Vortex Ring State

[masonator]

Here's why I love this sim:

I was just cruising around practicing my flying, and I came to a hover just over a small river. I was quite high, so I cut collective and was decending. I was just about to engage autohover when the aircraft began to shudder and I began losing altitude very quickly. I remember reading about "vortex ring state" in the manual just a couple of hours before, so I was prepared. I left the collective where it was and I pitched forward, increasing speed. I recovered from the vortex ring state, but at this point I was VERY low, and although I pulled back and increased collective, I still smacked the ground...not very hard, but hard enough. A quick scan of the failures display showed all systems functioning, but not wanting to push my luck, I decided to end the practice flight and RTB. the flight back to base was uneventful.

 

Once I reached base, I began slowing down and decending. At 65kph, I pulled gear down...uh oh --- the right side gear light was not coming on. I guess that smack on the ground really did do some damage.

 

So I decided...what was worse: landing with no right side gear, or putting the Werewolf down on her belly. I decided that a belly landing was preferable, as I was worried that mixed-gear landing would cause the props to ground-strike, which could be catastrophic.

 

But, being pretty new at flying the Black Shark, my landings haven't been the greatest. I've been getting better, but not good enough to try a belly landing. Oh well...necessity is the mother of invention. I needed to invent some skill --- fast.

 

So after a little bit of gentle coaxing, I managed to set her down INCREDIBLY gently. I was actually quite impressed with my landing. I immediately shut down the engines and cut fuel flow. No need to start a fire.

 

Long story short - this sim is un-frikken-believably awesome. The damage model alone is enough to warrant the $25 price tag!

 

Some pics of me belly-side down, engines off:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/K3UqNKsw-iD3iZhfJ44lsQ

Edited November 26, 2008 by masonator

[Amraam]

Pictures aren't showing mate :(

[masonator]

Pictures aren't showing mate :(

 

Yeah, I hate Picassa! Stupid google, with their outrageous stock prices and world domination! ;)

 

I'll see if I can find a picture hosting site out there. Back soon!

[patricio_z]

I would love to see some successful auto rotation landings

[Shepski]

Nice job!

 

I brought it home to a belly landing with the tail section completely missing... among other things.

[Draco]

successful auto rotation landings

 

= Anything you can walk away from.

 

if you're still alive and not on fire it's considered by most to have been successful.

 

I can put it down engines out. but I'm usually looking at moderate gear damage.

 

What would be really cool is if someone could find the emergency procedures checklists for the Ka-50.

Edited November 27, 2008 by Draco

[Zorrin]

To add to Draco's post.

 

Any landing you walk away from is a good one. If you can use the aircraft again, it's a great landing...

 

Not quite got the autos yet... Often find I'm landing slightly too heavy and the blades meet. But at the point in time I'm not that fussed I'm down in one piece :)

[fragal]

Nice job!

 

I brought it home to a belly landing with the tail section completely missing... among other things.

 

hmm think i remember that one :p

[Shrubbo]

Ahhh vortex ring state.. The beginnings of training, went something like...

 

WTF

What the hell happened there.

Oooooooh

Ahhh crap again.

Oooh jeeze.

Woot I got out of that one.

lolz this sim rocks but I must remember not to do that.....

 

...and then eventually you don't see them again... well not for a while at any rate :)

[Laivynas]

Yeah, I hate Picassa! Stupid google, with their outrageous stock prices and world domination! ;)

 

I'll see if I can find a picture hosting site out there. Back soon!

Don't blame people if mistake is made by You. ;)

http://picasaweb.google.ru/lh/photo/qn_SQizQUa9-CGJWCgMbnw?authkey=OmCB-apvBlU

[nemises]

I had my first real systems failure last night (normally if there a problem, I'm a mid air explosion a few seconds later)..

 

In this case, I'd been flying at high altitude in the "yellow" zone for too long (EEG MAx on both engines), caution alarm came on, Ekran showed "left engine Vibration" , suddenly "Left Engine Fire!"..caution lights everywhere!

 

I press the left engine fire extinguisher, but I think it had allready automatically done it for me.

Left engine is now a flame out and at 0RPM ..I cut the fuel flow (just in case).

 

Rotor RPM starts to drop pretty badly, and Im getting roto RPM cautions.

 

Oh crap, right engine is starting to loose RPM also, and rotor RPM is really starting to dive (70% and falling).

 

I dump collective and take her down, increasing the Engine RPM to emergency power to recover some rotor speed.

 

Everything seems ok now, though I strongly suspect its my -8 M/sec decent pushing up the roto RPM rather than the single right engine (now only running at about 4k RPM!).

 

Ah crap, my AC electrical systems have started to drop out (ABRIS and Shkval go off line) , single engine must be running to slow to generate enough power to feed the batteries.

 

Im only 100 Mtrs up now, so I pull collective to slow down...Roto RPM bottoms out badly , and right engine is now only 2000RPM.

 

Gear down, ready to land on the side of a mountain!

 

Ground effect lets me stabalise for a second at about 10 mtrs, then I'm falling outta the sky, right engine completely gone now.

 

Slam, into the ground, right gear collapses, but I'm still reasonably upright!

 

I'd say 2 broken legs and whiplash, but still alive! ;)

[Groove]

Cool report nemises.

 

I think you flared too early on this landing.

[RobGordon]

Nice! :thumbup:

 

Happy you're still alive! :D

[Draco]

Nice... About how high where you. I'm used to flying low, so I've never tried to find the ceiling.

[AlphaOneSix]

I press the left engine fire extinguisher, but I think it had allready automatically done it for me.

