RCU Forums - View Single Post - maximum safe wind speed???
View Single Post
Old 03-25-2002 | 05:50 AM
  #12  
itsintilas
Junior Member
 
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 25
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
From: THESSALONIKI, GREECE
Default maximum safe wind speed???

For 8 years I was flying in Crete, a Greek Island where the average wind is 15 knots. I know what gusting and no gusting means. Aerodynamically the heli is easier to hover when the day is windy. It needs less power to take off and less power to be kept in hovering. If the day is calm and you hover in Ground effect then heli is unstable, the same doesn't happen when the day is windy cause the heli, even if it hovers, it is like being in Forward flying.
Moreover the rotors plate reacts like an airfoil producing more lift so less collective is required to take off and hover. Furthermore, the required rudder to keep the tail straight alined is less. If yo use a HH gyro then you have no problem but if you use a conventional gyro, and th revolution mix is already set up during a calm day then you will have to take in consideration the following.
Suppose that you take off during a windy day. You will take off and hover in a stick position lower than the half stick. Immediately the lower stick position gives you less rudder, so if your rev mix is perfectly tuned your tail will stay straight alined more or less but if your rev mix is not set up correctly then the tail will tends not to be centerlined.
At the end it depends on the wind strength and your heli's aerodynamical shape how much it contributes to the yaw stability. The most possible is your tail to tend to stay leftside because your vertical taili fin (Rudder) will be effective and it will contribute to the tail stability but in the other side your heli is setup to apply a certain ammount of tail pitch to compensate main rotor pitch. So you will have an offset position for the rudder in hovering whenever the wind is stronger, what you will have to do is to apply some rudder trim.
Moreover, some forward pitch trim have to be applied in order to compensate the heli's tendency to go backwards due to the increased drag caused by the strong headwind in order to maintain the same hovering position.

That's all