• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

Hot new helicopter/rotorcraft news

Fixed wing guy...

1. T-bar cyclic is different from everything else in the service. Yes, I know, it only takes a little while “to get used too,” but how will that translate when a student jumps to the TH-73? My consideration is that the control system is different and actually feels different.
I went from the T-2 Buckeye jet with throttle on the left and stick in the right hand, to the T44 (and then E2) with throttle on the right and yoke in the left hand. The switching of hands dwarfs any change in feel the helo folks would experience, I am guessing. We muddled through expeditiously with it.
 
Fixed wing guy...


I went from the T-2 Buckeye jet with throttle on the left and stick in the right hand, to the T44 (and then E2) with throttle on the right and yoke in the left hand. The switching of hands dwarfs any change in feel the helo folks would experience, I am guessing. We muddled through expeditiously with it.
I agree…there is no doubt that helicopter students will muddle through as well…but is muddling really what we want to do? It is equally clear that F-35 guys have to make the switch from finding the stick between your legs to finding it on the right (or even Airbus guys going from a wheel to a stick on the left).
 
I agree…there is no doubt that helicopter students will muddle through as well…but is muddling really what we want to do? It is equally clear that F-35 guys have to make the switch from finding the stick between your legs to finding it on the right (or even Airbus guys going from a wheel to a stick on the left).
I exaggerated with the muddling. It takes one or three flights before the mind subsumes the swap. Kind of amazing actually that a hand swap isn't more challenging. Try flipping a guitar over and swapping the strumming and the fretting.

Some trained test pilot can weigh in, but my understanding of assessing handling qualities of a plane is that you have to do it early in the process, because pretty quickly the mind sorts out how to deal with it and then, "This isn't so bad."
 
I exaggerated with the muddling. It takes one or three flights before the mind subsumes the swap. Kind of amazing actually that a hand swap isn't more challenging. Try flipping a guitar over and swapping the strumming and the fretting.

Some trained test pilot can weigh in, but my understanding of assessing handling qualities of a plane is that you have to do it early in the process, because pretty quickly the mind sorts out how to deal with it and then, "This isn't so bad."
Again, don’t necessarily disagree…but if that is the metric, why aren’t we training our primary guys in Cessna 152’s? Why not Tecnam piston twins for multi engine advance? In any case, the cyclic isn’t my primary reason for dismissing the R66 as an effective military trainer.
 
Again, don’t necessarily disagree…but if that is the metric, why aren’t we training our primary guys in Cessna 152’s? Why not Tecnam piston twins for multi engine advance? In any case, the cyclic isn’t my primary reason for dismissing the R66 as an effective military trainer.
I keep thinking, If the requirement is only to produce a pilot to the Private Pilot Helicopter ACS standard - perhaps it doesn't matter. The military portion of their development in pilot training won't happen until Advanced.
 
I keep thinking, If the requirement is only to produce a pilot to the Private Pilot Helicopter ACS standard - perhaps it doesn't matter. The military portion of their development in pilot training won't happen until Advanced.
Fair enough. If we are actually looking to save some real tax payer money then why not require that all military applicants come to the service with a ppl (IFR) in hand? I mean the bachelors degree is only a measure that someone can finish something - just replace that with a ppl and start them all at some kind of intermediate.
 
If we are actually looking to save some real tax payer money then why not require that all military applicants come to the service with a ppl (IFR) in hand?
Currently this is basically the situation in the AF - especially ANG and Reserve units...
 
Last edited:
Back
Top