Another huey Question

Hey All

#1 how do I get the controls indicator to move positions? Its in my botyom right corner and would like to move it.

And secondly, how do I slow down.I was trying to do a formation link up. And I either pass them, or I slow down with a flare and collective

Down and get level and re trim. But then I just overtake them again.

Its like im full throttle all the time. I can't fly like 40-80 knots. Its always 100 or 20 and below.

you need to practise flying straight and level :)

try flying at a set height in a straight line at various speeds.

ie get to a height where you are clear of terrain and fly in a straight line at 80mph

with the goal to fly without changing speed or altering height.

use collective to control height and cyclic pitch to control speed.

use the air speed indicator for speed and vertical velocity indicator for height.

balance them together.

then try it at various speeds. like 60 and 100.

this will teach you the feel for balancing the collective with pitch for different speeds.

then you can use all this to just fit in with someone you are following.

the above may sound a bit boring but it will get you to flying in formation quicker than actually flying in formation will :) its the best way to get to grips with speed in the huey.

you probably want to practise your co ordinated turns too.

ie turning without changing height or speed

put in cyclic 30-45 degrees left or right.

then push in pedal for turn direction to lower nose to horizon to maintain speed.

then use collective to maintain height (check vertical velocity.)

to end the turn, bring her level with the cyclic

then bring the pedals back as required

and then reduce collective to keep level .

leave the pedal in a bit longer than the cyclic control to have the nose wobble less as you come out straight. good for gun runs.

a bit of this and then you will find formation flying much easier.

and landing

and cruising.

basically everything will be easier :)

Agreed. Here's some stuff that helped me become an alright formation flyer in the UH-1. All credit goes to the 229th for teaching me this stuff over the course of a few months. Head's up, it still took me months of practice after my time with the 229th to be proficient.

1) Fly a set take off and landing routine.

a - For take offs I was taught 5ft hover @ 32%-34%, push it over and let it it build speed on it's own. Once you're through TLE set a trim for 500ft/min climb, comes out to around 70kts. (I have read 60, but it never works for me like that)

b - I use 1000ft downwind @ 90kts, 500ft base leg @ 60kts, then approach @ 60kts for my landings at an airfield

2) autorotations per where you are reading them from.

If you can get good at flying the needles for those consistently then you should be able to keep a stable formation somewhat. By flying those exercises you'll get a feel for using "pressure" vs "control inputs", necessary for smooth heli flying, and making the UH-1 stay on the numbers you want tightens up on your control of the aircraft by making you fly a very tight set of parameters.

I flew these numbers around airfields whenever I found myself at an airfield on ops and in training, and practiced autos before our weekly ops during our comms checks. After some time it just clicked.

Try it out!

Quadag,

Yes sir I will practice more for sure, but when im straight and level. And holding altitude within 10 ft up or down. It always speeds up instead of constant say 80kts. And when I brake i slow and come back level. I'm out of formation but then catch up and pass. How do you slow down with out having to nose up.and stay a constant speed. I try to use throttle which worked till i keep falling out which is no good. So i just keep it same as at start up.Anyone can chime in too it is welcomed! Please and thank you.

Rob.

I do your same plan, I talked to Chic. But I just can't figure out to slow down. Ive got to 60kts using 500 and less but as soon as I level and trim it goes right back up to 100knts when im level.

Is your physical collective moving proportional to the rendered one in the cockpit? What you are describing does not really make sense otherwise. It is as simple as, at straight and level at 100 knots and want to fly strait and level at 80 knots , you just reduce the collective slightly and reposition the cyclic slightly farther aft. Think of it as, at flight level above approximately 40 knots, more collective = more speed, less collective = less speed.

... i just keep it same as at start up...

Not a good thing to do!

Flying helicopters necessitates almost constant coordinated input on all three controls. Only at well trimmed straight and level flights and slow and calm turns you can relax a bit with collective and pedals.

The power you apply at liftoff is in general higher than at cruise, and even if the collective doesn't directly adjust what engine power you apply it does control rotor blade pitch and hence drag that has to be overcome with engine power, automatically adjusted by under-the-hood systems.

