Commuter H-1B Hovering in the back yard with 320 pound pilot.

animal

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Deleon Springs Florida.
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Hillman Hornet N8063D
Well here it is, the long awaited for Video on the Commuter H-1B hovering with the 320 pound Pilot.

I am amazed it even got off the ground with this weight.

it's not much of a video, but was way to cool to me to see it hovering in my own back yard.


enjoy.

YouTube - Commuter H 1B hovers
 
Congratulations Tim, you achieved a long held aim that you have worked on for a while now. Hope you get a good price for her.

Was that his set belt dangling out of the right side while he was hovering? Mind you, as you said he had a rather large girth, it might not have fitted.
 
Tim- That was cool to watch. I love watching helicopters hover. The blades were coning pretty good with that little guy in there. Congratulations and thanks for sharing with us. Stan
 
Very good! Wow the blades were indeed under a pretty heavy load! But they did perform the job well. Was he running out of pedal for some reason?
 
Well done Tim, That's exciting! Surely you don't want to sell it now?

Cheers Cam
Cam yes it is for sale, if you read my rebuild thread from the start,I had bought this one to fix up to resell to a guy that wanted it to build time with. mid way thru the rebuild, he backed out.

I am not rated to fly it and at the moment I don't have the funds for lessons.

I still owe my Mother $7,000 for the loan she got me for my Subaru Forester.

my main goal it to get a 2 seat commuter project and finish building and learn to fly it.
 
Congratulations Tim, you achieved a long held aim that you have worked on for a while now. Hope you get a good price for her.

Was that his set belt dangling out of the right side while he was hovering? Mind you, as you said he had a rather large girth, it might not have fitted.

it was the access part of the seat belt, it was to long now as it is bolted to the seat frame.

yeah it really was to cool to see it hovering in the back yard.

now to work on the goal of seeing a 2 seater hovering in the back yard with me in it.. :)
 
Tim- That was cool to watch. I love watching helicopters hover. The blades were coning pretty good with that little guy in there. Congratulations and thanks for sharing with us. Stan

yeah that was the first thing I noticed was the coning angle, I was like dang I hope that hub holds up.

It looked pretty extreme.

I am still amazed it lifted him as well as it did.

No dought it will fly a light pilot with out any problems.
 
Very good! Wow the blades were indeed under a pretty heavy load! But they did perform the job well. Was he running out of pedal for some reason?
yeah Gabor,I think he was, I think the left pedal may have still been hitting the floor board some,I am going to cut some more clearance in it. I am also wondering with the full pitch and his weight if it did not have as much TR thrust.

I am thinking it must have been some major drag with the pitch of those main blades.

in this photo you can see how much pitch he had,and this was when he was lifting back off and was not at the full amount to lift him.

it also may need to pitch link adjustments still, I am going to put my digital level on it and see what they are reading at full pedal. I am making a cross bar with springs to the pedals as he did say the pedal springs where to tight and limiting the movement.

I would like to find a lighter Pilot to hover it and see how it does.
 

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Yeah I can tell the main blades were coning quite a bit. I'd say they were probably maxed out by the tiny pilot plus full tank..... it was also probably pretty warm and humid at the time.... every little bit counts. Still impressive on the first try :)
 
Yeah I can tell the main blades were coning quite a bit. I'd say they were probably maxed out by the tiny pilot plus full tank..... it was also probably pretty warm and humid at the time.... every little bit counts. Still impressive on the first try :)
yeah it was about 75 or so and very humid. he said when he flew it at his house in the morning it did a bit better.
I am still amazed it even got off the ground with that weight.

tell me if you think I am right,but do you think it was losing Tail Rotor due to the extreme drag on the main rotors slowing down?

and if you had a lighter Pilot it would not take as much pitch and should have plenty of tail rotor thrust since the engine speed would stay constant?

I know if you are losing engine speed you would lose tail rotor speed also.
in one point you see it stay dead steady for a few second.

Still I am tickled to see it just fly in the back yard, it has hit me more today after watching the videos over and over, that it really did come off the ground in my own back yard.

I have not gotten in contact with my Business partner yet who is the CFII. I was booted up in linux when I uploaded the video and my e-mail program was failing to send. and I could not get him on the phone.

I think a lighter pilot and we might see this baby hover steady.
 
Well yeah no question the main rotors being bugged down will mirror on the tail rotor effectiveness without a question. Most of the tailspin accidents are due to the very same thing and of course being on an extended long arm it is almost impossible to overcome it as it further bleeds the rpm on the main blades. Thus creating more coning and so on ....catch of 22 (not the R22 that's a different trap!!! LOL) I would love to know what the Rotor RPM was though. It did seem a bit slow. Now.....you do know this probably but 10% RPM loss on the blade can actually cause 30% loss in lifting performance on the blades. Sooooooo I am looking at it from a bit of different angle if I may. I really think it was rather due to the main blades were not up to speed. Hard to tall though on the a video and not being there..... Just my .02 pennies :) Still it does kick but as I said. Only fine tuning needed now :)
 
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I like it I like it, Great Job Animal, hope you sell it and get started on the new build. Maybe one day you can give me a ride in the two seater.. Hint Hint
 
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