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KA-50 Nose Spike


kbullet

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The spike at the front with the flappy bits is so your instruments show the correct attitude and alike of your helo, without those your flight instruments and hud and I am not sure, but maybe also the autopilot functions wouldnt work correctly ?

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You should find two 'spikes' or 'tubes' on the front. One is static ( that's the overhead panel switch pitot static'. That senses the airspeed directly in front of the aircraft, aligned with the vertical and horizontal axes. The second tube, pitot AoA or Angle of Attack swivels to face the airflow, therefore if you were pitching up with idle colllective, the tube would swivel downwards to face the direction the aircraft is travelling in. The wings help align the tube with the airflow.

 

Hope that helps

 

Warbird

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As said above these are for your angle of attack.

 

There are 2 sets of blades - horoz and vertical.

 

the vertical blades show you if your are yawing or sideslipping (think bubble in a fixed wing aircraft)

 

the horizontal blades will tell you if you are dropping in altitude or not or if you are in a nose down or nose up position.

 

These come in useful on 2 distinct occasions.

 

1 when hovering. by watching the blades you can tell where the wind is and if you are likely to weathervane. (turn into the wind) It will also give you a good indication on the ground of the wind conditions before you start up.

 

2. when flight instraments are shot to hell.

 

Same principle is applied to all of those robinson r22 pilots who tape a piece of wool to the windshield.

[sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No - Its a Stinger - Damn.......

 

My Pit - http://forums.eagle.ru/showthread.php?t=42253

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Air data probes, like those on the nose of the Ka-50, have several functions:

 

Although it's just about impossible to tell from looking on the outside, the probe has several openings, or ports, that lead to pressure sensors. At least one port (static port) is flush with the side of the tube (or the aircraft body) so that air rushes by it, not into it. Static pressure is a good indication of altitude. At least one other opening (pitot tube) points directly forward and measures the ram air pressure. This pressure increases the faster you go, so is a good indication of airspeed.

 

Ram air pressure and static pressure are used to determine airspeed as well as barometic altitude and descent/ascent rate ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitot-static_system ).

 

The flappy wing things (vanes) measure two angles: alpha (angle of attack) and beta (side slip). More advanced air data probes get this information from multiple pressure ports instead of mechanical vanes.

 

I seriously doubt that any part of the probe was intended to serve as a visual indication to the pilot, but, instead, provides information to the flight instrumentation on board, including the autopilot and the in-flight data recorder. Of course, if, like talisman pointed out, it's the only instrumentation you have, then better it than nothing!


Edited by EinsteinEP

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The flappy wing things (vanes) measure two angles: alpha (angle of attack) and beta (side slip). More advanced air data probes get this information from multiple pressure ports instead of mechanical vanes.

 

 

For combat helicopters this has another important function, besides giving flight instrumentation. It also gives data for relative wind, which allows the aiming systems for unguided weapons to adjust for it, and results in more accurate fire.

 

You will see that most combat helicopter has some device like that, e.g. on the AH-64D it's on each side of the engines, on the AH-64A it's on top of the rotor, and on the Mi-28 to the front and left of the gunners cockpit. In this on-board video from a Mi-28's gunner's cockpit you can see it move about quite clearly when he comes in to land:


Edited by arneh
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