Queen of the Helicopter Skies

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CharlieOneSix
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Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#1 Post by CharlieOneSix » Sat Dec 23, 2017 4:40 pm

[bbvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0dNloQezvI[/bbvideo]
A Bell 214ST in Canada in 2012. This one C-GDYZ, used to be G-BKFN. I have a soft spot for this particular airframe. I collected it from the Bell factory at Fort Worth on 23 August 1982 and with one refuelling stop at Nashville, delivered it 1100 miles approximately to Norfolk, Virginia the same day, after 6 hrs 55 mins flying - a record at that time for the fastest delivery to the east coast. It then was loaded on a ship bound for Southampton. I flew the type for the next 17 years and it was the very last helicopter I flew in 1999 on the day I took early retirement. So good to see it is still earning its keep 35 years on from that delivery flight and also so good to see it looking so smart.

Daft to get a bit emotional over an airframe, but with more than 7000 hours on type including 4,000 hours on G-BKFN I've always considered this particular one "my" helicopter for some reason and I'd love to fly it again. FD2 will have a few hours on this one as well.

From the 214ST video below you will see why all helicopter pilots go around with nodding heads.....
It's interesting that it's being flown single pilot from the left seat. Being above the weight criteria in the UK for single pilot ops we always had to fly it as a two pilot operation....
[bbvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ-yJiUEf08[/bbvideo]
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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#2 Post by Cacophonix » Sat Dec 23, 2017 10:15 pm

Reassuringly straightforward steam driven flying instrument panel with a traditional set of Navaids in a nice friendly RNAV bang in the centre? Not a plastic or glass electronic screen in sight.

How difficult can this simultaneous cyclic, collective, rudder? (pedals anyway) , head and stomach patting and stirring malarkey really be? He says suspecting the answer is "pretty difficult!" :YMPARTY:

We shall soon see!

Seriously though one can relate to your sense of nostalgia. How long can one of these airframes hang together? I assume pretty much every other moving mechanical part has been replaced at least once in the period, you have been growing young disgracefully in, since you last flew her?

Caco

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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#3 Post by Wodrick » Sat Dec 23, 2017 11:28 pm

How long can one of these airframes hang together? I assume pretty much every other moving mechanical part has been replaced at least once in the period


Trigger's broom :)

[bbvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUl6PooveJE[/bbvideo]
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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#4 Post by CharlieOneSix » Sat Dec 23, 2017 11:41 pm

Cacophonix wrote:How difficult can this simultaneous cyclic, collective, rudder? (pedals anyway) , head and stomach patting and stirring malarkey really be? He says suspecting the answer is "pretty difficult!"

Caco - remember how difficult is was in the initial stages of learning to drive? The coordination of accelerator, clutch, gear change and steering soon became a smooth interaction without thinking of each individual control movement. So it is with helicopters and having flown fixed-wing you will have no trouble at all in the circuit except perhaps a slight reticence to slow down below your spamcan's stall speed on finals. The hover is another thing altogether but if your instructor lets you have one control at a time and then gradually introduces another until you have them all you will soon get the hang of it even if you maybe need half a football pitch to do so initially. :)) I look forward to hearing how your trial lesson goes in February. :-bd
Cacophonix wrote: How long can one of these airframes hang together? I assume pretty much every other moving mechanical part has been replaced at least once in the period, you have been growing young disgracefully in, since you last flew her?

Quite a lot of it was replaced after this little enforced swim in the North Sea in 1986 (I wasn't involved!!)...... :))
AAIB Report 9/1987
FN-Ditching-1.jpg
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FN-Ditching-2.jpg
FN-Ditching-2.jpg (220.95 KiB) Viewed 1122 times
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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#5 Post by FD2 » Sun Dec 24, 2017 3:55 am

CharlieOneSix:
Only about 500 hrs on FN I think, and 1500 on type in those 2 or 3 years with BCal. I can see why you became so attached to it. It did have a few eccentricities though didn't it?

I certainly remember the flogs up to the Magnus and trying to decrease the vibration by fiddling with the MRB pitch trim button - it only seemed to change the MRH vibration from annoying to a bit less annoying on one or two of the aircraft! Also the peculiar yaw trim release - on the collective I think (?) - which alarmed the ground staff after it caught some new pilots by surprise whilst ground taxying around the apron, nearly causing a ground loop :))

And Bell's pilot seating which seemed to be designed for chimps... ;)

BTW is that 176 knots on the VNE readout on that instrument panel? :-o

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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#6 Post by Cacophonix » Sun Dec 24, 2017 7:00 am

CharlieOneSix wrote:
Cacophonix wrote: I look forward to hearing how your trial lesson goes in February. :-bd
Cacophonix wrote: How long can one of these airframes hang together? I assume pretty much every other moving mechanical part has been replaced at least once in the period, you have been growing young disgracefully in, since you last flew her?

