The stab is there for several reasons...one is to optimize your attitude in cruise and autorotative descents. The other is to keep your nose from being too high during a hover and transition flight. When in cruise flight, the stab programs from down to in the neighborhood of level (depends on airspeed, etc). During an autorotative descent, the stab programs up to keep an optimal attitude. During forward flight, it basically acts as an airfoil to keep the nose attitude optimal. When in a hover and transitioning, the stab can't work as an airfoil so the stab slews down so that the rotor downwash hitting it doesn't cause an unnecessarily nose high hover (the 60 likes to hover a couple of degrees nose up). If you turn off the auto control and keep the stab at 0, you end up hovering a few degrees higher than normal. If your stab decides it doesn't want to play anymore and you happen to be clipping along at high speed close to the ground when it programs full down or has an actuator hardover, you're probably going to end up with your nose pointed at the ground and a few seconds to say "shit". Stab failures at low alt killed a couple of army folks when the 60 first showed up.
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"612, Charlie, spot...."
- Thread starter ChuckMK23
- Start date
There are benefits to being able to fly low and slow, or to stop and hover and enjoy the scenery if necessary.
Have you ever drank beer around a bunch of Aviators, the conversation will inevitably end up on some aspect of flying.
I'm sober, therefore I don't want to talk about the Stabilator on my aircraft. That said...maybe I'll pay attention to the stab's indicator during autos tomorrow....
Looks like the end of an aggressive quick stop to me. High nose attitudes like that are not uncommon. If done right, it's a 100%Nr maneuver from start to finish. We had an O-4 in my former squadron that had been a test pilot. He would do them from time to time when he would charlie. It always got the guys from line shack fired up. I remember one time the boss asked to see him afterward, but he just went and explained the maneuver to him and showed the procedures from the MDG. The boss thought he was hot dogging, but cooled off when he found out that it is no big deal.
If the guys in the back are either AW's on a gunner's belt or EOD/SEALs waiting to fast rope. They often wear flight suits and knee pads for that type of deal.
If the guys in the back are either AW's on a gunner's belt or EOD/SEALs waiting to fast rope. They often wear flight suits and knee pads for that type of deal.
It's not something you would normally look at in an auto but is an FCF item (in addition to random chapter two info).
Hawks seem easier to do this with, especially if the back is empty. I know the SeaHawk is a little more robust than the slicked UH-60A/L, but damn! Vortex Ring State, haven't talked about that since flight school, didn't think it applied as much to the Hawk either with T/R on the right side. I'd be more worried about settling with power. Yeah.....it's a rotorhead thing.......keep the greasy side down! and look cool doin it!
is there not some kind of indicator in the cockpit wrt stab position?
There is in mine! I think they reference it a couple of times in this string for the 60, but since it is not part of the steady state factors during and Autorotation, and your more worried about Rotor RPM, A/S, and Trim, It is typically not a part of the cross check. Unless the thing fails, or you put it in manual mode, the auto mode takes care of it all. This is of course, mostly from the AH-64D and Army terms.
There is. I was typing fast so I probably didn't word that well. In a regular practice auto, you only worry about the normal things (attitude, Nr, ball, line up, etc). During a the FCF check for the stab, you enter an auto and make sure it programs up accordingly on the gauge. Only takes a couple of seconds and then you recover.