You need to lower collective and move the cyclic backwards to slow down without gaining height, and to this adjust the pedals for reduset torque on the main rotor mast. All these adjustments should be TINY! Use only your fingers, not arms!

Something highly recommend for everyone flying helicopter sims is to remove any centering springs and detents from their joysticks, and if possible extend it a couple of dm.

Hilton

Meaning, once its run up at power and locked in after start up and before hover check and taxi . My terminology may be off, but when I do as you say, I pull back and lower collective to slow down say back to 60knts and then straight and level again and trim it goes back up to around 100. I can't stay around a set speed. Like ive seen in multiple videos.

@ miles I do just like you have said and get down speed then it creeps back up when im not adding any collective up or down just trying to maintain level. My controls might have something to do with it because I dont have any saturation or anything that alot of said they use. But can't find anything about what settings some use. Except -14 pedals.

I pull back and lower collective to slow down say back to 60knts and then straight and level again and trim it goes back up to around 100.

When you say this, do you mean you first move the cyclic back slightly to slow down then move it forward to straight and level?

If so, that's not how to do it.

You move it slightly (itsy bitsy tiny bit) backwards and lower the collective in the same manner. Let the helicopter slow down and settle at a new speed with this configuration while maintaining altitude with small, small, small, small movements with the collective. When it has settled at a speed, is it still to fast? to slow? Spot on? Correct with yet smaller movement of the cyclic and collective. Settle the speed. Correct. Repeat until you're settled at the speed you want. Now keep this configuration, don't try to "level" the helicopter by pushing the stick forward.

A helicopter get the speed that correspond to its attitude, not like fixed wings that basically point their nose straight forward whatever speed they have. A helicopter has a nose low attitude when going fast, nose high at slow speeds and hover (relatively speaking, depends on model).

Do things slow and carefully with small movements, especially in the beginning. Eventually you start doing it without thinking as if the helicopter was a part of you. Mind you, these stuff is actually much easier IRL thanks to wider field of view and physical feedback from the aircraft.

To add to my post above:

Keep your fingers, hands, arms, feets, neck...ah what the heck, your entire body relaxed! Otherwise it will be very hard to do those tiny controller corrections in a smooth and non-erratic way.

I think Holton may have hit on your problem. When you say "trim" what do you do? Forget about the horizon. Only worry about airspeed and vertical velocity. When you are to fast in level flight you should lower the collective slightly and then ONLY use the cyclic to maintain level flight. Do not touch the collective until you have maintained level flight again. You air speed in level flight(level flight meaning, not gaining or loosing altitude) will be dictated by the amount of collective you have.

So I am at 500AGL, 108th,knts.. But need 500 AGL. 60knts.

I pull back cyclic slighty to slow down like you say but I went up to about 570 so I lowerd collective and watched speed drop to about 65, then eased cyclic back level.At 500,AGL . The re trimmed but after a min or so I was speeding back up but at around. 500agl. I did as you guys suggested so what am I missing. I didn't call under more the 500 on vvi and hsi is level and i am force trimmed.

I slowed down and held 60 doing what you guys said but with manual throttle, but I kept losing Rotor RPM's with manual throttle. I tried this 5 different times.

..., then eased cyclic back level.

Do you mean you push the stick forward a bit? Don't do that.

...manual throttle

Don't do this either.

YEah Manual Throttle, I figured that isn't working at all.

And yes after I get to around 60 and slowing I ease cyclic back to neutral to level out then when I settle I trim. other wise I just keep slowing if I don't let stick go forward to level out( Not forward, nose down) just fwd till nose comes back down and HSI is level. If not how do I level out and keep 60kts

HSI is level

Don't bother about this. It's more about feeling than looking at the instruments. Looking at the instruments is more for when you gained some experience, the angle on the HSI is different for different speeds and loads. With empty helicopter you have one angle, with full combat load another for the same speed.

As I said earlier, do small corrections and let the helicopter settle at a new speed, then and only then you make further corrections and settle. Eventually you successfully stabilize at the speed you want. Dont stress it now in the beginning, further on you will manage to make the corrections more direct and quicker.

Backdraft, here's a vid I used to learn a level deceleration, also compliments of the 229th. It's very helpful!!

