[simpits-tech] Helo pit builder, anyone?

[Matt Bailey]

If you're really concerned about helicopter flight modeling, you may want to 
check out X-Plane. It's pretty widely accepted to have, hands-down, the best 
helo model in any current PC sim. Autorotations etc are inherently present 
due to the nature of the flight model (ie, it actually considers each 
individual rotor blade....analyzes angle-of-attack and speed, does pitch 
moment/lift/drag for airfoils including rotor blades, etc). Overall, stuff is 
calculated on a lower level. Because X-Plane models things on a 
lower level, it's more versatile, allowing more types of aircraft (i.e., you 
are not tied to specific configurations.......the model is not necessarily 
expecting a wing near CG and a horizontal stabilizer behind it, you could for 
instance stick lift fans on the ends of the plane and a wing in the middle 
for stability in forward flight, and it will model each of these components 
individually).

As an example of how versatile the model is, I recently got a VTOL craft 
(based on a concept drawing of the DuoTrek, from the SoloTrek website) to 
hover inverted, with lots of negative pitch at upper extent of collective, 
and minimize blade twist to help neutralize the blade's built-in efficiency 
to produce lift in one given direction (as you would expect in the real 
world). I believe the former technique (and perhaps the latter as well, not 
sure) is used in real R/C helicopters. One nice thing about X-Plane is when 
you want to do something specific (like hovering inverted, or making a plane 
more stable, etc), the real world is a good place to start......try to 
imagine what would be necessary on a real plane in the real world to 
accomplish what you're trying to do, and apply that to X-Plane.

X-Plane site: http://x-plane.com

My inverted VTOL craft: http://x-plane.org/users/mattb/vtol_inverted.html

Btw, dunno if MSFS supports this, but X-Plane supports the FlightLink 
collective so you can control throttle with twisting grip and collective 
pitch with the grip arm. I *think* you could also make this work with generic 
equipment. Now I've heard that most helicopters have collective and throttle 
mechanically linked, but I assume this could be handled satisfactorily with 
custom hardware.

	-Matt Bailey

On Tuesday 05 August 2003 07:48 pm, you wrote:
> I'm wondering if there are any military helo pit builder here?  As I
> remembered, there're some members building Bell 206 and other civilian
> versions.
>
> I just got a chance to meet a friend, who gave me a ride in the Bell 205
> UH-1H "Huey".  Then he asked me if there're anyone in our community working
> on the model.  I think there's not so different in terms of control and
> commands that we have (considering using MSFS2002).  Here's what I can
> count:
>
> *	Engine start
> *	RPM control (ctrl+F1 for idle, ctrl+F4 for Max RPM)
> *	Collective (reversed throttle ->F1 for full open, F4 for flatten the
> blade) *	Clyclic (normal stick control would do the work)
> *	Rudder (normal rudder control)
>
> Those are "input" commands (Did I forget anything?)... For the "output", we
> can use EPIC to get all the signals for driving gauges etc.  WidevieW can
> be used for getting better and wider graphic.
>
> Maybe we can share ideas (gosh, how many pit projects in my head now ...
> F-16, DC-3, B777, UH-1H .. more to come LOL).
>
> Oh, got a bad news here, too.  We cannot perform "Auto Rotation" (neither
> "idle" rotation nor "engine off" rotation) in FS9 !!! I checked with many
> FS2K2 helo drivers here, they confirmed the same result.  Bell 206 just
> fell down like a shiny rock! Sukit Sittisudjatum
> Founder, Thai Flight Simulator
> www.thaiflight.com
> Bangkok, Thailand