helicopter landing problems

[almostpilot]

Good morning all,

Sorry to bother with what may seem like boring old questions. I am trying to learn flying helis, with the 500 and EC135 at present, with the idea of buying BK117 asap.

I am finding it very very difficult. take off ok, level flight ok, but landings are hit and miss. I read some of Nicola m suggestions so I try to approach at 40kt, between 300/500fpm descent, flare than hover just above ground and touch down.

Well often i get it wrong and often, just when i think i have all under control and coming smoothly down, all power goes to zero and i drop down like a stone.

I can see my mistakes when i overcontrol etc...

But this sudden shutdown and stone-drop i cannot understand. Any ideas?

Have seen videos on you tube of xplaners landing so smoothly and on a ten pence coin, how on earth do you guys do it?

Any help is kindly accepted.

Best regards

PS

would the BK117 make things easier for me?

[Lukasz]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mt7M3Ak_jQ&feature=channel_video_title

Read the description, watch the gauges carefully, read about ETL, search on the forums.

BK117 is even more prone to this error in X-Plane flight model, so try other helicopters. MD500 or default B206 will be the best in a role of training helicopter. Learning to hover first, also will help you with landings.

[Aubrey]

The BK-117 is actually better for this as it now has a plugin to fix the ETL (effective transitional lift) problem in the XP9 flight model. The sudden drop is not correct and is a well known XP9 bug, you can avoid it by keeping a descent speed of 300-500fps and increasing power at the right time, although it still catches me out occasionally too! But if you want to go one better buy XP10 as the ETL error has been fixed and helicopter flight dynamics in general have been improved.

[Lukasz]

I don't use ETL fix, because I don't want to and I don't have to. I've learned to fly X-Plane helicopters in a careful and performance-wise manner. It's more interesting that way and some of the skills I developed while doing so, translate to other aircraft as well. The more sweat in a training, the less blood in a fight, they say...

BK117 is a nice helicopter, both in real life and in X-Plane, a number of my last "logbook flights" were flown with it and I enjoyed every minute if them. But it makes a horrible trainer aircraft, because of artificial stability systems. How can you learn to fly it, when computers do the hard work for you? It's like learning to shoot with magic bullets, which always hit a bullseye. That will get you nowhere. Try something stable, but free-flying, like MD500. XP10 default B206 is also very good. A bit demanding, as it should be, but still a nice one. Bk117 is a bird for advanced pilots, who want to explore IFR world.

XP10 fixes the ETL, that's correct, but other flaws of helicopter flight model were corrected around XP9.6, if I remember correctly. It's not absolutely perfect, but still very good and it's possible to develop an accurate helicopter, with a bit of thought and a lot of reading. So it's not always "a problem in XP9 flight model"...

[almostpilot]

thanks to all for the information. I have been training with the Hughes 500 and made some improvements. I still sometimes go backwards when i hover, which makes me mad... but i'll keep trying and XP10 with improved graphics should help in the sense that the ground will be more detailed, therefore it will be easier I guess to visually figure out how far you are from landing, those last few feet often catch me out because the ground is a plain green or grey flat colour.

Will get XP10 for sure, as soon as the computer that "can take the job on" is delivered!

Best regards to all

[Lukasz]

Try hovering over "zebra" stripes on the end of a runway. They will give you excellent ground reference for hover training.

At first, try to concentrate on a distinctive feature on the horizon and maintain stable attitude with regards to that feature, with only quick check-looks at the ground below. The more you feel comfortable with maintaining constant attitude, the more time you can spend on looking at the ground, in order to null last small helicopter movements or to aim for that helipad.

Another valuable training exercise, it trying to land with both skind inside runway "numbers" or even better, within a "belly" of 6 or 8. In this case, use the runway for a reference.

[almostpilot]

Well i got the BK117 in the end and it is wonderful. Really enjoying it. Thanks to all for the tips. Practice practice practice seems the key... as usual.