| Practice those Autos!!!
Flew for the first time in ages today....must have been near 8 weeks since I flew last.
Zipped around ok....felt fine....went and did a torque turn with the heli almost upside down...pulled out ok and the engine quit!!!!
Holy Moly!!!! I have never had an engine out on me before.....right over the worst possible ground too.....did a quick glance and selected an area....dropped the collective and held my breath....heli floated down and seemed to keep if not increase its headspeed.....flared...and held a hover just inches off the ground....heli settled nicely.
I think I might have overdid the oil content....a bit too much...carried on flying albeit more carefully.
So.....if you dont practice autos...you should...beacuse one day that heli could just quit working...or rather the powerplant could quit.
The heli is a Predator Gasser.....it weighs about 5 kgs....and I use carbon blades set at minus 4 degrees for autos....which seems about fine.
Tips for autos on a sim.....adjust the parameters to get the heaviest heli with the worst blades possible....ie high drag and low weight....a really good way is to set your fuel limit and fly around...just mess about till the engine conks out so you have to auto....its a challenge but could help save your real heli when things do go wrong.
Rob  |