Quite a lot of it was replaced after this little enforced swim in the North Sea in 1986 (I wasn't involved!!)...... :))
AAIB Report 9/1987


I will, of course, keep you updated on the February trial... ;)

As for ditching, looking at the photographs only, I am assuming that that was as good an outcome for ditching as one could ever hope for, what with a low sea state and the most benign looking conditions and, presumably, safe revovery of the helicopter as well given that she is still flying. I haven't read the AAIB report yet so I will before I make any more uninformed or stupid comments! :)

Caco

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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#7 Post by Boac » Sun Dec 24, 2017 8:49 am

You WILL enjoy the experience in Feb, Caco. For a 'dyed-in-the-wool' FW jock it it is an excellent 'refreshment'. As C16 says, the biggest problem I had was "a slight reticence to slow down below your spamcan's stall speed on finals". After several years on swept-wing jets, seeing 50kts reducing in a helo and, even worse, 120 reducing in a Harrier (and still airborne, near the trees) took some focus initially.:-bd

I suspect you will want more....... B-)

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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#8 Post by Cacophonix » Sun Dec 24, 2017 9:24 am

Boac wrote:You WILL enjoy the experience in Feb, Caco. For a 'dyed-in-the-wool' FW jock it it is an excellent 'refreshment'. As C16 says, the biggest problem I had was "a slight reticence to slow down below your spamcan's stall speed on finals". After several years on swept-wing jets, seeing 50kts reducing in a helo and, even worse, 120 reducing in a Harrier (and still airborne, near the trees) took some focus initially.:-bd

I suspect you will want more....... B-)


This is what I suspect too and heli flying is so hellishly expensive. I'd be better off developing a crack cocaine habit! =))

I must admit I am really looking forward to the trial flight though... :))

Look you can even buy these second hand on the civil register...

[bbvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZBsy5kVU-M[/bbvideo]

:))

Caco

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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#9 Post by CharlieOneSix » Sun Dec 24, 2017 10:50 am

Cacophonix wrote:As for ditching, looking at the photographs only, I am assuming that that was as good an outcome for ditching as one could ever hope for........

When you consider that he had no collective control at all it was an amazing bit of airmanship to get it down successfully with all 20 on board getting away without a scratch! After the loss of collective he flew at best rate of climb speed - 70kts if I remember correctly - trying to reach the coast but was still coming down at about 200ft/min. It had to be a very finely judged flare using cyclic only to arrest the rate of descent, followed by levelling the helicopter and plonking it in the water with no forward speed.
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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#10 Post by CharlieOneSix » Sun Dec 24, 2017 11:33 am

FD2 wrote:Also the peculiar yaw trim release - on the collective I think (?) - which alarmed the ground staff after it caught some new pilots by surprise whilst ground taxying around the apron, nearly causing a ground loop :))

You are correct about the yaw trim release being on the collective - it was on the bottom of the collective, and the Go Around switch was on the top. The yaw trim button released the magnetic brake and recentred the force gradient springs. It would have been much simpler to have had microswitches on each of the yaw pedals as the Wessex did - although that could be interesting if you hit one microswitch before the other one.

214coll.jpg
214coll.jpg (151.2 KiB) Viewed 1091 times

I think that is 136kts on the VNE panel. VNE below 12,500 lbs was 159kts but of course we were never that light on commercial ops.

Apart from the unique FBW elevator, the other quirk was not being able to exceed 2000ft/min rate of climb because if both engines failed, with those huge fat blades, it was apparently not possible to get the lever down quick enough to maintain RRPM within limits and establish autorotation.
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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#11 Post by om15 » Mon Dec 25, 2017 2:27 pm

The hover is another thing altogether but if your instructor lets you have one control at a time and then gradually introduces another until you have them all you will soon get the hang of it even if you maybe need half a football pitch to do so initially


C16, I mentioned somewhere else on here that I once received instruction on an EC 135, the pilot was an ex USAF flight instructor and he did exactly that, after half an hour or so I was able to fly the aircraft back to the base, couldn't master the hover though.
I spent several years contracting (continuing airworthiness) to a small operator with two Bell 206B Jetrangers, one of which may be the oldest one still flying, built in 1969 with over 22,000 hours, I had several memorable trips around the Welsh borders, practising auto rotation and low flying.

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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#12 Post by FD2 » Mon Dec 25, 2017 5:50 pm

CharlieOneSix
Thanks for the collective photo - it certainly brought back a few memories - it was such a change from the S61! The slap from those blades generated one or two noise complaints when it was used down at North Denes occasionally.

