Helicopter Problem

[Guest]

I incounter this problem with all choppers. It has to do with the helicopter always wanting to yaw left (as in rudder action, not banking). I dont actually know if its a problem or just a pain in the nutt realistic thing. I have heard different opinions. Some say turn torque down, did that, some say recal stick, do that every time. But one thing i know is everyone i talk to claims that they either have had this problem but dont anymore, or have never had it.I run a USB Saitek Rumble Force, win2k and FS2002. It has happend on other sticks, gameport and USB. Other sims, (2000, 98, etc) and other OSs (ME and 98). Most say recal your stick and it should be fine, dosnt help me at all. When the rudder is in the middle it reads 50% raw data. In real life do chopper pilots have to maintain right rudder. If so, is there sometning i can do to CGF file to make it so i dont have to wear my wrist out everytime i fly?Thanks

[Guest jordan]

If you are in a still hover, and have the yaw then try turning your general realism slider down a few notches. Also, turn up your rudder null zone about 2 notches.A Real-world helicopter like a JetRanger would require some pedal when lifting into a hover. Also the helicopter will tend to weather-vane with its nose into the wind. I've found that if you lower the realism settings enough it will remove the yaw tendancy, but it tends to make the helicopter feel like flying a block of wood.While in foward flight the Jet Ranger (and other FS2002 add-on helicopters that are based on it) tends to yaw left due to a slightly right of center angle of incidence on the vertical stabilizer. In FS2002 this can only be removed by updating the .air file with a program like AirEd.exeSo, there's no perfect answer but hopefully this info will give a little more insight.

[Guest]

it only happens in flight about about 60-80 knots. I tried your tips, still had problem.ThanksPS: Can you use trim in choppers?

[Guest]

Surly there has to be more answers cmon guyspleaassee :)

[Guest]

I believe this is realistic flight. I have never flown a helicopter though. The need for constant rudder input is the norm. Climbing at a set power setting requires right foot pressure and descending requires left foot pressure. Adjust power and that itself requires different pressure to compensate for the torque. If you push the cyclic forward you need accompanying rudder input, pull back and rudders are needed again. :)Some helicopters may not require as much or any pressure at speed when in non-accelerated level flight.If you are only getting this "problem" between 60 and 80 kts and in all aircraft and it's not a bug with your install I wonder if the transition from best climbspeed above or below has any adverse yawing effects ?

[Guest N73GX]

I am not a real pilot but Helicopters are a passion for me. This Yaw to the left is correct flight for the helicopter. Sim or real life. The reason is because of the main rotor spinning at such a fast rate you need to counter act that rotation of the craft with Rudder. You should be able to find more info herehttp://www.helicopters.com/.....Thanks........Jason

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[Guest]

OkThat was what i thought would be the reason if it was realistic. THe blade turning one way forces body to turn opposite way.But is there a way i can make it not do it? Something in sim or to air files because its a pain?Any idears?Thanks

[Guest Calb]

Sorry but it's "just a pain in the nutt realistic thing".As you may know, the main rotor goes through a phenomenon known as "translational lift" as the helicopter passes through approximately 25 kts when entering forward flight. The effect you will notice is a sudden tendency to climb unless power is reduced or the nose is aggresively pushed down. The same holds true for the tail rotor. While hovering, the tailrotor is operating in it's own "wash" (moving air). It must compensate for this by generating additional thrust to overcome it (it's not much). Now, as the helicopter starts to move foward, the tailrotor moves out of it's own wash and no longer requires the additional thrust. If the pilot does not apply an appropriate amount of right pedal, the aircraft will yaw to the left.CalChief InstructorHoverSafe Academyhttp://members.shaw.ca/hoversafe/Hoversafe.htm

[Guest Douglas K]

>In real life do chopper pilots have to maintain right rudder. If so, is there sometning i can do to CGF file to make it so i dont have to wear my wrist out everytime i fly?But is there a way i can make it not do it? Something in sim or to air files because its a pain?http://perso.wanadoo.fr/hsors/FS_Soft/fsairfile.htmlNow open the airfile for the helicopter you want to modify, and click on Rec 1400 *Helicopter Vertical Stabilizer.Find the entry *Vertical Stabilizer Angle of Incidence(rad)=0.034900.Set this entry to zero.Note that if you right click on each entry and select info from the drop down menu you can read a brief description of the function of that entry. In this case the info in the ini file will tell you that this entry: "Causes turn to left in cruise - Set to zero and adjust Lift Coefficient below". Moving down to the entry *Vertical Stabilizer Lift Coefficient= 0.200000, right clicking on it and viewing the info reveals the following: "Set AoI above to zero and adjust this value for "hands off" in cruise". Since we already set the AOI (vertical stabilizer angle of incidence) to zero we need only adjust the value of this entry until the A/C maintains a steady heading in cruise, in a zero wind situation and without much pilot input.I found that a value of 0.100000 works well for the Bell 206B, so change the 0.200000 to 0.100000 and flight test to see if it agrees with you.Your anti-torque pedals should be matched up dead even now in cruise flight (the real 206 would need about 1 inch of right pedal in cruise), and you should be free to admire and enjoy the passing scenery secure in the knowledge that with zero wind you will remain headed towards your destination.This was tested with the Aircraft Realism - Flight Model General slider set one click below "Less Real".I know this modification works in FS2002, and it will probably work for FS9 as well. It has no effect on the other flight dynamics, just cruise flight.For the FS9 Robinson R22, the airfile has been truncated (754 bytes vs 4.88 KB for the Bell 206) Rec 1400 is gone and a lot of new and undocumented sections have been added to the aircraft.cfg file.You are truly on your own here with regard to modifying the flight model, in the absence of an Aircraft Container SDK for FS9 nobody besides the Microsoft developers knows exactly what these new cfg file sections and entries do (unless someone reading this has been fooling aroud with the R22's flight dynamics and would be so kind as to share their findings with the rest of us), and I'm not using FS9 at the moment so I can only look at the file and ponder.However, the entry: right_trim_scalar = 1.0found in the (Helicopter) section would be where I would start. Backup your R22 aircraft.cfg file, and then open the R22 .cfg file with notepad and try adjusting this scalar. I would think that it would need to be increased, for more right trim.Edit: typos

[Guest russell]

How much left pedal are you having to give it to keep it straight? When I first started flying the chopper in FS2000, I had my pedals setup incorrectly, and was holding one of them in at least half way all the time just to keep it straight. Then I realized one day that if I changed the settings in the (then) Win98 control panel, it worked much better, and I only had to make minor adjustments with the pedals. Some movement should be necessary, but if you're holding one pedal way in all the time, something sounds wrong.BTW, the setting I changed was something that went away with WinXP -- something about two different modes that the pedals could be in, and I picked the wrong one. That setting isn't even there anymore these days.Russell