Going Ballistic

[407 Driver]

Corax wrote ...."Impressive maneuvres are not bad for the airframe when properly executed with an aviator skilled enough and knowledgeable enough to do them."

True, but it''s a shame about the darn "limitations" section in the Flight manual......

 

[CTD]

A sure-fire way of curing a hot-dog pilot is to give him a fully instrumented helicopter for a few years. Some of these ''benign'' manoeuvers can get you noticed in the telemetry room.

 

[Randy_G]

Make the hotdog clean up the mess left behind after a stunt like that. That sometimes will cure the guy. Sometimes the customer talks bigger than his stomach.

When guys ask me now to do a 'hammerhead', I ask them why they want me to do a shark.

Cheers

p.s. Heli-Ops pm sent back at ya.

 

407driver - you are absolutely correct about the limitations in the flight manual and I stand corrected. At no time am I recommending those limitations be exceeded especially when I do not know what limitations exist on this aircraft type.

Once again I am merely stating that sometimes an aircraft is capable of doing more than most of us average drivers should ever do with one or would ever want to. Case and point, I've seen Bob Hoover do things in a turbo Commander that I don't think anyone in the world has ever duplicated or would want to yet I know he never exceeded the aircraft limits.

Having said all that, what limitation would this A Star pilot have exceeded? Is there a bank, pitch limit on the aircraft or is it a matter of G limits? Just curious, our Sea Kings have a 30 degrees of bank limit. It is there because of our radar. Anyone know of bank limitations on S-61s in civilian attire?

 

[Outwest]

In the S61 that 30 deg bank limitation is only for the AFCS. It has nothing to do with airframe limitations.

 

AFCS, what the heck is that? Just kidding, I''m really just envious, we have nothing like it in the old Sea King. We do have the ASE system, sort of close to AFCS but I think you guys have a more sophiticated version that can couple to an autopilot, yes?

All we have is a barimetric altitude hold and a coupler which will fly from a gate of 150 feet/60 grouns speed to a hover at 40 feet. Now how it gets there is sometimes a real eye opener but it usually works not too bad.

So AFCS couple to george, geeeesh I wish.

 

[407 Driver]

Corax, as I posted earlier, the "Limitation" that may have been exceeded is from the Limitations section of the Aerospat 350 Flight Manual...."aerobatic maneuvers prohibited..."

 

[Bladestrike]

I''m afraid its not that fancy, and I only know of one 61 thats coupled to an autopilot, the Irish SAR machine. And a hover? Not a chance with ours!

But the ole girl is stable enough to take a stroll in the back for a time.

 

[407 Driver]

Ah yes...the old saying...the following was demonstrated by trained professionals, DO NOT try these stunts at home....

 

[Heli Ops]

Hey guys, the aircraft in question was actually in South Africa and I was standing on the side of an escarpment with a drop down of over 2500 feet. Johann started about two miles away at the bottom and built up a good head of speed heading for the rock face and then pulled up into the vertical.

This was followed by a hammerhead turn and then straight back down the other way. If someone can give me somewhere to host the other shots in that sequence I will send them to them as I dont have them on the web to link to.

I have one shot of the B3 completely upside down but would rather not show that one, but it looks mindblowing. I discussed this with Johann after the photo shoot and he was quite happy with the manouvers he did. He has been flying AS350s from the B model all the way through to the B3 and does a lot of test flying for Eurocopter in South Africa and he really does know what he is doing. I am not saying it is a good example for younger pilots to try and follow, but this was a specific shot I wanted to get and we had two of the most experienced pilots around flying both machines.

I asked Johann if he minded me showing off these images and he was completely OK with it and thats the only reason I posted them. Over the years I have shot many images which, if seen in public, could have pilots lose their cojones over. Its about discretion and in many cases we do specific shots but only for the pilots own "I Love Me Wall" at home.

Heli Ops

 

[Bladestrike]

Well, you must admit, although we can pretty much agree its unprofessional, none to bright, contrevenes the AFM, and no doubt spilt his coffea, it is a rather incredible shot, one I'm sure all of us would have love to have been apart of. Being young and impressionable, that's how I felt so I went out and gave it a go.

Whaaddyathink?


http://www.caaviation.com/gallery/display1...sid=132&tree=13

(The photo gallery here, Web Funnies, and no, its not real)

 

[JBC]

And we wonder why insurance rates are up instead of down !

 

[CTD]

I hope you weren''t exceeding 500 ft/min with pax on board....