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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#13 Post by CharlieOneSix » Mon Dec 25, 2017 11:32 pm

om15 wrote: ......couldn't master the hover though.........

PIO's - Pilot Induced Oscillations - are the biggest obstacle to overcome when learning to hover. He who grips the cyclic with an iron fist will never succeed in learning how to hover. Grip it twixt finger and thumb, rest your arm on your thigh and only think about the movement needed and the hand will follow....and look ahead to the middle distance, not at the ground just outside the cockpit.

We once hired a Bell 47D1 - like those flown by my boyhood heroes Chuck and PT on TV's 'Whirlybirds' in the 1950's - when one of our 47J2's was on major servicing.
[bbvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy8wYXtswVc[/bbvideo]

Built in 1949 it was basic with ineffective collective/throttle correlation. Imagine you are in the hover and want to climb vertically. Raise the collective which gives you increased main rotor angle and therefore more lift. The helicopter climbs. More lift equals more drag so the main rotor rpm reduce. Low rotor rpm means you have to open the throttle to maintain the datum rpm. More throttle means more torque therefore the nose of the helicopter (on American designs, not French) will swing to the right - French ones go left. A correction to the left with the tail rotor pedals to bring the nose back to where it was will require increased pitch on the tail rotor blades. Increased pitch on the tail rotor blades equals more drag so the throttle needs to be increased. More throttle means.....well, I think you get the picture. A helicopter only flies by constant correction of opposing forces. Fortunately in modern designs rotor rpm control is taken care of by a governor which correlates collective movement with throttle demand but even so first attempts at a hover are.......interesting! :D
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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#14 Post by Cacophonix » Fri Jan 05, 2018 1:58 pm

Well the R44 will be the queen of my skies in February and I purchased this little training book today, showing the R22 I know, but I just want to bone up on the basics. I have a broomstick and ruler to hand, near my desk as I stare intently into the distance and try and absorb Mr Pratt's wisdom while sawing the air and possibly lurching around like a drunken octopus (much to the amusement of my better half and the contempt of the dogs lying on the study floor laughing silently at me as well).

I have flown fixed wing aircraft with Jeremy Pratt before and he is a lovely fellow but I must admit that I didn't known he was a helicopter pilot as well. I trust he didn't learn his skills using a broom and a ruler otherwise I might be in deep doo-doo! A possible case of from the frying pan into the fire! =))

It is possible that I am trying overthink this one!

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Caco

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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#15 Post by CharlieOneSix » Fri Jan 05, 2018 2:38 pm

Cacophonix wrote:..... I have a broomstick and ruler to hand, near my desk as I stare intently into the distance.....

That's a new one on me! Can't quite work out what you're meant to do with them.....

Where have you booked your trial lesson - I seem to remember you mentioned Shoreham as a possibility a while back?
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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#16 Post by Cacophonix » Fri Jan 05, 2018 3:06 pm

CharlieOneSix wrote:
Cacophonix wrote:..... I have a broomstick and ruler to hand, near my desk as I stare intently into the distance.....

That's a new one on me! Can't quite work out what you're meant to do with them.....

Where have you booked your trial lesson - I seem to remember you mentioned Shoreham as a possibility a while back?


Shoreham, booked for 25th February (£380.00 for 40 minutes) although a Biggin based outfit have offered a better price.

The broomstick is my collective and the ruler, jammed just in front of my crutch, becomes the cyclic...

You may argue that this is all superfluous (if not ludicrous) and why don't I just imagine the controls but hey it is nice to hang onto something!

[bbvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysadvsXDVDU[/bbvideo]

Perhaps I should wear sandals like this instructor! :))

Caco

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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#17 Post by FD2 » Fri Jan 05, 2018 7:24 pm

Just feel the force Caco, feel the force....and don't go wazzing those sticks around too hard....

Good luck! ;)

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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#18 Post by Karearea » Sun Jan 14, 2018 12:03 am

Cacophonix wrote:... I have a broomstick and ruler to hand....


puts me in mind of the sequence from about 4:20 to 6:10 in this driving-lesson from Man About The House:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He0HMQY4MzU

:D
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Re: Queen of the Helicopter Skies

#19 Post by Cacophonix » Sun Jan 14, 2018 12:11 am

Karearea wrote:
Cacophonix wrote:... I have a broomstick and ruler to hand....


puts me in mind of the sequence from about 4:20 to 6:10 in this driving-lesson from Man About The House:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He0HMQY4MzU

:D


:)

Good series that. I just hope I pass the first test! ;)

Caco

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