The Eclectic Technologist

I finally got around to purchasing Microsoft Flight Simulator. Several months ago, I bought a Thrustmaster Top Gun joystick at a local computer show for a song ($5.00). It was used, but works great! The original sticker price was $70.00, well worth the gamble, IMHO.

Flight simulator out of the box has a few interesting planes, but only two helicopters: Robinson R22 and Bell Jetranger. I downloaded F-16 and Hughes/MD 500D models. Even though, I’m a pure helicopter pilot, I still like the idea of full aerobatic maneuvers with jet power and speed!

My initial attempts at simulated airplane flight were not a problem. I broke many altitude and structural limits, but at least I could keep it in the air without too much trouble. I was able to achieve reasonable forward flight in helicopters also, but hovering was a problem. After quite a bit of twiddling with the realism settings, I was convinced I had something set wrong. Both the R22 and Bell just did not fly like the real thing. The Bell clearly showed it’s sluggishness compared with the R22, but both were far too twitchy.

After some Googling,  I stumbled on Hover Control. They had some good tips on how to configure FS 2004 properly for helicopter flight. The most important appears to be the general adjustment in the realism tab. That should be one click less than hard right. That seemed to do the trick.

Now the R22, JetRanger, and Hughes 500 all seem to work more or less like the real thing. There are clearly some limitations. The engine and rotor tachometers don’t change at all under any flight condition. This is not a big deal under powered flight, but it’s a real problem during autorotation. The JetRanger model at least flares without power, but the R22 just slams into the ground with 100% RPM. Without response from the rotor tach, it’s hard to determine what the collective setting should be.
I haven’t been able to find any information on the Web about simulated autorotation. If you know anything about it, please let me know.

Over the weekend, I happened to run across the guts of a turbine from an Auxilliary Power Unit (APU). Upon closer inspection, I noticed chipped blades on the output wheel. The owner admitted that when he first started it up, he introduced fuel at low RPM. It ran, but several hot chips flew out of the exhaust. He shut it down and then learned of the catastrophic damage. “It was an expensive lesson” went the apology.

I’ve flown turbine helicopters on several occastions, but I never started them myself. The owner/operators were very concerned about hot starts. After seeing the potential damage first hand, I don’t blame them.

Flights are great places to meet interesting people. Yesterday, I was sitting next to an actual Tuskegee airman! He was a Washington, DC native and had wonderful stories of the city in the old days. He talked about dirt roads in DC (it wasn’t always paved!) and large canopies of trees that have since been cleared. It made the two hour flight much shorter.

The trainer used during WWII was a Stearman, a single engine tail dragger. There weren’t many opportunities for pilots after the war, so many left the military. We talked quite a bit about flying, what else would pilots talk about?

The Tuskegee airmen were recently honored for their service during world war II. As many are aware, they were not given the credit they were due years ago. Even though they were officers, some were even court martialed for entering officer facilities! From what I was told, the movie was an accurate depiction of the times.