Ask a helicopter pilot anything
Discussion
Siko said:
Narcisus said:
Can you give me some lessons on the DCS AH-64 ?
Get the copilot to fly and you do the shooting 
I haven't got the Apache module sadly (I had some of the old ones on my ancient PC and had a lot of fun flying the A-10, KA50 etc) but it sounds like everyone is struggling with trimming. You trim almost all the time you are hand flying a real helicopter and it does differ to be fair, but most types I've flown had the same rough technique. if you are moving the stick a long way (eg transitioning into forward flight) you press the big red FTR button and hold it in until the stick is where you want it to be, then you release it. Any small forces can be trimmed out with a 4 way beep trim or coolie hat. It's one of those things that you just do when you are flying for real, but is probably a real pita when you are in DCS and trying to remember which button does what - plus you won't get the feedback from the stick that you get for real.
Narcisus said:
Actually i'm getting better .... Slowly ! Yes trimming isnt 2nd nature but I keep watching youtube and listening to the pro's advice of course. If they can do it in the next 10 or 11 years i'll be there
Yeah it's dull as hell but second nature when you get it. Think of it like your cruise control, if you want to speed up you can either accelerate and overcome the cruise control or hold the speed up button and it will do it and maintain it. If you do the former you are fighting the cruise control and it will return you to the speed you were before. Basically just keep pressing the trim button 
ReverendCounter said:
have you ever had to do an autorotation in the wild? (or urban setting?)
Yes I've landed many times without engines during training, but not for real. During training on the Squirrel we would practice putting the engine to idle and autorotating from height and low level/high speed....it is actually quite easy with practice in a small light helicopter like that, but in a big heavy one it is vastly more difficult and a very valid reason why you only do it in the simulator. The first time I had one demonstrated to me was by an Army Captain at RAF Ternhill, which had tarmac runways and a large grassed area we used for "engine-offs". He did a glorious auto down to the grass but didn't flare as much as he should, which left us sliding along the wet grass (on skids) at about 40kts or so. It was all fine until he realised we had run out of grass and were about to go across the tarmac runway which also had a bit of a raised edge...cue just about the fastest opening of a throttle I have ever seen and we just got the power to the engine in time to lift a couple of feet into the air as we crossed the runaway. We would probably have rolled over if we hadn't cheated (!) and a chum did almost exactly that a few years later during a running landing in heavy snow when it built up under his skids until it tumbled over itself. He was ok but the aircraft wasn't 
Edited by Siko on Wednesday 30th March 15:23
Siko said:
Yes you're right it was before GW1 and having read the accident report it specifically mentioned the "Sooty glove" antics prior to the wingover....hell of a way to finish your career. Not the worst way I've heard though and a chap on my elementary flying course did it in real style but sadly not for this website
I may have flown you in the Merlin in Iraq, was out there only once between Nov 05-Feb 06.
It wouldn't have been you up front in "my" Merlin flights. I'd returned to the UK earlier in 2005 to take up a new posting around May that year. It all appears spookily calm in the cockpit, though, on a "routine taxi flight" from Basra to Shaibah, given that the reason we were in helicopters in the first place was that ground convoys were considered "too dangerous" due to "increased insurgent activity" against troop transport movements.I may have flown you in the Merlin in Iraq, was out there only once between Nov 05-Feb 06.
Siko said:
Great question - 99.9% of it is utter b*llocks tbh as you would expect. The best one for me, hands down, is Black Hawk Down and even that is not quite right imho. The initial scene where they are flying a Blackhawk at ultra low level over the beach to pickup the Delta force guy who was out hunting pretty much hits the nail square on the head for military flying (yes I know it's not a shooty bit!). It's awesome. I guess Apocalypse Now does a pretty good job too and really captures the feeling of being part of a large formation of helicopters thundering into armageddon. I did a 8 ship assault mission into a range in the UK and I promise you it felt exactly like that scene in Apocalypse Now where they raid the village in a massive formation.
Minus the shooty bits, heat, vietnamese etc but you get the picture
Most inaccurate is difficult to pin down from a wide cast, but just pick pretty much any James Bond and go with that.
Edit: chariot of choice I forgot sorry, but it depends on what for really. For just about anything barring heavy lift or taking masses of troops around a Bell 412 (twin engined Huey) can do it all.
I was lucky enough to have a flight in in a retired little bird gunship (green with sharks teeth painted on + stub wings but no weapons obviously). Minus the shooty bits, heat, vietnamese etc but you get the picture
Most inaccurate is difficult to pin down from a wide cast, but just pick pretty much any James Bond and go with that.
Edit: chariot of choice I forgot sorry, but it depends on what for really. For just about anything barring heavy lift or taking masses of troops around a Bell 412 (twin engined Huey) can do it all.
