Ask a helicopter pilot anything
Discussion
junglie said:
Ex Fleet Air Arm pilot here, still serving but not going to add comments as not my treat to hijack!
Navy Lynx has wheels that are ‘toed’ out that, when combined with a nose wheel that can turn through 90 deg (either forward or 90 deg but not steerable) allows you to turn on the spot with the deck lock engaged.
Designed to allow takeoffs in the SHOL without the ship needing to alter course.
Could also do running landings, but it always sounded horrible, and it has no brakes so interesting!
No worries and hijack away shippers! Very welcome to join in (and anyone else like JamieM/Madness60 I know are still flying/spannering helicopters).as much as you want here and probably correct some of the bolleaux coming out of my mouth Navy Lynx has wheels that are ‘toed’ out that, when combined with a nose wheel that can turn through 90 deg (either forward or 90 deg but not steerable) allows you to turn on the spot with the deck lock engaged.
Designed to allow takeoffs in the SHOL without the ship needing to alter course.
Could also do running landings, but it always sounded horrible, and it has no brakes so interesting!
rallye101 said:
Highest altitude " coffin corner" for a helicopter??? Saw a YouTube thing the other day where they did Everest
We are limited to 10k pa (?) in a helicopter without oxygen, some of the guys in Afghanistan were working some really high altitudes with supplemental oxygen but I’ve never done that. Highest I’ve operated was in Bosnia around 6-7000’ mountain flying and the highest I’ve been in a helicopter was 10,000’ doing IFR flights through airways across Europe. Opening a packet of crisps in an unpressurised cockpit at 10k is an interesting experience 
Those Everest mountain rescue programmes are awesome.
s2kjock said:
What sorts of protocols are in place if there is an emergency on a rig? You do hear occasionally on the news about rigs needing to be evacuated in a hurry. Is that a case of all hands to the pump from every available rotary asset to get people off, or does it never quite get to that stage?
It’s quite a common procedure and can be done easily enough for a variety of reasons such as power outage or storms coming through. It’s known as a down man and it’s just a series of flights to empty a platform of people. The oil companies are very safety conscious and go for early downmans wherever possible.Nova Gyna said:
Is a helicopter’s range limited to the amount of fuel it can carry, or can any of them refuel in flight?
How high can a helicopter fly, and what limits it flying higher?
Great thread OP
How high can a helicopter fly, and what limits it flying higher?
Great thread OP
Thanks mate! As normal bloke shows below they can conduct aerial refuelling but it’s very much a specialist role tending to be done by elite units. On the Merlin we had aerial refuelling probes but I only ever did it in the simulator. A colleague did the trials in the aircraft which worked well apparently.
Most helicopters I’ve flown have a density altitude limit of approx 16k ft (subject to oxygen being used by the crew of course above 10k). Some smaller, lighter helicopters can get higher with the right weather conditions (cold, high pressure, strong winds etc) which is how you get stripped out AS350s (service ceiling 15k) rescuing people from Mt Everest! Other bigger helicopters with lots of power can be quite effective at high altitudes aswell such as Chinook or Mi8 Hip.
However as you get higher the air gets thinner and the amount of lift your rotors can produce decreases quite significantly, funnily enough if you’re struggling to breathe then your rotors are struggling to produce lift
Also your gas turbine engines tend to run hotter (I’m sure someone can give me the technical reasons why) with altitude so the engines would be reaching their limits much quicker. As an example we flew 4 Merlins to Lisbon from the Uk, I remember as we climbed up over the Pyrenees approx 7000’ or so I started hitting the temp limits even at a very gentle rate of climb at 120kts.The areas of Scotland I come from are covered by S92s from Stornoway and AW189s from Inverness. Is there a reason for the helicopter that covers the Outer Hebrides needing to be larger than the AW? ie is it for range (additional fuel load) and/or power because it covers a wider area, over water, worse weather? The Sikorsky always seems on the face of it to be oversized for lifting a couple of climbers off the Cuillins or a 4 man crew off a trawler in the Minch.
s2kjock said:
The areas of Scotland I come from are covered by S92s from Stornoway and AW189s from Inverness. Is there a reason for the helicopter that covers the Outer Hebrides needing to be larger than the AW? ie is it for range (additional fuel load) and/or power because it covers a wider area, over water, worse weather? The Sikorsky always seems on the face of it to be oversized for lifting a couple of climbers off the Cuillins or a 4 man crew off a trawler in the Minch.
