Helicycle-- Hoverings & Happenings

Stirred some air for about an hour today in the Helicycle. I practiced some autos today, and could get the helicopter stopped at 4-5 feet skid height, then did a power recovery and kept repeating. I am liking autos more and more now that I have a better technique for getting all the forward speed stopped. There is plenty of reserve rotor energy left. I practice my autos by going at various heights, a real engine out isn't selective on height! I then roll off the throttle, catch the yaw, and purposely let a bit of time go by before I drop the collective. I feel this better simulates a real engine out as it takes half a second to realize you need to drop collective.
Then I immediately drop collective and give it a little back stick. Any time you drop the collective, this dumps equal amount of pitch on the advancing blade at 3 o'clock as it does on the retreating blade at 9 o'clock. This causes more lift to be dumped on the advancing blade than the retreating blade, because of the higher relative airspeed, and makes the rotor lower at the 12 o'clock position because of the aerodynamic precession action. A little backstick gets the helicopter attitude close to the desired 60-65 mpg glide down. I pull collective and keep the rotor rpm's at the green and ride it down. Looks just like the same view if you had a camera strapped to the back of a free falling possum. There are a few different methods for flaring at the bottom, and I will mention the gentler flare where you give it back stick a little earlier and keep flaring to stop your vertical descent and forward airspeed. You want your path to be parallel to the ground while you do a quick stop at the end. Pulling backstick till you have milked out all you can to stop the forward groundspeed. You have the nose high and the skids need to be leveled at the end before touching down. If you just push forward on the cyclic, it won't be as effective as if you pull collective slightly first and do most of the leveling with whatever forward cyclic is needed. Now you should be doing a hover and settling. Pulling collective as needed to gently set it down. There is the more aggressive flare where your flare is later into the auto, more aggressive, and needing more precise timing. I am just practicing the gentler flares right now. The more aggressive flares are for getting into more confined areas where you don't have much forward room . Just another day in the office. No camera today by choice. All you need is three colors of crayons to draw your pictuream. White for the snow, blue for the sky, grey for the trees. Stan

Took off today and gave myself a birthday present. I finished wiring my fuel control switch, and then went flying. The weather wasnt very clear, but what a beautiful time I had flying. I landed several places. The 6th picture if you zoom in...you can see several deer bedded down in the corner of the woods. They didnt even get up after I came around a 2nd time. I flew over to see if the tenant was hauling corn off one of the farms. Must have been too cold.

I was testing my new dashlight that comes on when my fuel control lever hits its max stops. I gradually pulled more collective, but never got it to come on. I learned back in November not to pull the collective up to my armpit! I know that light would have been on then.


Stan

It still looks like Christmas there!!
So glad you gave yourself that present and thank you for sharing with pictures and phone call was unreal and a great deal of fun to be part of your birthday flight!!!

I like the way the chopper channel and your back yard looks from the air covered in snow, that is a neat view and shows the lay out of the yard and channel real well.

John and Tim----- Thanks. I have to pinch myself. Flying this helicopter is never boring, and if anything, I am loving it even more each flight. I am lost for words what it feels like to be able to come up on anything....descend...and hover there and looking around at one to two foot altitude, borrowing someones airspace over their land, and not break any laws. I never set down unless I have prior permission, but the thrill of flying without airspeed is so 3rd dimension. Vance.....help me out buddy....throw me some of your unique phrases that capture these moments.....wording that has me drag out the dictionary. I just am out of words...... The only thing that comes to my mind that best describes it is.....downright the ultimate euphoric rush moving tons of air over one spot on the earth being able to simulate a hummingbird.


Stan

Stan

Your search for words reminds me of the first time I did a pinnacle landing. Here's my best shot at describing that:

It was like trying to land a machine the size of a pick up on a barstool with someones rock collection on the seat.

My favorite use of words to describe an experience was printed in Rotorcraft about 30 years ago by Kas Thomas. He was describing the feeling of a jump takeoff in the Air and Space 18a. He said something like: Doing a jump takeoff in the 18a is the feeling of being pulled heavenward by a long stringy rubber band.

