Proper way to move in a firing position and hover

[Galwran]

I'm having a blast flying the Gazelle, but I'm having slight difficulties in acquiring a stable hover & firing position. When I start the hover, I have to use a lot of rudder so it takes me a lot of time to find the target again and be able to fire at it. I guess that you cannot trim the rudder :/

 

What would be the best or the fastest way to go from a travel speed at 100m altitude in to a hover and then fire at the target?

[Len62]

Check this thread for some info. I still struggle some with this, not enough practice.

http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=168099&highlight=Len62

[Mt5_Roie]

For me I usually look ahead for a good hiding spot to hover in. Then I drop collective a bit and pull back cyclic to slow down. I use the airspeed indication on the NADIR to make sure I'm in auto hover parameters and then slowly move to my hiding location. Then establish auto hover.

 

I usually make sure I'm lower then needed. I hop in the commander seat and turn on TV. I then turn off auto collective and rise just enough for the TV to be able to spot targets. Find them, and take them out.

[molevitch]

For me I usually look ahead for a good hiding spot to hover in. Then I drop collective a bit and pull back cyclic to slow down. I use the airspeed indication on the NADIR to make sure I'm in auto hover parameters and then slowly move to my hiding location. Then establish auto hover.

 

I usually make sure I'm lower then needed. I hop in the commander seat and turn on TV. I then turn off auto collective and rise just enough for the TV to be able to spot targets. Find them, and take them out.

Hi Poly Roie,

 

How do you turn off "auto Collective" please? I astill have not worked out how to do that!

[VR-Hunter]

Auto-collective is C

[Mt5_Roie]

keyboard button C

 

I have my mapped to my joystick

 

Hi Poly Roie,

 

How do you turn off "auto Collective" please? I astill have not worked out how to do that!

[nomdeplume]

I'm having a blast flying the Gazelle, but I'm having slight difficulties in acquiring a stable hover & firing position. When I start the hover, I have to use a lot of rudder so it takes me a lot of time to find the target again and be able to fire at it.

Mostly it's just practice, practice, practice. I'd say just take it up at an airport and practice hurtling down over the runway and coming to a stop as quickly as you can, while minimising your altitude gain/loss.

 

As you practice it the pedal inputs to maintain heading will become somewhat second-nature. It will vary a little bit based on altitude and temperature but once you've got the general feel of it those differences should be pretty minor and easily corrected.

 

As for technique, what I normally do is dump the collective to zero as I approach the stopping position, and pull back on the cyclic to pitch up in order to maintain altitude. It's generally easier to use an out-of-cockpit visual reference for this if you're at low altitude, as the vertical speed indicator will lag a little bit.

 

If you find yourself descending while you're still reasonably fast (80+ km/h) you can just pull back more to decelerate faster and maintain altitude. If you find yourself climbing you'll need to pitch forward a bit. Practice doing it a whole bunch and you'll develop a feel for how fast you can come to a stop without popping up.

 

As your speed drops through 80-60 km/h, you'll need to start applying right rudder to maintain heading. This is just normal transition and you can practice until you get a feel for when and how much rudder you need to apply.

 

Also as your speed drops below around that 60-80 km/h range you'll find yourself needing to pull in collective to maintain altitude. I'd suggest start practising at a hundred metres or so above ground level so you have plenty of time to recover. As you get more confident start doing it lower and lower, until you're racing along at 10 metres above the ground, then coming to a rapid stop.

 

Another technique is to roll into a steep left or right bank and pull back on the cyclic - basically placing the aircraft perpendicular to your velocity vector, and rolling against it (picture it the same as pulling back to pitch the nose up in forward flight, only your tilting the helo left or right instead of 'up'). This feels like it sheds speed a bit faster (wind resistance against the fuselage?) and can be useful when you need to dash into cover and then turn to face the target.

 

Also in some cases, you will actually want to gain a little bit of altitude - imagine if you're doing a ground-hugging dash to get behind a large hill or ridge line, you can then pull back back more than you normally would in order to stop faster and also gain altitude to put you just below the peak as you come into a hover.

 

Again, mostly it just comes down to muscle memory or intuitive feeling - so, practice and lots of it. The nice thing is that Gazelle is quick to start up and really fun to fly about at low altitude, and if you spend an hour just zipping around the cities and skidding to a stop behind buildings you'll find yourself developing a really good feel for how it handles, and those rudder corrections will start to become automatic.

[Slazi]

A physical rudder definitely helps. If you're using twist joystick, it's almost impossible.

[molevitch]

Auto-collective is C

 

THANKS!

[molevitch]

keyboard button C

 

I have my mapped to my joystick

 

THANKS!