Jungleman
Junior Member
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2016
- Messages
- 86
- Location
- Jackson Bay. New Zealand
- Aircraft
- S64 Crane, MD 500 , Magni M16 & SC M912
John.
A good question and yes hill work can be interesting.
These are some of my observations & ideas. Anyone with others or different views chime in, I am all ears.
Depending if your talking say a strip with some slope or literally a hill. Like some of those rolling green ones you have in Ireland.
The back country areas in my previous posts & pics no hill work there as mainly riverbeds and beaches. So only side slope.
I do however at times trailer my gyro some 20 hrs to the North Island. Quite different country there with lots of farmers airstrips in steep hill country used for plane application of fertiliser. Some of these strips are plenty steep enough and operated on by very seasoned & current Ag pilots.
There are other hills available but a lot have sheep tracks sidling them. There is also an abundance of wires, power & electric fence.
In assessing / trying to determine issues I find it often beneficial to look at the extreme and that will make the issues more apparent & then work back from there.
So in this fine piece of art some things become very obvious right away
The landing phase the nose wheel is more likely to contact the ground first. “Wheelbarrowing “ & not what we like. Especially say with a linked nose wheel and maybe some cross wind so it may be well cocked.
So depending on the severity of slope we may need more flare to avoid this. We also do not really want a 3 point landing either.There will be room for a greater flare as the slope provides more tail clearance. Once mastered they are great fun. Even in calm conditions very little ground roll.
An obvious one if avoidable don’t park on the slope whilst having your lunch and rely on the brakes
The take off.
A few things here. First off how good are your brakes. As once over the edge you can be off down slope like a rocket and may not be able to abort, as stick hard back & throttle closed will not have the stopping effect it has on flat ground,
so brake reliant, or a 100% committed take off.
Depending on how steep, you may need a higher than normal pre rotation rpm to avoid over running your rotor & the associated flap issues. This can also be helped by not gunning the throttle early on.
Remembering two essential ingredients are needed to take off these are say 27 knots of AIR SPEED & 270 rotor rpm.
( numbers depending on conditions) One is no good without the other. Also an abundance of one may not make up for a short fall of the other.
Another issue is you will be much more likely to drag your tail & the more you pivot up on your tail as your trying to clear the ground/ slope your blades are possibly getting very close to the ground behind you.
So now the nitty gritty relevant to both the landing & take off phases. That is, possibly very different sight pictures than you are use to & associated issues with spacial disorientation. Depending on topography there maybe no real visible horizon. So reliant on more seat of the pants flying. For example on late approach to this steep green hill & thats all you see in front is green hill up to above the peak of your cap / helmet & you do not pick up on your bleeding off airspeed and you do a good bounce. A steep slope is not a good place to be doing one of those, save them for on the flat.
On the take off same thing now you are high tailing it down hill with no horizon and relying on other cues for attitude
reference. The trick is to fly it off the slope and then adjust to straight and level. So if you usually do a wheel balance
of say 8” then do that and you won’t drag your tail etc.
Hope that makes sense.
This is more for the extreme but remember baby steps and at first work on some gradual slopes where you do have a horizon. Remember something as simple as the sun can cause spacial disorientation.
Also the third drawing indicates the extra vigilance needed regarding rotor management & wind when on sloping or undulating ground. With the gyro leaning you may be more susceptible to the wind getting under the disk & getting toppled.
I am not a youtube kind of guy but at some stage I may set up some cameras as the footage on this topic may be more helpful than words.
A couple of pics below showing how loss of horizon can fox you a bit with reading the slope. You do have foxes in Ireland right ?
Pete
A good question and yes hill work can be interesting.
These are some of my observations & ideas. Anyone with others or different views chime in, I am all ears.
Depending if your talking say a strip with some slope or literally a hill. Like some of those rolling green ones you have in Ireland.
The back country areas in my previous posts & pics no hill work there as mainly riverbeds and beaches. So only side slope.
I do however at times trailer my gyro some 20 hrs to the North Island. Quite different country there with lots of farmers airstrips in steep hill country used for plane application of fertiliser. Some of these strips are plenty steep enough and operated on by very seasoned & current Ag pilots.
There are other hills available but a lot have sheep tracks sidling them. There is also an abundance of wires, power & electric fence.
In assessing / trying to determine issues I find it often beneficial to look at the extreme and that will make the issues more apparent & then work back from there.
So in this fine piece of art some things become very obvious right away
The landing phase the nose wheel is more likely to contact the ground first. “Wheelbarrowing “ & not what we like. Especially say with a linked nose wheel and maybe some cross wind so it may be well cocked.
So depending on the severity of slope we may need more flare to avoid this. We also do not really want a 3 point landing either.There will be room for a greater flare as the slope provides more tail clearance. Once mastered they are great fun. Even in calm conditions very little ground roll.
An obvious one if avoidable don’t park on the slope whilst having your lunch and rely on the brakes
The take off.
A few things here. First off how good are your brakes. As once over the edge you can be off down slope like a rocket and may not be able to abort, as stick hard back & throttle closed will not have the stopping effect it has on flat ground,
so brake reliant, or a 100% committed take off.
Depending on how steep, you may need a higher than normal pre rotation rpm to avoid over running your rotor & the associated flap issues. This can also be helped by not gunning the throttle early on.
Remembering two essential ingredients are needed to take off these are say 27 knots of AIR SPEED & 270 rotor rpm.
( numbers depending on conditions) One is no good without the other. Also an abundance of one may not make up for a short fall of the other.
Another issue is you will be much more likely to drag your tail & the more you pivot up on your tail as your trying to clear the ground/ slope your blades are possibly getting very close to the ground behind you.
So now the nitty gritty relevant to both the landing & take off phases. That is, possibly very different sight pictures than you are use to & associated issues with spacial disorientation. Depending on topography there maybe no real visible horizon. So reliant on more seat of the pants flying. For example on late approach to this steep green hill & thats all you see in front is green hill up to above the peak of your cap / helmet & you do not pick up on your bleeding off airspeed and you do a good bounce. A steep slope is not a good place to be doing one of those, save them for on the flat.
On the take off same thing now you are high tailing it down hill with no horizon and relying on other cues for attitude
reference. The trick is to fly it off the slope and then adjust to straight and level. So if you usually do a wheel balance
of say 8” then do that and you won’t drag your tail etc.
Hope that makes sense.
This is more for the extreme but remember baby steps and at first work on some gradual slopes where you do have a horizon. Remember something as simple as the sun can cause spacial disorientation.
Also the third drawing indicates the extra vigilance needed regarding rotor management & wind when on sloping or undulating ground. With the gyro leaning you may be more susceptible to the wind getting under the disk & getting toppled.
I am not a youtube kind of guy but at some stage I may set up some cameras as the footage on this topic may be more helpful than words.
A couple of pics below showing how loss of horizon can fox you a bit with reading the slope. You do have foxes in Ireland right ?
Pete
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