RAF Air Helicopter Club Mon 22nd June

[john (scooby)]

Hard to tell on my phone mukka but that looks like the curve to me

[Neil Willis]

Yep. they're curves. I would avoid negative values Mutley.

[Chris]

Some ideas for collective....

1st picture is simple plastic tube and a couple of elbow bends zip tied to the left throttle.... I flew all helos with this for years and it really worked a treat... the additional leverage really helped for collective control and cheap as chips...

The 2nd came about around 3 years ago I was speaking to a mate who was building a sim pit from Mi8/ Mi24 real seats / dash / collective / cyclic all from Russia via Ebay - sure some were probably radioactive if you know that story but hey, relatively cheap... anyway he said I have an idea.... 3 days later a bolt on for the thrustmaster throttle which had 2x 8 way hats... around 8 or so toggle switchs some 3 way & push buttons - and a twist grip throttle with hall sensor and friction control compliments of a ebike throttle again ebay.... Works very well....

[Mutley]

Yep. they're curves. I would avoid negative values Mutley.

seeing as these are the default issues , ive not touched them.

as per usal i ask a simple question and all i get is flak . i will work it out for my self . so much for sharing knowagle.

[Neil Willis]

Flak? I don’t see anyone saying anything untoward.

[Chris]

Mutley, if you are using the standard TM HOTAS then I would recommend no curves for the collective.

[Wee Neal 0414]

Hi Mutley

I have not played with the user curves, but I set my main curve to 30 and like how that works. I found 35 a bit to sensitive.

Neal

[Mutley]

thank you chris , i was looking for more response from the colective as i dont see the point in only half of the stick travel actully working, ie it seems to only work from around half way to full, which iam pretty sure is wrong , anyway iam playing with some settings in the lower part of the range to see if that helps.

[Neil Willis]

That’s where those negative and low numbers are the issue Mutley. I’d simply flatten the curve as a starting point and see how that feels.

The other factor is that you need much more collective to get airborne than to stay there. Without going into details, you get less lift the slower you’re flying, and when you get close to the hover, lift falls drastically. Rate of descent also factors in a loss of lift the faster you sink. It eventually becomes impossible to hold your altitude, and moving sideways will take you out of that area of low lift, and make collective more effective again.

We will no doubt over all these factors as we learn. Just hang in there mate.

[Chris]

thank you chris , i was looking for more response from the collective as i dont see the point in only half of the stick travel actually working, ie it seems to only work from around half way to full, which iam pretty sure is wrong , anyway iam playing with some settings in the lower part of the range to see if that helps.

In addition to Neils post, with the Huey the collective adjusts the AOA of the blades and is not a throttle like in a conventional FW. A box of gizmos called a governor automatically does that for you in an attempt to keep the blade RPMs constant.

So, with a TM HOTAS most of the work in done mid range and not back and forth. Sensitivity is good without curves despite Chuck suggesting 11... In essence for normal flight the position of the collective will hardly change from a 5' hover to 90 knot cruise... but of course once we start pushing the envelope we will to tend to use it more. If your 'stiction' is zero and your friction is just on a little so you can just feel it then all will be good.... zero curves is still my recommendation. The cyclic is different, spring pressure, stick length, trim set up all come into play for that and will take experimentation to find a personal sweet spot.