First auto of the year

[cgroves]

Well, we had some excitement at the ORCC West field on Sunday. I successfully completed the first forced autorotation of the year. Top side of a loop and I discovered my clunk had come detached since the engine stopped real quick. Brought it around and spun the head up as it settled out of sight onto the small pond just southwest of the runway. Came over the hill to see the blades spinning down, with no damage :D. Now that I have used up all my good luck for the year I suggest diving for cover whenever I am flying.

PS Why is it always when I am upside down these things happen :mad:. It is never when I am 100ft downwind 200ft up and setup for an approach.

[Tom Hastie]

I saw the auto, and I must say, you must have all sorts of horse shoes stuck in uncomfortable places. It's hard enough to land a heli when it's in plain sight. Not with no motor behind a berm.

Didja pick up that lottery ticket on the way home?

Tom

[Sbaker]

Which size chopper was that one, was it the 90?:eek: Would have
been something to see, nice to hear it worked out. :) Had you practiced
the auto's much on that one previously or more in the sim?
I know with the micro's you pretty much only get on shot at it.
Although I think I'd have more of the fear factor on the 90:)

Scott

[cgroves]

No, it was my Raptor 50. The 90 is really easy to auto except that it costs so much more that you are that much more nervous. I hadn't practiced any autos for real this year although I always do a few each week in the sim. It was really tight though since I was literaly at the top of the loop and spent a lot of head speed getting the chopper flipped upright. Thank god for those heavy blades.

[donovan Dow]

Morning All

Corey well done. Please bear in mind that winter and early spring is the best time to do autos. It is a different story in the thin air of summer. Possible but the pucker factor goes up.

cheers
don dow

[Soclarke]

Hey Corey,

Good job on the auto.

How do you find the sim compares to the real deal for autos? I've practiced them many times on the sim just in case I have a flame out with my Hawk.

Can you or Don or anyone else in the know give us newbies a few tips?

[cgroves]

Hey Corey,

Good job on the auto.

How do you find the sim compares to the real deal for autos? I've practiced them many times on the sim just in case I have a flame out with my Hawk.

Can you or Don or anyone else in the know give us newbies a few tips?
The biggest killer I find in the real thing is the Duh! factor. I have only crashed twice during a real auto but I have come close a few times sitting there figuring out what is going on when the engine quits. Time is of the essence since you have to get into negative pitch as fast as possible. You should also have lots of negative and positive available in hold mode and use the hold mode when the engine quits for real. That way the helicopter will behave exactly the way you practiced when it comes time to do it for real.

Other thing to remember is you can actually get faster head speed from less negative pitch. The optimum negative pitch is different for every helicopter and takes some experimentation.

If you are practicing autos make sure your heli idles comfortably when on throttle hold and maybe high enough to just engage the clutch when you are starting out. It is real exciting when you are practicing, have a bad approach and are all out of shape, and you are greeted by silence when you release the throttle hold and try to climb away because the engine stalled during the approach. At that point you are usually in real trouble and better get out the credit card.

I recommend doing lots of practice approaches for autos using the throttle hold getting a little closer each time and when you think you are comfortable go for it. Keep an eye on your head speed and make sure you are arriving close to the ground with lots of energy.

Another thing to practice at the same time is hover close to the ground and hit the throttle hold switch and do a "mini" auto. This gets you used to the final phase of an auto and the feeling of landing without power. Start at 6 inches and make your way up to 6 feet gradually. Combined with the approach practice and you have all the pieces. Make sure you heli won't jump up or down (or pirouette) when you go into hold mode since close the ground you probably won't have time to recover. My hold, normal and idle1 curves are the same between 20% and 80% collective so I know I won't have any suprises switching between modes. If I am in idle2 I am usually going like a bat outta hell and better not be that close to the ground anyways.

It is a lot easier to do autos with heavier blades so I would start out with some CF or glass blades since they store a lot more energy than woodies will. Make sure the grips are tight enough on the blades, just tight enough that if you shake the heli holding it banked 90deg the blades stay straight. Otherwise they will swing when you land and when you release the collective the blades will swing down and you'll have a boom strike after a safe auto.

Finally, an auto landing doesn't need to be pretty, the helicopter needs to be upright and travelling forward slowly if at all (on grass without skid stops you can actually be travelling forward very quickly, sliding autos can be great fun). Don't waste energy in the last few seconds placing the helicopter just make sure it is upright and most of the vertical velocity is arrested. Even an auto with some damage can be considered a partial success if you at least reduced the damage. A bent spindle is a lot better than a totalled chopper.

Thats all I have off the top of my head.

[Soclarke]

Thanks for the tips Corey.

Since this heli thing has been mostly a self taught adventure things are progressing a little slowly but I'm enjoying. I still spend a lot of time hovering at various altitudes and alternating between tail in and being turned 90 degrees to either side. I've also been working on 45 degree climbouts in to the left and right of my position and trying to do approaches with the same rate of decent. Typically I try to bring the heli into a hover in front of myself before touching down.

Slowly but surely my confidence is building and now that I've got a really nice flying electric and a nitro bird things should start to progress a little faster.

I can't wait for longer day and warmer weather so I can get more practice in.

[donovan Dow]

Afternoon Scott

For starters:

Forward speed is important and into the wind. Not too sudden descent.

You can practice from 3 feet or so in a hover from a fast windup and do vertical descents depending on your radio setup.

cheers
don dow