AW109 Start-Up
 

This is a pretty amazing helicopter. Twin engine, full 4 axis auto pilot and all the bells and whistle you can think of... Good times..

AW109SP Start-Up - YouTube

hey shawn....what entails are the 4 axis?

The 4th-axis reference refers to the ability to auto hover. Usually doppler sensors under the tail. Works well over ground and steady seastate, but when you really need it in rough seas to hover over a target in zero visibility, that's when the men get separated from the boys.

Picture this, with such a system, you can respond to a PLB going off, and the helicopter SAR responds. The crew takes off in the pitch dark of night, and once en-route, locks on to the PLB signal. Without ever touching the controls, the helicopter will home onto the PLB, slow down by itself, turn itself into the wind and do a slow hover onto the target, and go into a hover at a preset height right above the PLB, without the pilot ever touching the cyclic or collective since departure. All the winchman has to do is drop that strop down, and hoist up the poor soul down there. I've crewed on such missions, and believe you me, it took a while for the crew to trust the system, but it works.

Too cool !!!!!!!!

i just wish i could just regular hover

Jeb,

All you need is a strong head wind and the ability to safely handle your machine behind the power curve. (it probably helps to have G-Force Landing Gear, just in case you had an engine out at that precise moment) But I hae seen lots of Gyros just hovering around in one spot. You can do it!

hey doug,

i am training in a helicopter right now. heh heh not a gyro.

It was pretty amazing. We flew an ILS approach in the 109 under full autopilot and it came it to 50" and hovered. Then we beeped it down to 15' and it sat there nice and steady by itself. Then we beeped it forward to 5kts and it flew with our hands off the controls 15' above the runway at 5kts. I have that all on video. I'll try to post it if anyone is interested.

YES! Post it. BTW ... Why do you get to fly such cool machinery? Is it for biz or do you just know peeps or are you a secret agent?

It's my job. I engineered it that way. (I wish I was a secret agent). I don't like to work so I found a way to make my hobby my job.

I just did about 5 hours today in our MD600N (NOTAR) and a little in the MD500D. Covered most of the State of Oregon...

This is one where I was in back just documenting...

AW109 autopilot - YouTube

All i can say if holy f*ck that is amazing stuff, that is cool computers at work, still computers have a habit of spitting the dummy, bit still very cool.
Also Shawn you need a helper. cause i think i could do with with a "job" like yours

Wonder how the computer would handle gusting 35kts, between trees [ 2' either side] and a bunyip tryn to hook his horns in the skids? ;) :).

Birdy, that would need to be the advanced model.

And only Scary Gary and his friends will be able to handle it. The rest of us are just to plain incapable of handling such complicated stuff. Only these guy's have access to the Honeywell FMS cheat codes.

Not an issue, Birdy. The cows in Oregon are computerized now, too.

The next software upgrade will teach them how to chase off feral camels. It's awesome to watch!