Landing on water

[T tail]

Since I have NEVER landed on water..just asking how it is done????? do you treat it like snow and try and stay out of your snowball/waterspray as long as possible, even a very slight run on??? I have flown around it lots using the waters edge etc that loss of depth perception is scary stuff :shock:...I read once too that on startup the machine can yaw due to lack of tail rotor effectivness ???

 

Anyone

 

CHeers TT

[twinstar_ca]

about the only thing i know about water work is that you have to be very careful when water taxiing not to let the tips of the floats dig in... otherwise it becomes very much like dynamic rollover in that as you pull more power, the tips dig in futher faster, etc...

 

i have also heard that you must be ready with pedal on cranking and shutdown as you would be more prone to torque with no firm land to keep you straight.. i get the feeling it's one of those skills that need to be taught, not just done...

[rainman]

All the Landing on the water I've done (which isn't much) has taught me to be very near a reference point of some sort if possible. I have landed about 200 feet from shore but I reverted back to initial training and just looked way off at the lake edge and felt it onto the water. Taxiing is done slowely or "on the step" or why bother? hover!

As far as shutdowns, I've never done one but i'm told you either do it tied to a dock of some sort or are in the middle of a lake and let it spin one or two times before your tailrotor gets to an effective rpm.

 

Mini probably has some good advice to add, you out there ol feller?

[Cole]

Ive seen guys stand on the back of one float to stop the yaw as it digs in to hold you back, Other than that , throw your own referance if you need to(jacket etc it what I was told by a fw instructor.

 

Cole

[Blackmac]

Float operations are normally listed in the ops manual.

 

Wind plays a big part when on the water, either shutdown or start up on the up wind side of the lake and hopefully the lake is wide enough for the blades to come to a halt on shut-down or get control after start-up.

 

The easy part is to take your float equipped helicopter with properly inflated floats on a nice big lake, go back to flight idle and see how it feels, let the wind blow you around to get some idea of how bouyant you are.

 

If you have wondered why you are carrying paddles, it's to get you out from the shoreline to start up or get you from the middle of the lake after shut-down.

 

Glassy water is the same as fixed, near the shore line for a reference point, come in slow with a slight nose up attitude as sometimes the floats will come in contact with the water before you get any downwash from the rotor onto the water.

 

If after trying a big lake, you still don't feel comfortable, go with somebody who done that.

 

The Hughes series helicopters are the most fun on the water, get 2 or 3 of them on the water and pogo-stick around in circles. Flexiable landing gear.

 

Have fun.

 

Cheers, Don

[twinstar_ca]

that answered one question of mine, don... i would have thought the downwash would have disturbed the water surface as you came in on final...

 

you also mentioned coming in slightly nose high... i was under the impression that you wanted to have the tips of the floats touch down 1st to avoid t/r contact with the water... can you explain further??

[helicopterjim]

It is fun doing autorotations onto water!! Big splash, water coming up onto the window - I wish I could try it again!!

[cap]

TS ----- if you are referring to the aft "tips" of the floats, then they are going to touch-down first anyway because that's why they are longer in that area. Hit the T/R on touching down BEFORE the rear of the floats and that means you were "yarding-back" too much on the cyclic and that your approach should have been slower as Don stated.

 

This is one of those occasions where a F/W background in float operations comes in handy. The guidelines that you should be using for the helicopter operation on water parallel closely those of F/W. The main difference is on start-up and shut-down. "Newton's Third Law of Motion" will cause certain things to happen at those times and one better be anchored to something or out in open water and away from shoreline. IOnce one has mastered that "art form", then one finds out that ALL of the above doesn't apply to ALL helicopters.

 

On a somewhat lighter note, that we'll label "Important Trivia".....some R/W have unique abilities on water that can also provide hours of enjoyment if one happens to enjoy fishing perhaps. One of those "abilities" is unique to the vast majority of the French R/W. I've spent many an enjoyable summer evening, after the work-day has finished, "motoring" slowly around on a nice quiet lake in my Allouette II.........with the rotor blades stopped and the engine at idle. See, that engine provided me with 50 lbs of static thrust at idle, which equated to a 6HP "kicker" on the stern of a boat used for trolling. With one of the paddles used as a rudder, one could while away a nice evening fishing in a most unusal way.

 

So to those out there who might operate an Astar on floats in the summer and under those conditions........don't forget your fishing pole, if you didn't know that. The "Bell crowd", some of who also like to fish, will drool in envy. Even if they don't like to fish, they know it's much cooler out there in the evening of a very hot summer's day.

[twinstar_ca]

good info and thanks, cap... but actually, i was thinking of the front of the floats... touching them 1st to the water surface but not digging them in for the obvious reasons!!!

 

so another question then, for anyone.. what's the purpose of the little triangular add on to the stinger you see on 206's with fixed or pop outs?? is it there to try and prevent the stinger from digging below the water surface if you flare too much??

[Skidz]

good info and thanks, cap... but actually, i was thinking of the front of the floats... touching them 1st to the water surface but not digging them in for the obvious reasons!!!

 

so another question then, for anyone.. what's the purpose of the little triangular add on to the stinger you see on 206's with fixed or pop outs?? is it there to try and prevent the stinger from digging below the water surface if you flare too much??

 

According to the STC, it's there to compensate for the additional drag from the floats. Without it, the L will tend to porpoise (go up and down, up and down...). Only required on the L series.