but as speed increases the power isn't enough for a significant lift of the rear wheels. At that point you have to pull back on the stick a tiny bit to increase lift to lift the rear wheel again but pull too much and the front takes off as well. Really hard to do....

9wnN_EJaw38

2) Is there such thing as 'combat landing' for the Mi-8?If so, how do you do it? It wouldn't make sense having to set up a slow approach at 120km/h & 3~4 m/s decent rate while in the heat of battle,right?

 

Thanks!

I recorded a relatively fast descent-to-land a while ago, which shows control inputs. I do get a small tail strike, but not enough to break anything.

Internal View:

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External View:

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Retreating blade stall (RBS) / Vne is going to be the limiter on rate of descent, unless you're willing to specifically put it into VRS with a recovery, which would be incredibly risky.

I'd imagine normal combat landings would come in low-and-fast just above the tree tops, where the same landing flare would apply. At least, this was how it was done in the jungle terrain of Vietnam. In non-jungle terrain, might be better to ingress high then descend, since it's harder to avoid small arms fire due to the lack of coverage.

--gos

1) Nope but you can keep the brake applied to stop your movement.

In campaign where I have to land then takeoff in the mountains, I always almost flip myself If I have parking brakes on and nose wheel isn't centered during lift off. However, I find that having the brakes on and pitch backward helps centering the nose wheel back.

9wnN_EJaw38

Very good video, thank you!

" You can come back on power a bit earlier when you are about to exit ETL so you can do a more gradual increase of collective so you down let the rotor rpm decay when you go back to hover power."

And good advice here! took me like 20 crashes with generator failure to realize that.

I recorded a relatively fast descent-to-land a while ago, which shows control inputs. I do get a small tail strike, but not enough to break anything.

..........................

I'd imagine normal combat landings would come in low-and-fast just above the tree tops, where the same landing flare would apply. At least, this was how it was done in the jungle terrain of Vietnam. In non-jungle terrain, might be better to ingress high then descend, since it's harder to avoid small arms fire due to the lack of coverage.

--gos

After I bit more of practice, I'm able to decent a lot faster similar to how you did there, but still really worried about VRS at less than 40km, gonna practice more!:)

Speaking of combat landing in the terrain, wouldn't it be risky performing the touchdown roll? I believe landing on uneven terrain with wheels instead of skids have a high tendency to flip forward?

After I bit more of practice, I'm able to decent a lot faster similar to how you did there, but still really worried about VRS at less than 40km, gonna practice more!:)

 

Speaking of combat landing in the terrain, wouldn't it be risky performing the touchdown roll? I believe landing on uneven terrain with wheels instead of skids have a high tendency to flip forward?

VRS isn't an issue with any sustained forward movement. Your goal should be that the transition out of ETL and into a hover should be done while in or nearly-in ground effect.

Referencing a standard height-velocity diagram, your goal is to enter the gap (and get through it) quickly, assuming you're starting in the upper right corner somewhere:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicopter_height%E2%80%93velocity_diagram

As to terrain landings, yes, you wouldn't roll them. You'd transition to hover, then set it down. Hopefully by the time you're low enough to be in ground effect you have cover.

--gos