Years later when I finally got to fly an 18A, I recalled his words from years before and thought, Kas was right, it feels just as he described.

As you know, those who can find the right words can paint a picture in our minds that let those who are miles or years away experience what the writer felt for a fleeting moment, a moment that if not preserved in words, would be lost forever.

Mark

You are doing fine Stan!

You are doing fine Stan!

StanFoster said:

John and Tim----- Thanks. Vance.....help me out buddy....throw me some of your unique phrases that capture these moments.....wording that has me drag out the dictionary. I just am out of words...... The only thing that comes to my mind that best describes it is.....downright the ultimate euphoric rush moving tons of air over one spot on the earth being able to simulate a hummingbird.

Stan

Click to expand...

You feelings are what are important and they seem to be genuine.

We can each fill in our own words based on our similar life’s experience.

I do not have the words to describe your feelings.

I am often not even able to identify mine.

It helps me when I write about it.

Thank you, Vance

Vance said:

You feelings are what are important and they seem to be genuine.

We can each fill in our own words based on our similar life’s experience.

I do not have the words to describe your feelings.

I am often not even able to identify mine.

It helps me when I write about it.

Thank you, Vance

Click to expand...

Well said Vance.

Vance- Ok, nothing like our own words, you are absolutely correct. When I was out flying yesterday, I would see a secluded place around a bend in a creek, and use the capability of a helicopter , set up a nice approach, then right when I go through translational lift, my 800 hours of gyro flying tells my butt that I can't go slower. But I keep pulling back on the cyclic, and lowering the collective as I bring the helicopter to 0 mph as I again pull collective and add forward stick to level the skids. Here I feel a sense of just magically flying without airspeed, but what was now so cool was the physical proof of witnessing the snow as it was being removed from the ground, blown out in all 360 degrees, then climbing up into a huge bowl that found its way over the top of my rotor, being re ingested. Down through the rotor and forming this bowl shape pattern. It was perfect textbook proof of all the tons of air I was pumping to keep my skids 2 feet off the ground, never touching down. I was 2 feet from trespassing and just loving it. I recirculated the snow for awhile in that one spot, then decided I had enough excitement at that one point on earth, as I pulled collective and gave it forward stick, and then left this 3rd dimension of hovering. I circled back and I could see I left a distinct round pattern of snow removal, with one spot where my turbine exhaust melted the snow to bare ground. I had marked my spot on some farmers ground, and did it by borrowing his airspace and did not trespass since only my exhaust touched the ground. I left thinking it don't get any better than this. But, that is how I am wired , and we each have something that excites us more. Stan

That is the spirit Stan!

That is the spirit Stan!

Each time you try to express yourself we can build a framework of shared experiences and dreams so even if you don’t get better at describing it, we get better at an empathetic perception.

What I see is that you do get better at describing all of your passion.

You last musings are excellent example of that.

Thank you, Vance

Vance- thank you. You have a gift of saying your feelings in brevity. Such as when you say, " as I rise above the hilltops, my world expands". I wear out words like awesome, euphoric, and need to say why its awesome and euphoric. I eventually can say it , but requiring more words than you do. My descriptions have you wading waste deep in 50 gallons of maple tree sap. You just give us the 50 gallons of sap boiled down to one gallon of syrup, but 50 gallons of it! Stan

I had to push away from my computer that was spewing negitivity at me this morning...and just go burn some JetA.

I have always said I wanted to be able to land at a clients house. I have a client that has refurbished his home, and he called and wants a brazilian cherry stairway. I got his address, converted it to GPS coordinates and flew there much faster than I could have driven. This home was east of Peoria, Il. I set down...talked to him, I will have one of my stairways in his home, and I took some pictures and departed. What a fun mission. I can only imagine how much fun it will be commuting here. I can fly there in about 1/3 the time to drive, and that more than pays my fuel burn. This machine is a work horse......giddy up!

I am not done. I stopped at one of the largest farms I know of...and got the red carpet rolled out for me. I will talk about it in the next post.


Stan

Now that is what a helicopter is all about!
Way to live your dream and thanks for sharing!!!

