reported UH-1H tailstrike damage model/physics

[virgo47]

As a beginner, here and there I suffer a tailstrike and I always end up with no power pedal authority. I decided to investigate what happened and created this demo (TRK file is also attached):

It seems that:

• Tail skid has no function at all, doesn't even change/bend after the tail strike.
• Tail body dives under the surface without any problem and damage.
• However, the tail rotor is "trimmed" (0:16 in the video) - which results in the loss of left pedal effect, the helo is naturally unplayable with such a small tail rotor.

The part with the tail rotor is related to the general loss of damage reporting for helos:

But the physics of the tailstrike is still suspicious. How can the tail dive all the way to trim the tail rotor? Either bare the strike or break the tail or something, depending on the force, of course.

uh-1h-tailstrike.trk

[Robobble]

+1

Sorry for the horrific photoshop job but assuming that's a proper scale drawing, you'd need about 25 degrees of pitch to get the rotor on the ground without interfering with the tail boom. You were nowhere near that. I don't even worry about tail strikes because I always assumed the tail rotor was safe. One more thing on the list of issues with the Huey.

[virgo47]

Thanks for the painting. The problem is the collision detection/interaction, the dive of the tail into the ground was pretty obvious.

Of course, I often clip the tail rotor because I suck in piloting the chopper, but the tail skid is of no use as it is now. If you're lighter on your cyclic and ahead of the aircraft you may not have the problem. We often practice taxi and "elephant walk" and if I don't see soon enough that I need to slow down, I clip the tail rotor with a few knots speed. I'm not sure how realistic that is, but it is strange that the tail rotor is clipped and the boom and skid is untouched, to say the least.

[f-18hornet]

Thank you, reported for investigation.

[jaguar56]

Love flying the Huey and for some reason it comes fairly naturally to me.  But the tailstrike issue is fairly severe.  If the rear of the Huey gets anywhere near the ground, it seems to take the rotor off.  Sometimes after landing it barely rocks back even when I know it is coming and have full forward cyclic, bye rotor. 

I thought it was just me, but I ran a search on tail strikes in real Huey's and no such problem exists. There was no discussion on it to be found anywhere. It would seem that if it were an issue there would be information on it.  That points to the model.  

It seems the tailskid is just there for graphics.  It might not be possible to "firm" that up, but there needs to be some way to protect the tail rotor.  This could be why a lot of pilots consider the Huey a handful.  This tail rotor issue is the only problem I have with it.  And it's a big one.  It is not fun to fly for 30 minutes to an objective that has uneven ground and lose the rotor ending the mission.