No idea sorry, both good aircraft though. Just guessing but maybe they wanted a bigger aircraft for the long range missions into the Atlantic for potentially sinking ships with lots of people on board? Just a guess though.Siko said:
CrutyRammers said:
Pretty sure I've flown in that, when I was doing work experience at Boscombe
Great thread by the way OP
Thanks buddy! I was at Boscombe Down too (where I got to fly a lot of the types I mentioned earlier) holding before I started flying helicopters for real (basically a teaboy Great thread by the way OP
). I was there from Oct 97 - Feb 98 or so when I left to start my basic flying training on helicopters.Deerfoot said:
yellowjack said:
The Lynx thing? The army had a mixed fleet for a long time. the original versions all had skids, but later "Battlefield Lynx" (not sure if that was it's official title but that's what it got called by non-aviation types) came along with oversized rear/main wheels. Toward the end of Lynx service I think all the early ones had either been rebuilt with wheeled u/c or retired.
The Army Lynx AH9 and the later 9A had a wheeled undercarriage. It was originally known as battlefield Lynx as it was supposed to be utilised as troop transport around the battlefield, it also had no TOW capability like the AH7 had. I enjoyed working on Lynx. The skidded Lynx were AH1 and AH7, some AH7 were converted to AH9 spec.
The Road Crew said:
What's the fastest speed you've flown at?
Fastest groundspeed was just under 220kts with a 70kt tailwind out of the Shetland Isles in an S92. Fastest airspeed (don’t laugh fixed-wing pilots ) was 165kts (iirc) in a Merlin. Merlin would cruise comfortably at the Vno of 148kts which is a pretty reasonable cruise speed for a helicopter.Being ex mountain rescue I've a bit of a love hate relationship with Helos (specially sea Kings).
The whole East Coast has gone technical when we've needed them and I've been blown into a river after being over flown when they were using their FLIR kit to look for a body at tree top height.
But... The most impressive flying I've ever seen was in the Cairngorms in 3 figure wind speeds. It was so bad one of our party was blown off their feet.
The seaking was sat in a hover max 1 rotor disc from the ridge doing a winch casevac (sadly a later fatality).
Bravest winchman flying combo I ever saw given the weather... How the hell the pilot kept it relatively stable is beyond me.
What's the scariest / bravest flying you've done. Also... That your oppos have done.
And one more... Civilian SAR... Is it as good?
The whole East Coast has gone technical when we've needed them and I've been blown into a river after being over flown when they were using their FLIR kit to look for a body at tree top height.
But... The most impressive flying I've ever seen was in the Cairngorms in 3 figure wind speeds. It was so bad one of our party was blown off their feet.
The seaking was sat in a hover max 1 rotor disc from the ridge doing a winch casevac (sadly a later fatality).
Bravest winchman flying combo I ever saw given the weather... How the hell the pilot kept it relatively stable is beyond me.
What's the scariest / bravest flying you've done. Also... That your oppos have done.
And one more... Civilian SAR... Is it as good?
Deerfoot said:
Not far off at all. I remember doing recognition lessons for MATTs, it was mainly armoured vehicles though..
BATCO isn’t a word I’ve used for many a year!
Ah yes. MATTs. T-55 - note the gap between the first and second road wheels, and the fume extractor at the muzzle of the main gun. T-62 - note the gaps between the third/fourth and fourth/fifth road wheels, and the fume extractor one third the distance from the muzzle of the main gun. BRDM 2 - upward slope to frontal armour, four main wheels, four retractable belly-wheels mounted in pairs between the main wheels. Flat-topped shallow turret with 14.5mm heavy machine gun. Slides were a luxury too. Usually taught on an OHP in a classroom with the (often ineffective) blinds closed, and a room full of hungover piss-heads using the lack of light as an excuse to catch some zzzzzzs. Or directly after the lads have been entertained by that LOAC video ("ze soldiers are in zat house" BATCO isn’t a word I’ve used for many a year!
) and then bored to tears by Padre Jim's audience participation session on the subject of 'Moral Courage'.Gassing Station | Boats, Planes & Trains | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff