Loss of stable hover

[Latitude]

I have an occasional problem (but too frequent for comfort) where I get myself into what appears to be a stable hover. I go about my business of targeting and knocking out the enemy only to find myself drifting away from the target area or sometimes spinning. I usually have to stop what I am doing and waste precious minutes getting myself back into position and restarting my attack. Usually the lost time/effort works against me and I end up compromised once again.

 

My question please is are there any techniques for stable hover that I maybe overlooking (while targeting).

 

Thanks.

[mjolner]

My first suggestion, putting aside other numerous possibilities such as stability modes and accidental key presses, without more data I would simply suggest checking your trim settings via RCTRL+ENTER, make sure that your rudder is not trimmed off center and pitch is set right, I always set mine a bit forward to get the nose down.

 

Maybe a track file would help assess the situation better.

[dooom]

if i recall, enabling AH at low altitudes (<20m) sometimes disables hold pitch/bank/alt buttons on flight director... i could be wrong though

 

the first thing i do when i have an unstable hover is look down and right to see if the little blue buttons are lit... then i reset trim - get into hover and try again.

[sinelnic]

Make sure you're trimmed for hover, as in being trimmed for a perfect hover before engaging auto hover. If your stick has some "centerplay", as in not staying perfectly centered, try to take that into account when trimming for hover. The AP only has 20% authority.

 

Also, make sure that you applied enough collective to keep the VSI at real 0, sometimes it takes a while to settle and begin descending (remember you lose ETL below ~22 kph, maybe you turned AH before this speed).

[Bek]

Turning on Auto Turn To Target might help. Default button is Q.

[Migo]

I wonder why the Ka50 doesn't exactly turns the heading to the target. When I turn on "Turn to target" I often have to adjust with the rudder to have my Vikhr in the fire-position.

[sinelnic]

I wonder why the Ka50 doesn't exactly turns the heading to the target. When I turn on "Turn to target" I often have to adjust with the rudder to have my Vikhr in the fire-position.

 

Migo,That's because of two reasons:1- Sometimes you're not correctly trimmed with rudder in the center but to the right as a "left over" of having been flying fast before the hover. Then, the AP 20% authority has trouble compensating for that deviation2- The Auto turn to target correctly aligns the heli nose with the target, but not necessarily the Vikhr "pipper". This is because the Vikhrs are mounted on the wings and not directly under the nose. You can try this by switching the salvo to high (which releases two Vikhrs at once), when you do this you'll notice the "pipper" moves to the center of the hud and aligns with the nose. When in short salvo mode, the "pipper" will jump from left to right as you release the Vikhrs, because the system fires one from each wing alternatively to keep the heli in balance.

[Latitude]

My first suggestion, putting aside other numerous possibilities such as stability modes and accidental key presses, without more data I would simply suggest checking your trim settings via RCTRL+ENTER, make sure that your rudder is not trimmed off center and pitch is set right, I always set mine a bit forward to get the nose down.

 

Maybe a track file would help assess the situation better.

 

Thanks for this. It is probably the answer. I like the idea of setting the pitch slightly forward to get the nose down. I suspect that most of the instability comes from repeated attempts to fire guided missiles when the nose is too high (i.e. I nudge forward to align the target recticule and as a result introduce instability into my hover).

 

Thanks to all for comments.

[Migo]

Migo,That's because of two reasons

Ah yes ok thanks for info :)