FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1996
1996 - 0598.PDF
HELICOPTER TECHNOLOGY The V-22 is designed to be flown with the use of night-vision goggles was because my control inputs were incor rectly timed, and the lack of a lot of close-up detail in the visual scene made it difficult to grasp immediately one's exact position in space to take the necessary corrective action. I was also overcontrolling a little. Tatro said that it was a comparatively good hover for the first try in such a unique aircraft simulator. In the actual aircraft, the visual cues from the outside world would probably produce a bet ter hover. I relaxed and settled down. The aircraft is actually very stable and hovers best when left alone. Having finally controlled the hover to my satisfaction, I drew back the power lever and we landed. TRANSITION TO FORWARD FLIGHT Now came the challenge of coming to the hover and transitioning into forward flight. Tatro briefed me on how to do it. I pushed the power lever gently forward, adjusted the stick to achieve a vertical climb and did what came naturally with my feet on the pedals to hold the heading. We came up into the hover. Power was applied and the nacelles tilted down slowly, giving a level acceleration. Like the deceleration, the acceleration is achieved by cranking die proprotors down and not by low ering the nose. The nacelles can be "beeped" fully down to aircraft mode or stopped at some intermediate setting. Tatro had warned me about the abrupt j -*=•-u., r - - •i i nr~". .1 =•*• •:^ %«MIHHJMBHI| * 3 .-.••• a m • *fc m • • * * • ; ; -" * -.-* i i, .•§ •\ Easty-to-use cockpit layout reflects pilot inputs pitch-down during the transition and acceler ation. I was too late, but Tatro picked up the nose with the stick and we scraped over the hill in front. The nacelles were cranked fully down with my left thumb. During die conver sion we heard the engines slow down to the normal fixed-wing RPM of 84%, and control reverted to the flaperons. While in the cruise, I asked to experience a reversion to single-engined flight. Tatro immediately snapped back one of the speed selects. Both proprotors were now being dri ven by one powerful Allison T406 through an interconnecting drive-shaft. A double engine failure is dealt with by tilting the nacelles up and descending in a 1 lOkt glide to a 30kt run-on landing. I looked around the cockpit after our single engine failure and saw a warning that we were exceeding some limits on the remaining powerplant. The power lever was brought back until the warn ing was extinguished. The engines have a lOmin 5,090kW (6,830shp) emergency rat ing. The aircraft will easily stay airborne on one engine. I chose a flat strip of grass beside a lake on which to carry out a single-engined landing and, on Tatro's advice, went for a flat approach, gradually washing off speed, cranking up the nacelles and increasing the power. The power lever was adjusted to hold the rate of descent to about 500ft/min, controlling attitude with stick and heading with pedals. It worked well and we performed a running landing at about lOkt on to the grass. To explore the navigation systems further and to practise another conversion to a fast cruise, we left the area and progressed to our next waypoint, a road. A much quicker transi tion to the hover was attempted. I was getting a feel for the aircraft and, from about 5km, intercepted an approach which was steeper than I had intended it to be. It did not matter; the nacelles were cranked up and power and height were adjusted to go down the now steep approach. I was able to keep an eye on the MFD to monitor speed, distance and rate of descent. We arrived over the chosen spot in the hover. I heard the engines accelerate to hover mode. SATISFACTORY HOVER My hover was satisfactory so, feeling confi dent, I tried some sideways and backwards flight and turns on the spot. The lack of wind probably helped a lot, and I was able to achieve all these manoeuvres with remarkable ease. Even a pure fixed-wing pilot should not have too much difficulty. I did not take the air craft to the higher sideways speed of 30kt and backwards rate of 20kt of which it is capable. The aircraft stayed level throughout. Tatro invited me to hover-taxi up the road, turn the comer and then perform a running take-off along the road. My hover-taxi was excellent, right down the middle with no 30 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 13 - 19 March 1996
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
