> My understanding of the tail rotor is to counteract the torque of the main > rotor and to rotate the helo around its Z axis in either a CW or CCW > direction depending on the lift supplied by the tail rotor. > Loss of a tail rotor more than likely will result in loss of the helo unless > the pilot is very good.
Maybe it's this type of area where a flight simulator can make a difference to the handling of real life emergencies. Most tail rotor failures are survivable in theory at least: if there's sufficient forward speed at the time of failure, the weathervaning effect can usually permit continued powered flight, albeit at reduced power and possibly in a shallow dive rather than level flight. Even without the forward speed, immediate entry into autorotation takes the torque off the main rotor so there's nothing for the tail rotor to have to counter, hence a spin is not inevitable and an autorotation landing can be performed. The difficulty is not being able to adequately train for and practice these scenarios in real life, hence the statement that only very good pilots (i.e. those whose natural abilities enable them to get it right first time) will cope. If helo pilots can practice these scenarios as realistically as possible in a sim, it can only help in the unlikely event that they are faced with this situation for real. Mally --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.525 / Virus Database: 322 - Release Date: 10/10/03 _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
