USN HT's a calamity

[Jim123]

-Clearing arc during generator swap over - meh
... Has it really been 21 years since I flew a Seahawk? Yes!)

The infamous head-chopping incident happened 16-17 years ago. Methinks the cyclic friction was backed off completely. As you know (with a lot more 60 hours than me), a cyclic adjusted that way--with the force trim off--can fall over like a pencil and the rotor will dutifully follow. (You just have to guard it if you're going to be messing with generators.)

 

[fc2spyguy]

HS:
- To be fair and balanced, I was taught to pull a little collective during HYD LEAK test. Not in NATOPS, and not necessary.

Are you sure? I don't have a NATOPS available right now, but could have sworn that was in chapter 7.

 

[Pags]

Does HSC, specifically old HC, still "unofficially endorse" two looks on dynamic components during pre-flights? Requirement wasn't written anywhere when I was in the fleet but everyone did it and the thought of not doing it was sacrosanct. Then during my test tour all the HS and HSL guys looked at me like I was crazy. HS response: "if the 2P gets sent to preflight by himself on the roof how do you get two looks?"

 

[hscs]

Does HSC, specifically old HC, still "unofficially endorse" two looks on dynamic components during pre-flights? Requirement wasn't written anywhere when I was in the fleet but everyone did it and the thought of not doing it was sacrosanct. Then during my test tour all the HS and HSL guys looked at me like I was crazy. HS response: "if the 2P gets sent to preflight by himself on the roof how do you get two looks?"

Don't think so - thought that was broken early on, but a few probably hung on to the idea. Either way, the 'unofficially endorse' is BS. If it is so important, then it needs to be in an SOP, NATOPS, etc.

 

[Gatordev]

It always amazed me how long it took guys to stop verbalizing checklist items. "Dude, you're a HAC, we both know the IBIT takes two minutes. Just hit the damned button. "

Or reciting each EP during a NATOPS brief. I'm already supposed to know what the EP is, you don't have to tell it to me. This is why NATOPS briefs last 30 minutes. I'm pretty much not listening after 5 minutes.

Everyone clears arc before turning main gens on or off. Heard both senior chief decapitation and junction box/GCU explosion explanations for this, but not in NATOPS, and controls should be in hand.

This seems to be a Romeo thing. It wasn't a Bravo thing, at least for me. We just made sure to guard the controls. When I transitioned, I went from flying Bravos on one coast to flying Romeos on another within a month and all of a sudden I was told to check the arc. Then I came back and the school house does it here, too, so it seems like this crept in with the new birds.

It also annoys me when PC freak out that someone is shutting down with someone standing right at the cabin door plugged into ICS. If my head gets cut off standing here, there's much bigger issues.

 

[Pags]

Don't think so - thought that was broken early on, but a few probably hung on to the idea. Either way, the 'unofficially endorse' is BS. If it is so important, then it needs to be in an SOP, NATOPS, etc.

Agreed it's BS, but that was an unwritten requirement during my time in the FRS/Fleet from 06-09. I stopped doing it at my test tour and then stopped flying.

 

[croakerfish]

Agreed it's BS, but that was an unwritten requirement during my time in the FRS/Fleet from 06-09. I stopped doing it at my test tour and then stopped flying.

Yes, that's still common practice. I've never been told "make sure you get two looks on the engines" or told a new guy that it was a standard or anything but it seems to be understood as the accepted practice, and that goes for new Super JOs and DHs coming out here as well.

 

[DanMa1156]

I think what you are trying to say is that.... judgement applies. Anytime somebody is inside the rotor arc, there should be a set of paws on the sticks. However, to say taking your hands off of the controls is always a bad thing is just not true. You would hate the Cobra. During arm/dearm, control surfaces are separated between pilots (One braces cyclic w/ knees, one has pedals with ordies inside the arc) and I routinely take my hands off the sticks to shorthand 9 lines/sit updates, switch armament selections, troubleshoot systems on the fly, throw grids in the Nav system, switch lighting, and at 15-20 degrees nose up before I lower the nose onto a target, I take my hand off of the collective to turn the master arm on.