As if I didnt have enough fun on my stair business flight...I set my GPS for this guys farm. It is one of the largest farms in my area. This guy is phenomenal. His workshop is gigantic.....heated concrete floors, cavernous room with those high ceilings. He rotates all his tractors and combines every year. Unbelievable the other building I went into that had his 36 row John Deere planter, huge crawler tractors, cranes, you name it, he had it.

His office had poker machines....peanut machines that automatically dispensed when your hand went in front of the chute, John Deere models, John Wayne memorabilia, his antique car collection, on and on and on.

This is the farmer I gave a ride in my SparrowHawk, and he wants to buy some R22 time with me.

This is what it is all about with how I am wired wanting to land where I want. Last fall I didnt do much of that as I was getting used to my envelope of my Helicycle and getting the feel of turbulence around buildings...tress...etc. Basically just getting my confidence up in handling whatever comes to me when I start doing my "off roading" stops. The cat is out of the bag now. Watch out 2011. I am coming and landing at your place!


Stan

I got a call while Stan was in route,he said you know who I have dreamed of flying to a clients house? then he said he was arriving there now. I hung up and started laughing so hard my mom thought I had lost it. she asked me what I was laughing about and I told her Stan is having way to much fun with his helicopter and said he normally does not try and work on a saturday,but he was having to much fun to call this flight out work.
Stan has worked long and hard to make his dreams of helicopter flight happen.
and I am glad he shared this flight with me on the phone.

one more dream complete Stan. way to go. keep flying that baby and showing what a personnal helicopter was made to do.

Random pictures from today. Just a georgous day out flying. I was always concerned about not having cabin heat. Well, what I have found out is the human body puts out about 400 btu's, and I bet that the level of adrenalin flowing through my veins has me kicking out more than that.... But anyway, even on a cloudy day, I have just a winter jacket, and have forgotten the idea of putting on a snowmobile suit. I was warm as toast...no gloves on....and flew a long time this morning. The cabin is very tight....and it felt very comfortable. I had plans for heating my seat....wearing heated vest.....ducting some hot air somehow......it would have been a total waste of time. I figure a person should have a coat on anyway should you have a forced landing. Its not even an issue as the single cabin uses your body heat very well to heat it. When the sun comes out, it actually gets like a green house in there with the doors shut...but I can pop some latches.

Stan

FAILED MISSION-

I tell the good and the bad. I had a third place to land at, it was my cousins farm. I have flown over it for years, and finally by God I was going to land there today. I set up a steep approach over some trees...and was down in ground effect when two giant newfoundland dogs of his come running....I raised my hovering up to about 6 feet, and those freakin dogs were right under me, under my tail rotor....I had to abort. I departed and came back for fun again....the dogs had disappeared...and even though I wasnt going to dare set down, I came in and high hovered again. Here they come around the corner of the building. I had never really considered aggressive dogs. They were jumping at my tail rotor. I have no doubt had I landed there would have been pieces of newfoundland dogs all over the snow, with a torn up tail rotor. FAILED MISSION......abort.....abort.........I am selling my helicopter.............................................NOT!!


Stan

Stan
Been meaning to ask you, your site tube. What did you use for the red float. I need to put one in mine.
Bensen Days, this year, maybe. Should be getting my insurance need week then get Dofin here and away we go. Then it's just 40 hours.

Tony- Bear Perkins sells the red floating cylinders. They work in a 1/4 inch fuel line.. Stan

Tim- It was fun talking to you yesterday on the phone about those two big dogs. When they came running, I went to high hover as those dogs were coming at me. I could see mt tail rotor shadow and the dogs shadows jumping at my tail. I could tell they ere leaping at my tail rotor. I called my cousin later and asked him what he saw. He said they were stretched out for the sky going after the tail with about 2 feet to spare! I told Tim there is never a dull moment flying a helicopter. This made an interesting logbook entry. . The only other encounter I have had with animals is when I had a jug break on my Bensen, and dead sticked into a pasture with a herd of cows in it. When I came back to retrieve my gyro, the herd was surrounding my gyro just like a quarterback is surrounded by football players in a huddle. Only thing is my gyro was rocking a little as the dang cows found them a new scratching apparatus! Stan