Helicopter Training...

[TheGreenGoblin]

Avoiding hot starts...

[TheGreenGoblin]

Would you really let a student near a turbine helicopter, like the Robinson R66 above, with the ever present risk of hot starts and another exponentially growing number of ways to screw things up, not to mention cost of flying the same?

If not, maybe it is worth looking at theFamà Kiss 209. Yes, I know Kiss but it is Italian!

For many years the Robinson R22 has been the standard light training and personal helicopter, but Fama Helicopters hopes that the new Fama K209 will provide a better performing and more modern alternative.

Designed and built by Fama at Modena in Italy, the stylish K209 is powered by a single gas turbine- the proven solar T62, which is more traditionally employed as an auxiliary power unit for much larger helicopters and aircraft.

Using turbine has a number of benefits, such as allowing the use of jet fuel, paraffin or diesel as a fuel. More importantly, the turbine engine allows students to progress straight to a turbine rating without having to convert later in their instruction course.

Compared with the R22, the K209 is a more modern machine, featuring a single large ‘glass’ cockpit display in the roomy cockpit. The design incorporates a capacious 100KG baggage pod behind the two-person cockpit, and an in-flight centre-of-gravity trim capability thanks to fore and aft oil reservoirs.

The helicopter’s tube structure is filled with nitrogen and is fitted with a gauge, allowing any cracks to be detected without having to visually inspect the structure. Much of the structure is carbon fibre as are the rotor blades. The latter have a theoretically unlimited life span.

Performance-wise, the K209 outstrips its rivals thanks to the 162HP generated by the T62 engine. This equates excellent hot-and-high performance with two on board

Powered Flight




FAMA Helicopters

[TheGreenGoblin]

A bit more about the FAMA 209M and lots else besides from Dennis Kenyon taken from Pilot Magazine back in 2015.

A NEW TRAINING HELICOPTER FOR THE UK?

Many PILOT readers will know, I've been lucky enough to work in the helicopter side of aviation since the 1970s. Those years have been some of the happiest of my life and yes, I freely admit, I'm an aviation Anorak ... especially when it comes to anything with wings that go round and round!
Readers might also know I'm well past the big 'Eight O' milestone, which does bring a change in perspective of one's life - such that I usually think twice before buying a green banana. Just joking!

So it is with some trepidation and anticipation that I put pen to paper for my first article, or more accurately sit in my home office and tap away on the Lenovo. Those passing years have seen me dispatched to more than a few far-flung places in search of a good story and how well I recall standing suited and booted in the posh offices of the mighty Michigan based Enstrom Helicopter Corporation. The location was the quaintly named town of Menominee. The year would have been 1972 and the man sitting opposite, sizing me up, was the well known defense lawyer, F Lee Bailey ... he of the infamous My Lai massacre trial when he saved the US Army Captain, Ernest Medina, from a nasty electric shock! Bailey, an ex-Navy pilot, purchased the Enstrom factory, lock stock etc and was looking for dealers to sell his product around the world. With a dash too much bravado and using my boss's money, I promptly committed the company to the purchase of 24 spanking new Enstrom 28A models at S50k a copy.

The total bill, even in those days, was well over a million dollars and as I often say ... it's not too difficult to spend other people's money! Twenty-four helicopters due to land on the doormat at the rate of one a month and my job was to sell them!

At the time, my sole flying experience had been as a fix winger handling Royal Air Force's 1950s jets ... De Havilland's twin-boomed Vampire, then the glorious Gloster Meteor before graduating to Bill Petter's wonderful Canberra B2 light bomber. I wasn't always a jet man having been taught to fly on the dear old Tiger Moth, the chirpy Chipmunk and Airspeed's grumbling twin-Cheetah Oxford before being let loose on Avro's mighty four-engine Lincoln at RAF LIndholme ... there I was to learn the RAF's GeeH bombing techniques. Fifty years and 15,000 hours later, I'm known as a helicopter display man.

Looking back, all I can say is what a wonderful industry we have, so many intriguing characters, lots of God's fresh air, beautiful places for fly-ins and most of all, the excitement of just being in the air. And as I'm often heard to say, we professionals get paid to do it. Can a job get much better!

