Heli flying notes (Mosquito flying...)

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Frederick
Posts: 104
Joined: Tue May 17, 2005 11:24 pm
Location: Altadena, CA

Heli flying notes (Mosquito flying...)

Post by Frederick »

For any other inquiring minds:

I went to the Pasadena Police heliport open house and got these interesting bits from a pilot.

* "The D Curve" (fly below it and you'll die): they need 60mph or 500ft of elevation, in one model of heli, to autorotate in the event of an engine failure. So they rarely fly without either.

* He flys emergency LZ to emergency LZ all the time: constantly picking out the next football field or parking lot he'd put it down in if he lost the engine. So nightime flying is a lot more dangerous.

* They do 10 practice autorotations every month. The grey pilot has twice had to do one for real.

* Their newest heli does not have a Collision Avoidence warning device. It'd cost $30k for one -- would have to buy the very-tested one, not the kind we consider for HG. So it's all visual. Smog sucks. Collisions are the biggest danger he feels when out flying. Their newest cost just under $1mil.

* They're all burning Jet A -- a filtered automobile diesel fuel. $325/hr total expenses for their latest.

* No A/C. He feels inversions all the time.

* More blades on the rotor = quieter. Typically 2-5 blades. 400mph blade speed makes them very vulnerable to rocks, cans, ....

* Tail rotor is trimmed for forward flight, but otherwise, pilot has to pedal to compensate for engine torque (doesn't have programming like my R/C heli does). Lose the engine: immediate full right pedal or you'll pirouette.

* They need to land into the wind. (Else might smack the tail, trying to stop their forward speed).

* At night they spot the badguys with an infrared imaging system, and it's extremely effective. Then just turn the light on to let him/her know and get marked for ground patrols. (And they have to leave the light on awhile or the $1500 bulb goes -- annoying for us civilians).

* They've hired about 24 pilots since started in '68. All are former cops, and former observers (guys doing the looking while the pilot flys). They're flying at least once a day when working. It's a lot quicker response time, and actually more cost-effective than ground patrols for some kinds of calls.
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