@ Rob can't play video. :(

Holton/miles

Ok fellas , previous to your last posts, I got the speed to slow and stay now. But I was bouncing around a lot even with small inputs but speed stayed, but I was at 300 bounce up to 320 down right to 280 back up to 300 but speed stayed. And would try and trim and finally got it level.And held for an hour while flying a mission in making. Now the problem I am running into, is I think maybe VRS but not sure.

I managed to get down to The danger zone 20- 40knots and held it for about 5 min while picking my landing spot. I had a little fwd momentum while lowering collective and keeping HIS under 500. And all was well till about 20knots then went down. But I was only about 15-10 feet up and just wadded up, same at 50 and under. But I'm to close to ground to nose down to get out of vrs. What do I do.

2nd I've tried the turn , nose down, level out and collective up. Which has kinda worked to power thru be a to get to hover state. But I'm either to fast or I think not high enough. But seems I can get into a hover and more stable that way than a slow decent, which is weird don't under stand that one.

And yeah I hear you on the weight, a member in game said practice with guns and pods and that is a good weight to train.

Hey All

 

#1 how do I get the controls indicator to move positions? Its in my botyom right corner and would like to move it.

 

And secondly, how do I slow down.I was trying to do a formation link up. And I either pass them, or I slow down with a flare and collective

Down and get level and re trim. But then I just overtake them again.

Its like im full throttle all the time. I can't fly like 40-80 knots. Its always 100 or 20 and below.

From your post I am assuming that you do not change the power setting on the throttle and are only flying off of collective and pitch with engines at max RPM.

Maybe try flying with different variations of power setting to help manage speed.

Backdraft, here's a vid I used to learn a level deceleration, also compliments of the 229th. It's very helpful!!

 

Youtube embedding in BBC code is broken at the moment. I "quoted" the previous post but made the youtube link available

I think the way force trim is implemented with our joysticks makes it difficult for new pilots to grasp the dynamics between cyclic position and rotor disk angle. I fly the Huey a lot and I don't use force trim at all, not even for hovering. This is just a personnel preference. The reason is I have muscle memory in relation to stick position and flight dynamics. Fore example, I always know when I am going into a hover, the stick will always be slightly back and to the left of center. I also have a feel for airspeed depending on how far forward and to the right of center the cyclic is. With real world force trim you have this same muscle memory, with our artificial centering of force trim we do not. My point is, you may want to reset your force trim and fly around without it for a while so you can get of feel for what the rotor disc is doing during various flight parameters.

I am all over the place with out the trim, even with its bad not as much. Can you guys suggest some Saturation\curveatre settings till I can get it. I don't think my stick is helping much. Thrustmaters 16000m. I have a lot of people use the saturation or curve that don't have those loose flight sticks.

I wouldn't use curves because that makes cyclic input to control disproportionate. Saturation on the other hand simply reduces sensitivity (or can increase it) this will help when starting off.

For 2 reasons a joystick is somewhat too short to be really practical and the centering is not realistic and there is a lot of fine input masked by centering mech of the joystick.

Try as low as 35 or so and just practice pick up hover and set down, with helicopters hover is everything. as you get better start decreasing saturation.

If you don't already have pedals there important also and an actual collective is (for me) a must have item as well.

If you handy you can home brew your controls if not you may need to consider reasonable controls.

Again don't worry about flying or combat turns what ever they are etc, pickup hover set down then more hovering master that and most everything will follow.

I also don't use trim for any of the helicopters but I do have a cyclic and collective and pedals. welcome to the light side. :D

I have thrustmaster stick and throttle and ch pedals.

When you say 35 is that saturation or curve.

I have thrustmaster stick and throttle and ch pedals.

When you say 35 is that saturation or curve.

Saturation only! It will help with pilot induced oscillation. As an aside my cyclic is a Frankinstiend Logitech 3d pro has no springs or centre detent and about a 25cm extension and I run about 85% saturation.

The other thing that helped was to make a support for my wrist and only use thumb and two fingers to control cyclic.

Quick question... Is rudder trim a real thing or just a cheat. Currently flying without it on a twistie stick *^^*