 

First bottle will fire automatically if a fire is detected, you have to fire the second bottle manually. There is a button to fire the first bottle, just in case it does not fire automatically, so not a bad idea to mash it anyway. :)

 

right engine (now only running at about 4k RPM!).

 

40%? The gauge reads in percentage of rated RPM, not actual RPM. (100% RPM for the engines is just shy of 20k RPM, so 40% on the gauge would be 7815 RPM, and 4k RPM would be about 20% on the gauge.)

 

Ah crap, my AC electrical systems have started to drop out (ABRIS and Shkval go off line) , single engine must be running to slow to generate enough power to feed the batteries.

 

Generators run off of the main gearbox, so as long as your rotor RPM stays above a certain percent (somewhere around 88%), your generators will continue to work even with both engines off.

 

right engine is now only 2000RPM.

 

20%? ;)

 

Great story, by the way, I was waiting for the whole thing to end up as a fireball. Always a great feeling to be able to walk away.

[Groove]

Always a great feeling to be able to walk away.

 

Or crouch away in this particular case :D

[nemises]

Nice... About how high where you. I'm used to flying low, so I've never tried to find the ceiling.

 

About 3600 Mtrs ...

The EEG Limiters must work off available air fuel mix? , as the higher you get, the lower the EEG ceiling is (or seems anyway..it might just be I have to pull more and more collective at those higher altitudes, thus hitting the limiters easier)

 

I've run before skirting the edges of the yellow zone (sorry just a nick name I call it because of the yellow warning lights) with no issues before, but guess I just cut it too fine this time..can usually increase RPM by lowering collective, but this was coming near the max ceiling I suppose as I was only able to sustain a +1 climb moving at about 150 KPH and I was trying to clear a 4000 mtr mountain :/

[McVittees]

I love the BS damage modeling. This really is the first game where it really feels like systems run off of one another - every time I hear the 'dink' 'dink' of AAA hitting me I start sweating wondering if five minutes later I'm going to drop out the sky. I think in every other sim I've played i don't even consider aborting until the HUD goes or an engines on fire! :D

[Zorrin]

I had an empty Shark above 6,000m. I'm sure I got higher but I cannot remember the exact number... Loads of power being pulled as the blades struggled to beat the incredibly thin air into submission.

 

Certainly seems like the temperature has an effect too. You can really notice the hot days to the cold ones! Ended up the wrong side of the avoidance curve on a hot day trying to get over a mountain, only to be shot to pieces by a sneaky Shilka...

[AlphaOneSix]

About 3600 Mtrs ...

The EEG Limiters must work off available air fuel mix? , as the higher you get, the lower the EEG ceiling is (or seems anyway..it might just be I have to pull more and more collective at those higher altitudes, thus hitting the limiters easier)

 

The limiters work off of your engine RPM and temperatures. You are prevented from going over some percentage of N1 (101.15% max?) and you also cannot exceed a certain EGT (990C?). I forget exact numbers.

 

In a helicopter, your EGT is a good indicator of how much power you are using.

 

As you get higher in altitude, and/or the outside temperature gets warmer, your engines have to work harder (i.e. hotter) to produce the same amount of power.

[Cowboy10uk]

Was flying online the other day, Just climbing over the hills, Was about 2500 when I got a single yellow caution light on engine, few moments later, Left engine flamed out. Dumbed my stores quick, gave a right rudder turn and dumped the collective, taking it down a handy valley, managed to land safely in a field at the bottom and shut everything down. I Really wasnt expecting in flight emergencys like these, Damn it was amazing. No Idea what i did wrong, But guessing it may have been icing ???? All i know is my wingman went the same way about 30 secs after me. Ok we didnt complete the mission but DAMN what a rush. Now all I have to do i read the manual and find out what the smeg went wrong ;) God I love this sim.

[EvilBivol-1]

When flying at high altitudes, you want to always keep a careful eye on the EGT, the rotor RPM, and the probably necessary use of de-icing systems.

 

P.S. If you are using the "magic" auto-start (LWIN + HOME), it turns on the dust-protectors, because your engines do suffer from dust in the sim. These eat away some power, so you should turn them off once you are airborne, unless you maintain a low-and-slow profile.

[DiabloSP]

I found about Icing a couple of days ago. Was doing a mission in very cold weather (-5 degrees), and after about 7-8 minutes of flight, both engines died, at the same time. The crash was amazing, as was the look on my face, I'm sure. Restarted the mission, did the same thing, happened the same thing. I was puzzled.

 

Restarted the mission a third time, turned on all anti-icing systems, and everything worked fine this time.

[nemises]

yeah, I've noticed the de-icing (both rotor and engine) takes power from the engines...just like Aircon in a car I guess (ie. another drive belt or gear gets engaged and takes some torque).

Great stuff

[masonator]

I found about Icing a couple of days ago. Was doing a mission in very cold weather (-5 degrees), and after about 7-8 minutes of flight, both engines died, at the same time. The crash was amazing, as was the look on my face, I'm sure. Restarted the mission, did the same thing, happened the same thing. I was puzzled.

 

Restarted the mission a third time, turned on all anti-icing systems, and everything worked fine this time.

 

What!?! How awesome is that?

 

When flying at high altitudes, you want to always keep a careful eye on the EGT, the rotor RPM, and the probably necessary use of de-icing systems.

 

P.S. If you are using the "magic" auto-start (LWIN + HOME), it turns on the dust-protectors, because your engines do suffer from dust in the sim. These eat away some power, so you should turn them off once you are airborne, unless you maintain a low-and-slow profile.

 

I really am amazed by the level of detail in this sim.