An issue with the UH-60
Let me start of by saying how much I love the UH-60, it has to be one of my favourite choppers along with the Huey and the 412.
I have been having this very weird issue for which I have been told by many people, mostly on the FlightGear discord, that it's realistic and normal. It seems that I cannot fly the helicopter in a straight line unless I lean the chopper to the left because if I don't it will drift ever so slightly to the right and if I try to counter it with rudder the whole chopper goes berserk in the sense that it wants to pitch down so heavily that I lose control and have a hard time regaining normal flight.
Here is the proof or I should better say the evidence of the problem.
Any help will be greatly appreciated, and if still this is thought of as "normal" or "realistic" I'd like to know what do I have to do in order to achieve an "unrealistic" scenario lol
Thank you in advance for all the help,
Cyber
Comments
That is correct. Basically your leaning to counter whats known as translating tendency. Every chopper hangs low on one side ( except tandem rotors ). This is caused by the the tail thrust wanting to push the chopper sideways and you are compensating with cyclic. Can also happen in fast forward flight where the choppers V stab takes load from the tail rotor by essentially applying a set degree or "Rudder" just like applied rudder in a fixed wing aircraft, it will induce a low level of roll on the airframe which again you compensate with opposite input in the cyclic. The direction of lean is different on different types of chopper depending if they have a clockwise or counter clockwise main rotor.
When you experience the going nuts bit, you have to remember the UH60 tail rotor is canted, its not a normal vertical mounter tail rotor. It provides lift with left pedal, and less lift with right pedal to assist with its heavy arse end. Applying too much pedal in forward flight could lead to a violent LTE action - Loss of Tail rotor Effectiveness. Helicopters do tend to nose up or down with pedal input when in slow or hover flight due to torque. Inline tail rotors ( thats a raised tail rotor like the Huey, Cobra, UH60 etc ) suffer less from that and the canted tail on the uh60 is supposed to lessen the effect even further ( by also providing lift to the tail when its wanting to drop ).
Its taken me 8 years to get the arse of the UH60 to do what its supposed to and the latest version FDM is the best one yet. If you want to find out what a mentally ill UH60 would fly like, you fly the WS70 version. Its got way more power, much more than it can actually handle.
Thank you for the explanation, I really appreciate it. I just had to ask because irl no UH-60 is canted like that while flying straight at a high speed.
Again, thank you for taking the time to explain all of this.
Cyber
they are, you just dont see it but now you know about it, you will see it. Google images of UH60's hovering and take a look.............. ;)
ty I will, you have been of great assistance. I really love your work Stuart all the aircraft, choppers and airplanes, are truly amazing.
thank you