Going up and coming back down

[Whirly-Girl]

I flew at my first job site yesterday and felt comfortable with the going up part. At the flying field, it is easy to make those nice, slow spiraling decents because of the wide-open spaces. What do you suggest for flying in a tight area? I now coming straight down through rotor wash is not the best of ideas, but I didn't want to take any more risks yesterday and fly over other people's yards/vehicles.

Jeanette

[rkeith2]

Good for you -

photos?

[AZ ChopperCam]

vertical decents are fine provided you do them slowly. another method I use is zig zagging.

I'll fly forward about 40-50 feet while descending, then stop the forward motion and decent and then fly it backwards another 40-50 feet while descending.... repeat as needed. works well for coming down in a confined area and keep syou pretty much right on top of the landing zone while keeping some airspeed over the disk during the descent phases.

Also really tight spirals works good. maybe just 40 feet in diameter is large enough to keep fresh air over the disk.

[Whirly-Girl]

I like the sounds of your zig zag method. I'm going to practice that tomorrow when I go take pictures of an RV camping facility.

:cool:

This is getting to be FUN!

Oh, Ron, I posted my pictures from yesterday under the "Daily Picture" thread topic.

Jeanette

[dreslism]

I zig zag also, but have always done it tail in, side to side as this is just my personal preference, then I have no issue with depth perception. Zagging forward 40-50 ft
may turn into something farther without me realizing it.

I have also noticed that when it is really windy or even just a decent wind, that I am not affected as much by the rotor wash while descending through it.

Anyone else confirm this or is it just my imagination?

[AZ ChopperCam]

Anyone else confirm this or is it just my imagination?

confirmed. the wind will blow the rotorwash downwind so you're always in clean air. steady winds allow you do do some vertical descents with no problem

[wwellman]

I also bring the heli down tail in. I've been doing the AP since 2002 and I haven't had the heli get hit by its' own rotor wash yet. Maybe I've been lucky but I don't think so. I've got only two kinds of luck.....

NO LUCK and BAD LUCK :D

Walter

RPVaerialphoto.com

[Wild Moose]

Congratulations on your first (of many) jobs Jeanette!

Zig-zagging works for me as well. If I maintain some lateral movement (fore/aft/side-to-side) then I'm usually in good shape.

On calm days, I sometimes just rock the heli a bit using cyclic. I believe it artificially creates some lateral movement of the downwash. I've rarely experienced that power-on settling phenomena and the last time I experienced it, I literally had to tilt the heli more than 20° with a short blast if collective in order to regain control.

Curious, does anyone know if decreasing disk loading helps with this condition?

-Roger

[Whirly-Girl]

I was going to practice some ZZ'ing today at the flying field and then head up the hill to take some photos of the Family Campground here on base, but I ran into a weird rattle that got worse during spool up and hover. I'm getting ready to tear into my Raptor right now and see if I can find some bad bearings. :dontknow

http://www.helifreak.com/viewtopic.php?t=15839

Wish me luck! I may have to order some bearings tomorrow from HeliProz...guess I might as well get the parts needed to stretch my Raptor!

Jeanette

[AZ ChopperCam]

see the post I made in that thread. I'll bet it's either belt tension, clutch or auto bearing or a combo of all 3