Today, I want to tell you about a recent experience. I was asked to fly two of my all-time favourite helicopters in South Africa. The event was the bi-annual African Air Defence (AAD) air show held at the Waterkloof Air Force base in Pretoria where I was booked to display MD's powerful 530F model alongside Enstrom's pretty 480B. The daily spectator count was 30,000. My idea of flying heaven!

Air shows generally have two areas of interest for the spectators. The flying displays, where the manufacturers show off their latest machines, and the static exhibitions when just about any aspect of aeronautical hardware and accessories are on show. Utility equipment for fire, ambulance work, rescue and game capture, plus the newest avionics and all sorts of knicks and knacks that make our industry so varied.

When it comes to the announcement of new models, the rotary side of aviation is very much the junior cousin to the world of fixed wing. In fact I can think of barely half a dozen helicopters that have made it into production in the last fifty years but, as I ambled around the exhibition hall, I spotted a small helicopter I hadn't seen before. I was intrigued and had to know more.

South Africans are a friendly bunch of people and as I stopped to take a photograph, I was taken aside and introduced to Martin Jacobs - another rotary man. Martin is the CEO of Powered Flight, a public transport company based at Wonderboom Airport. (most South African place names have an Afrikaans origin.) Martin's company runs a flying school and as we all know, achieving a profit in that line of business isn't far removed from finding rocking horse fertiliser! But Martin tells me he's making money and was keen to show me why as he guided me to the cabin of his newest acquisition ... a FAMA 209M ... a composite construction, two-seat training helicopter powered by a gas turbine!

The FAMA is built in Modena, (Super car fans will know Modena is Ferrari territory) and is the brainchild of Antonino (Nino) Fama. The man has form. Before designing the FAMA, Nino spent twenty years in the motor bike world, building and racing his own design. He won the Italian championship three times and then moved on to racing formula cars (the Scuderia FAMA single seater) after which he moved on to aviation and learned to fly.

PILOT readers won't need me to remind them of the sky high price of 100LL fuel. A price that at around £10 per English gallon is making business difficult for our flying schools. I believe the market desperately needs a helicopter that costs less. Now I'd found one.

Frank Robinson achieved something close with his piston R22 and 44 models, Bruno Guimbal is doing the same with his advanced Cabri G2 trainer. Enstrom have a new 180 dedicated trainer on the horizon, but all three are stuck with piston engines and Av Gas prices. In fact in many parts of the world piston fuel isn't even available! The turbine stuff is 70% cheaper so for what my pennorth is worth, Snr Fama is on the right track. So let's take a closer look at what he has to offer.
The FAMA took to the air experimentally in August 2009, with the first production machine becoming available in kit form in 2011. The latest 209M and MF versions are selling well and as I write, have been sold and are flying in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Argentina and South Africa. But not yet in the UK. (is anyone listening?) In South Africa the type is cleared to fly for 'ab-initio' flying training.

The FAMA is a well-built, solidly engineered helicopter. Construction is almost entirely composite material. (Lightness and strength) The cabin, body panels, tail and main rotor blades are made of carbon fibre. (nil finite life) However the FAMA has a metal tubular airframe and here comes a 'first' in a light helicopter. The tubes are gas filled using nitrogen. Sensors check for leaks, (fatigue cracking) and notify the pilot of a possible problem. Another innovation is the use of oil reservoirs to move the aircraft's centre of gravity for variable loads.

The biggest design breakthrough for a lightweight helicopter is the use of turbine power. The Solar T62 gas turbine's original role was as an APU (auxiliary power unit) so can claim a few million hours in aviation service. The T62 runs on conventional Jet A1, JP4, Diesel or even Paraffin. Who remembers the Esso Blue Paraffin dealers? ... pom .. pom .. pom .. pom!

The second major advance for a training helicopter is the option of retractable wheels. The cleaner airframe gives the type it's impressive 115 mph cruise speed at max continuous power. However for a dedicated training role, I would only want a fixed gear version. Main rotor hub is a two-blade 'teetering' system which gives a smooth ride and helps with lower hangar costs. The instrument presentation is an up-to-date, one piece glass EFIS panel. So all in all, we have just about every feature I would expect from a 21st century training design, and before I move on, I'll list the remaining specification numbers.

