Roomie and I chatted briefly about that last night. I think the Black Hawk might have auto-start, but I forgot to ask. I’ve flown R22s and Schweizer 300s. Starting is pretty straightforward: Mixture rich, throttle cracked, prime as necessary, master switch on, engage starter. Set your RPM and check to see you have oil pressure and wait for the temperature gauge to move. It’s been a while since I’ve flown a Robbo, but I think engaging the rotor system is simply a matter of setting the RPM and engaging the clutch switch, adjusting the throttle as necessary so that the engine doesn’t stall. On t Schweizer engaging the rotor system is a three-step process. You set RPM and briefly engage the clutch, then wait for RPM to return to normal. (You’ll probably need to adjust the throttle slightly.) Do this again. Finally, engage the clutch and leave it there. Once you’re running you check the magnetos and freewheeling unit.
I’ve never flown a turbine-powered helicopter. Start-up seems a little more involved. For example, here’s how to start a Jet Ranger: Battery on. Throttle closed. Engage starter and watch for oil pressure. Make compressor speed (N1) depending on temperature. If N1 remains below 12%, abort start. Abort start if turbine outlet temperature (TOT) reaches 297ºC or remains maximum for 10 seconds between 810ºC and 927ºC. Engage rotor at 25% N1. Release starter at 58% N1. Idle at 60% to 62% N1 for one minute. Throttle 70% N1. Generator switch on. Loadmeter below red line. Avionics master switch on. Increase engine RPM to 100%. Do not exceed 40% torque during acceleration. Avoid turbine speed (N2) range of 75% to 88% when torque is greater than 33%. I’ve omitted several things in the checklist, mostly relating to turning on lights and avionics.
Documents required on U.S. aircraft are an airworthiness certificate, registration, operating limitations, and weight-and-balance information. While some people carry the latter two as separate documents, that information is contained within the Pilots Operating Handbook. Almost everyone carries the POH in the aircraft, so the start-up procedures will be available. Most ‘typical civilian sightseeing helicopters’ are turbine-powered. I think that someone of reasonable intelligence could start a jet heli by studying the manual and cockpit. It’s not a sure thing – that’s why you need training and a turbine transition endorsement – but a non-pilot would have more success doing that than actually teaching himself how to fly. (NB: Many operators have switched to piston-powered Robinson R44s for sightseeing because they are less expensive to buy and operate than a jet.)
ISTR that Igor Sikorsky had a few crashes while learning to fly his inventions.
Shit goes awry in a helicopter very quickly. Even if you were aware of the tail rotor and thought to add left pedal, there’s still translating tendency to account for, you’d naturally drift to the right.
When I was learning to hover I remember I drifted pretty damned fast at first. If you exaggerate any of the control movements things just go to hell faster. So even if you don’t just spin, you’re probably a short distance off the ground, weaving like a drunk.
If you don’t do something obvious like run into a tree, there’s still a better than average chance that you’ll hook a skid on something and initiate dynamic rollover. If you’ve got a fully articulated rotor system you’d have to worry about bumping a skid or wheel and dealing with ground resonance.
If you REALLY knew your helicopter theory, I can almost see a person doing an ugly, aggressive max performance take off - you pull a lot of collective and go straight up. If you could get 'er off the ground quick and then push forward you might at least get some distance before you crashed.
Then you’ve got to worry about settling with power, RPM decay - does it have a governor? Are you accidentally overriding the governor by gripping the shit out of the throttle? Low g pushovers and mast bumping become worrisome if you’ve never had training. Are you over-temping or over-torquing? Over-speeding the rotor or the engine? If it’s not fuel injected and you forget to pull carb heat, goodbye Charlie.
If you really studied the POH, I’m sure you could get 'er going but I think you’d crash. There’s only one solution, you have to begin your training now! Go take a lesson and report back.
These videos show an autonomously controlled quadrotor copter executing a number of maneuvers without any direct human control. Of course, they have a number of fixed cameras feeding data to it for that experiment. There are already self-driving cars (in the lab) that can navigate normal traffic in real-world conditions.
I don’t know how much more difficult a standard helicopter is to fly than a quadrotor. But I’d expect that making one autonomous is not an insurmountable engineering challenge.
