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Aviation History
1995
1995 - 0031.PDF
FLIGHT T*9T cutters will deal with it I noted, too, the pressure- refuelling cap. After a mission, the aircraft can be checked, refuelled and re-armed in about 15min. Unlike the Adas Rooivalk, McDonnell Douglas Apache and Eurocopter Tiger, die other attack helicopters on offer for the British Army contract, die Cobra has a skid landing gear. Bell showed me a video of a test flight where the pilot deliberately attempted to break the aircraft by smashing it progressively harder on to the ground with each successive landing. At one stage, the belly of the fuselage touched the ground, but sprang back up. The aircraft sur vived his attempts. Skids will often cope successfully with uneven surfaces on which a wheeled undercar riage would have difficulties. I have done many a running landing, skidding over large holes, hillocks and even the occasional narrow ditch in skid-equipped helicopters. I installed myself in the front-gunner's cock pit. The seat is not adjustable, so I had to man- A thin fuselage with laser-sight-resistant paint age with not being able to see over the drooped nose. The pedals are adjustable so, with both my arms placed on the side cushions, I felt quite comfortable and could reach everything. The cockpits have an environmental-control system to enhance comfort. Since the aircraft is designed for worldwide operations, from desert heat in Saudi Arabia to snow in Turkey, this is important, as excessive heat or cold are major contributors to crew fatigue. The all-round view is superb from the front cockpit: although the forward view from the rear cockpit is restricted by the head-up dis play and high instrument panels. A T-shaped group of basic flight, engine and rotor instru ments occupies the right-hand side of the instrument panel. The weapons sight, a hand grip with all the weapon switches and other related weapons-management equipment occupy the left-hand side. There is a cluster of warning lights and a master caution light. The layout is fairly simple and uncluttered. In contrast, I consider the rear-pilot's cockpit to be cluttered. As well as flight instruments, weapon-management controls, caution lights, radios and navigation aids, there are circuit breakers, various other switches and miscella neous equipment. In the heat of battle, the occupant of this cockpit may well be over loaded at times. Plans are afoot to equip both cockpits with multi-function displays. Engines and rotor start are straightforward and similar to that of other Bells — crank the starter, get 12% compressor speed, then open the throttle to the ground-idle position. The engine acceleration rate and temperature peak are modest. The two on-board batteries allow a start, a lOmin charge from the aircraft gener ators and a complete shutdown, followed by another battery start. After Honaker quickly completed the many post-start checks, I leaned forward, putting my eyes to the weapon sight, and practised placing the crosshairs on to a small vehicle straight ahead, and zooming in and out. This was for operations later in the flight. The view and accuracy are outstanding. BEGINNING THE FLIGHT After my second, more satisfactory, take-off to the hover, I settled down to a prolonged hover, to accustom myself to the rather different con trols and their feel. I was quickly able to adapt my technique accordingly. Having progressed to a satisfactory hover, gentle sideways and backwards flight and spot turns (the quick stuff was to come later) I pulled up to an out-of- ground effect (OGE) hover at about 100ft and repeated the same manoeuvres. The all-round visibility is superb and vibra tion levels are minimal. Our OGE power requirement gave us plenty of power in hand. I had both hydraulic systems and the stability and control-augmentation system (SCAS) working for me - handling the aircraft "raw" was to come later. I found the lack of a trim system for my cyclic control-stick was incon venient, so I had to work harder than normal to achieve satisfactory results. Bearing in mind the stiffness of the cyclic, I expected that, towards the end of a 1.5h flight, my right hand would suffer from writer's cramp and my left from tennis elbow. Happily, as I learned to relax and handed over control occasionally to Honaker, this did not happen. I pulled full power of 100% torque (Bell 212 pilots will recognise the torque gauge) and we accelerated rapidly and shot up to 2,000ft. Levelling off and reducing to maximum con tinuous power, allowing the aircraft to stabilise in straight-and-level flight, gave an indicated airspeed of 142kt (260km/h) and a true air speed of 150kt. We were at 3,500ft density alti tude at a weight of 5,970kg, 700kg below our maximum operating weight. Lacking a verti cal-speed indicator, I had to ask Honaker when we were level. Vibration levels were low, a remarkable achievement for any two-bladed helicopter at this speed. While we were still fairly heavy, I went for the never-exceed speed (Vw). Because we had a couple of launchers on the wings, this was reduced to 170kt from the "clean"-configura- tion figure of 190kt. Both VmS are good up to 4,000ft density altitude before starting to reduce by 5kt/l,000ft. The VMS are also out standing for a two-bladed helicopter. Bearing in mind the negative g limit of+0.5,1 dived down gendy to ground level, but managed only 165kt, so a good opportunity presented itself to explore the zoom-up capability and have another go. I pulled full power and we went to 3,000ft quickly. The extra height and an encour aging forward nudge on the cyclic from Honaker in die back seat produced 170kt. I was impressed by the smoothness of flight and the lack of any significant vibration levels. There was no noticeable increase as I carried out turns in both directions. Balance control was excellent throughout, requiring little work on the pedals. There is no mixing unit to alter the pitch on the tail rotor as the collective lever is SuperCobra is remarkably smooth hi the hover FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 4 - 10 January 1995
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