R44 transition training started!

RotaryWingBob

RotaryWingBob

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Gone West
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Feb 23, 2005
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Chester County, PA
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iHover
What a joy the Raven II is to fly :yes:

We started out with a takeoff from the taxiway, out over the trees, then worked on straight and level flight, steep turns, and AS control over the range from 110 kt down to 60 kt. This was followed by an OGE (out of grand effect) hover at 1500 agl, then a long straight-in approach to landing -- I aced that one in spite of the fact that that helicopter wanted to fly a lot faster than I wanted it to, but I kept it bang on at 60 kt during the approach.

Next we did basic hover work -- pedal turns, recovery from a spin in hover, touchdowns, running landings, slope landings, and hovering autorotations. The R44 has so much more rotor system inertia, that the hovering autos, which gave me fits in our R22, were a piece of cake.

We then flew a bunch of autorotations including one to a landing (the first time I had ever done that). Both of us were pleased with my autos, and it truly is much easier in the R44.

We then wound up the session with a normal landing in the pattern (or to the grass actually since there was an airplane about to turn final), and then called it a day.

Oh, how I love this ship :D

All of us have another session tomorrow, and I am really looking forward to it!
 
The R44 sure does autorotate nice doesn't it. At 4.7:1 it's almost as good as some of the airplanes I've flown. Also it climbs better and goes faster with me and an instructor than a JetRanger.

Fine machine.

Joe
 
Areeda said:
The R44 sure does autorotate nice doesn't it. At 4.7:1 it's almost as good as some of the airplanes I've flown. Also it climbs better and goes faster with me and an instructor than a JetRanger.

Fine machine.

Joe
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It sure does. With the additional rotor inertia, it's really easy to enter an auto and hold RPM and AS too...
 
Bob was that you saturday, 3:30 4ish? Man that baby looked sweet and those steep in approaches yeooooow!

I think I was the cessna on final in 46C, I watched you come in and land but over on the north side of 27.

Good luck with the R44, sweet looking :yes:
 
GMascelli said:
Bob was that you saturday, 3:30 4ish? Man that baby looked sweet and those steep in approaches yeooooow!

I think I was the cessna on final in 46C, I watched you come in and land but over on the north side of 27.

Good luck with the R44, sweet looking :yes:
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Gary, I think I was still flying about that time -- we were probably doing autorotations about then (lots of autorotations!).

Our ship will have the same paint scheme (Astro) but will be metallic blue with gold trim.

I love the Raven II -- I thought it would be like moving from a sports car to a sedan, but it's more like going from a Boxster to a Carrera :D

It is more fun to fly than any of us imagined :yes:
 
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