A few helicopters have autopilot systems, so it’s certainly possible. IIRC, there was also a helicopter that works as you described (the Comanche maybe?).
I had the opportunity to develop a part-task helicopter simulator (UH-72 Lakota) for the Army National Guard. Among the things we focused on where the start-up procedures. The Lakota is basically a commercial aircraft (unlike, say, the Apache or Blackhawk). It’s been sold by Eurocopter as the EC-145 for many years. It’s pretty fancy. Glass cockpit, nice autopilot, etc.
The start-up procedures are non-trivial. Some of that is pre-flight checks, but there are still specific tasks you have to do at specific times to not really muck things up. (The Lakota has 2 engines which further complicates things.) In theory the aircraft would have a printed/laminated checklist for start-up procedures, though interpreting it without knowing what you’re doing may be difficult. I had to see the procedure done before I understood what was going on. Depending on how you count steps, there were 50-200 different steps. There are a lot of switches!
We also built an inflight IFR bit where you can fly various approaches (RNAV/GPS, VOR, ILS) using the onboard autopilot and Garmin. I thought that actually flying (once in the air) was ridiculously easy. There’s very little reason to touch the cyclic at all. This was simulated, non-3D. In fact we didn’t even show a “view out the window”.
Lastly, I got to spend a few days in the simulator, including taking off/landing. This was with a certified flight instructor beside me, and two behind me. I did ok; shakey, but not bad. I’d have survived But that was with pretty constant instruction from guys who spend every day of the week teaching this stuff.
In my case I’m pretty sure I could get it running (if nothing bad happened), and could fly it and do a damn good job on an IFR approach. Taking off and landing though… even though I know the theory and have done a walk through or two I’m not sure I’d put my life on the line for that.
Doing it all with no experience? I’d be surprised if he could get it started, though maybe on a smaller craft it’s easier.
I am licensed to fly both helicopters and airplanes (single & multi-engine). I’m not a flight instructor or anything else special, but I have learned how to fly both.
You are doomed.
The hard part of airplanes is landing. Think of it as nearly-but-not-quite crashing into the ground, at speed. Theoretically, you could get in the air and figure out/ practice enough to land. This is why sometimes people steal airplanes and are found hundreds of miles away.
The hard part of helicopters is getting from “on the ground” to “not on the ground/ hovering” without the whole thing going in three different directions, immediately. This is why, if someone steals your helicopter chances are they will be right near where you left it, in a heap of twisted metal.
My understanding is that Igor Sikorsky’s genius lead him to tie his prototype helicopters down, which meant that he did not crash, burn & die trying to test them. Anyone can be an inventor, i guess the trick is not to get killed by your invention.
I’ve got about 20 hours rotary time. 30 years ago.
I might be able to leave a twisted heap of your R-22 or Jet Ranger somewhere off the airport proper, but just look for the smoke & I’ll probably be over there.
It does beg a good question, though. With today’s fly-by-wire controls and computing and imaging power we have, why not automate the entire process. Heck, the Ercoupe kids made things simple for the masses back in the 1930’s with their connected yoke/rudder/nosewheel design.
Even letting the computer handle the throttle inputs would be a start. I realize the turbines won’t have the same instant response as a fuel-injected ICE, but that’s what programming is for!
Google knows what I want before I’m finished typing - why can’t your fancy-schmancy hee-low-copter do that?
+1. In some parts of the book, the author describes, in exacting detail, flying a helicopter at the very ragged edges of its performance envelope. At one point he needs to get a helicopter over a low fence while hovering with a full load under less than optimal atmospheric conditions. The craft is barely staying in the air as it is. The solution? Ease off the pedal and let the copter rotate with the torque from the main rotor. The little extra power boosts him over the fence.
The book is chock full of little details the he had to learn to survive in combat.
I’ve flown in choppers quite a bit, I reckon if it was a life or death situation I could get it from a to b, and land safely, though I’ve had no formal training.
But then again I could just be committing an elaborate form of suicide.
I was just on teamspeak with a friend of mine who spent 10 years flying a CH53G and mentioned the thread - it took him about 5 minutes to stop laughing. I would take that as a big negative there …
But that was with pretty constant instruction from guys who spend every day of the week teaching this stuff.