The FAMA 209M carries a 40 US gallon fuel tank plus a 10 gallon auxiliary option that ups the endurance to 4 hours. Standard range is 330 statute miles. The ISA rate of climb at maximum all up weight is a healthy 880 feet per minute! Max gross weight is 1435 lbs and with full-fuel WPS of 930 lbs, a useful 465lbs payload is available for crew and luggage. The FAMA may be a small ship but she's one hell of a performer. Main rotor blade diameter is 25 feet, (two feet less than the Sikorsky 300.) Out of ground effect (OGE) hover is 10,000 feet with an IGE hover of 12.500 feet. Cabin width is a comfortable 50 inches with an overall airframe length of 28 feet. Height on skids is 8 feet. I measured the dedicated luggage locker at 39ins x 21ins, but just 11 inches wide. Not all that generous but at least there is a separate baggage facility. I'm a whisker under six feet, and sat in the cabin with reasonable headroom. (no bone domes though.) And here comes the killer figure. You can buy the FAMA 209M version for just 155,000 Euros effective January 2015. I'll say that again ... yes 155,000 Euros ... say £125,000 Sterling.

For some reason Nino Fama wants to call his neat creation ... the Kiss 209 ... I suppose for the obvious reason! I would suggest he drops the idea. He has a serious contender for flying school work and needs to be taken seriously.

Okay, so as a truly low cost turbine training helicopter, the FAMA is a type our industry needs. So where are the problems? I'm afraid I have to report the old chestnut applicable to all kit helicopters in EASA land. Certification! In the UK, the home-built, kit-form Rotorway162F helicopter is a well-built and nicely performing machine that is very much in the FAMA mould. But our Civil Aviation Authority have steadfastly refused to grant any form of public transport certification for such types. (ouch!) Sadly, I feel even the innovative FAMA with its advanced design will flounder on the same rocks. Is there? - can there be a resolution? Better brains than mine have tackled the problem without success.

'

[PHXPhlyer]

TGG:
Never heard of FAMA.
I want one!
Thanks
Watched the D.K. interview too.

PP

[TheGreenGoblin]

Glad you enjoyed the articles and interviews PHXPhlyer.

I want a FAMA 209M too...

[CharlieOneSix]

An interesting helicopter! I'd never heard of FAMA.

The helicopter’s tube structure is filled with nitrogen and is fitted with a gauge, allowing any cracks to be detected without having to visually inspect the structure.

A similar system called the BIM (Blade inspection Method) was fitted to every original Sikorsky S61 blade spar. At the root of each blade was a visual pressure indicator which would show by a colour change if a crack had started in the blade spar and the nitrogen pressure had reduced as a result.

[bob2s]

Aerospat Lama 315 also had nitrogen in the tubes of the main frame and tailboom to advise of cracks in the structure.

The tail boom
The tail boom is attached to the aft end of center section and supports the fixed stabilizer, the tail rotor gearbox, the tail rotor and its protection arc.
The main frame and the tail boom are made by welded steel tubes. Nitrogen is fitted into the tubes. If a leak occurs due to a crack in any of the tubes, air will come inside the tubes and the video-pi indicator will change its colour telling the pilot or the engineer that there is a problem with the main frame or the tail boom. It is a unique and very bright safety device.

[G~Man]

OK...tis that time of year where all my pilots go through annual training. I bring in an outside vendor to do our emergency training, then we do in-house after that followed by me giving each pilot their annual Part 135 check ride in each aircraft. We have just completed Bell 206, (both B3 and L4), Bell 407, Huey and Bell 212 training in the past 10 days.

We fly in inhospitable places where often times the only place to go in the event of engine failure is real close, hence we teach what I call "hang time". This is where you bleed off speed in an auto and descend vertically then nose forward to get speed for the flare then touch down. The auto has a very steep profile.

Here are 3 videos in the Huey showing the evolution of autos with a new guy to the Huey.

Start with straight ins:



Then move on to a 180 auto:



Then transition to a 180 with zero speed for the turn:



Now I get to give check rides for a week.

[TheGreenGoblin]

What a great post... many thanks for posting such good training material G~Man.