I had the rear door seat and we were flying doors off.
We were flying treetop height over the ocean, before banking inland to come in over the beach and then over the jungle, before climbing up into the mountains. Pilot was ex 1st Air Cav in his old unform which added to the effect.
Coolest, waltiest thing ever. I couldn't help humming 'the tune'.
My question... Did you ever hum the tune (ride of the Valkyries) whilst flying.
Dr Jekyll said:
What's the drill if the tail rotor fails?
Pretty much the same drill as if the Jesus nut goes However it can be done and we do train for it a lot (in the Simulator of course) in the hover, cut the throttles and land....it's pretty much ok if you get the throttles off before it spins too much probably within 45 degrees or so. If you are slow to get them off through 90 degrees then the aircraft builds up rotational speed very quickly and even cutting the throttles at this stage will almost certainly result in a crash.
In forward flight it's not quite as bad, because of aerodynamic effects on the tail boom. For my helicopter you have to go into autorotation as quickly as possible by lowering the collective lever, confirm it has failed rather than is fixed (the S92 has a spring that can hold the TR to a fixed pitch) which you do by briefly raising the lever and seeing if you have any control, assuming it has failed you close the engines down and conduct an autorotative landing.
Pretty much the worst place for it to happen is from a high hover or late on approach/shortly after takeoff. Sadly the Leicester City chairman who was killed when his helicopter lost the TR was in 2 of those conditions taking off and unsurprisingly it was unsurvivable. There are lots of varieties of failures you can have (if you're lucky
) and diagnosing exactly what has happened quickly is incredibly difficult...
king time Lost ranger said:
What happens mechanically when you press a pedal to control yaw in a chinook?
Oofffff. I'm not a Chinook pilot so I had to google this, I have no shame. When you press a yaw pedal one disk tilts one way and the other the opposite way. helicopter flying controls are literally the work of the devil - did you know the inputs are put in 90 degrees in advance of the intended direction? (same as a gyroscope - you push it up it goes left etc!).
Sam2022 said:
Why is it at my flight school if I haven't flown in a month, do
need a PC every 30 days? I am sure it was only every 90 days of not flying.
Maybe that's a specific if you are in training, sorry I'm not an instructor (TRE) in the civilian world. Sounds expensive and painful though need a PC every 30 days? I am sure it was only every 90 days of not flying.
If you could have a go in any chopper, which one would it be? Mine would be the Mi24 Hind -although I can't fly helicopters so I imagine that it wouldn't end (or even start) very well.
Have you ever shouted "get to the choppa" in an Arnie accent
Can you 'do stunts' in choppers? Like - if given the opportunity- would you do stunt flying for a film?
Siko said:
davidexige said:
Do you take me to work? I fly out of CHC to the Apache platforms, Beryl’s and Forties, if so 
Hi David yeah I did reply earlier sorry mate! I did use to take you to work, but no more sadly - always enjoyed going out to the Apache platforms It’s a shame we don’t fly with you guys anymore, since we switched I’ve not had one flight on time yet, in fact the running joke at the moment is to add an extra day to the trip to take into account the inevitable delay
Edited by davidexige on Wednesday 30th March 16:22
The_Doc said:
What would you suggest *currently* ie in this 2022 market , as the next good career move for a CPL(H) pilot, with about 2000 hours on Robinsons, Instrument and Instructor rated.
Is there an obvious next step/job....
I think a ME/IR would get you an offshore/corporate job tomorrow. PM me if you need any advice, but Brexit has vastly reduced the quantity of CVs we used to get. A good mate is head of training at one of our rivals and he said they struggle to get pilots through the door with a UK CPL H/ME IR and right to work etc. I see jobs advertised on a regular basis and it is turning into a sellers market. The offshore world isn't for everyone and Aberdeen isn't either, but most companies offer some form of commuting roster (one company in Aberdeen only has a 14/14 commuting roster!) and even though you would probably not be suitable for a Police/HEMS role (no NVG etc) those jobs come up regularly and suck pilots away from offshore or corporate who want a bit of fun. Is there an obvious next step/job....
We've just lost two copilots to a corporate job in the ME, sit around in a 5 star hotel then onto a super yacht and do a little bit of flying every now and then, go back to the 5 star hotel and head off shift home for a few weeks. Offshore is a good place to build some experience and P1 time, which will be a lot slower to come in Corporate. Given the issues with energy supply that the UK is slowly working out need addressing pronto, the offshore world, in my opinion will swiftly turned around from the SNP/Greens target #1 to a necessary evil. I am not going to go out and say it will be a boom offshore, but I think things are changing for the better as even the most hardcore are realising we have our own energy supply readily avialable.....
Edited by Siko on Wednesday 30th March 16:26
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