There's a balance, but being overly conservative does not always translate well to the fleet. HOCAS is also pretty fucking sweet tool if you got it.

Kind of. But, split controls is one thing (hell, the HSC community will soon - if it hasn't already - start performing maneuvers / landings with split controls!)... saying "I have the controls," But letting go of all of them completely without guarding them is another, especially when the reason is because you just want to zoom out on your iPad or something. But, good point of discussion.

 

[DanMa1156]

IRT hands off, I used to be way more serious about it, but I still think that if not held, they generally need to be at least guarded. A helo turning on the ground isn't a fixed wing. That stick will still flip you over if the nimrod next to you decides to dive for his pen.

I had to deal with F/W guys transitioning to the V-22 and some of them were way too cavalier about having their hands off the controls.

This.

 

[DanMa1156]

Does HSC, specifically old HC, still "unofficially endorse" two looks on dynamic components during pre-flights? Requirement wasn't written anywhere when I was in the fleet but everyone did it and the thought of not doing it was sacrosanct. Then during my test tour all the HS and HSL guys looked at me like I was crazy. HS response: "if the 2P gets sent to preflight by himself on the roof how do you get two looks?"

Never had this issue in my HSC time from 2012-2016. I recall one guy saying it was mandatory and everyone looked at him crosseyed.

 

[SynixMan]

My understanding was "Two eyes on everything" was an HSC-2ism from their SOP that bled into the fleet from Cat Is. Made sense at -2 since nuggets weren't NATOPS qualled and generally dumb, but we regularly split preflight duties in my fleet squadron and was delineated in our SOP.

 

[Pags]

My understanding was "Two eyes on everything" was an HSC-2ism from their SOP that bled into the fleet from Cat Is. Made sense at -2 since nuggets weren't NATOPS qualled and generally dumb, but we regularly split preflight duties in my fleet squadron and was delineated in our SOP.

Before it was an HSC-2 thing it was an HC Phrog community thing from when their airplanes were falling apart on them.

Sounds like it's still got some legs put in the community.

 

[Gatordev]

But letting go of all of them completely without guarding them is another, especially when the reason is because you just want to zoom out on your iPad or something.

In a -60? Why? Times everything works with the trim on the AFCS greatly out-weighs the times it fails. I'm not talking about entering or exiting the arc, or turning things on and off, but basically all the other times. It's really not the end of the world.

 

[Hotdogs]

But letting go of all of them completely without guarding them is another, especially when the reason is because you just want to zoom out on your iPad or something. But, good point of discussion.

No that just means the person who passed the controls didn't follow the procedure correctly and should get his dick smashed accordingly. Not because there is an inherent failure in the flight control system. Also have never experienced anything like that before.

 

[Pags]

In a -60? Why? Times everything works with the trim on the AFCS greatly out-weighs the times it fails. I'm not talking about entering or exiting the arc, or turning things on and off, but basically all the other times. It's really not the end of the world.

Fun fact: an H-60 in flight with a decent AFCS will maintain attitude and heading pretty damn well if you don't touch the controls. My last year flying the 60 I spent a fair amount of time flying with my hands near the controls and feet flat on the deck. Turns out the money the Navy spent on the AFCS developed a decent system when used properly that allows an aviator to focus more on mission execution and less on flying the Helo. If needed you could easily fly a 60 single pilot and do all the button pushing while the AFCS handles the holding of the attitude, heading, etc. this gets even easier if you turn one of the alt holds on as well. I know there's a reluctance to use alt hold all the time because we want nuggets to get time flying the airplane but it's kind of silly to essentially not use a workload management tool and instead fly a $15M Helo with an advanced AFCS like it's a Bell 206 from 1965.