Autorotation

[FS_Pilot]

Is there a way of altering the aircraft.cfg to get some of the helicopters to autorotate instead of faling out of the sky.

[dave3cu]

Hi FS,

I'm just new to helos so havent gotten that far yet (well not intentionally anyway), but here are some articles that discusses autorotation in FS. Not a cfg. fix, rather flight proceedures.

The Learning Center in FS, under the Helicopters section.

http://members.shaw.ca/hoversafe/FlyingSchool.htm    Lesson 13

http://www.hovercontrol.com/artman/publish/printer_18.shtml

Practice, practice, practice...  ;)

Cheers,
Dave

[PH_AJH]

I do not use the helo's but I know on prop driven aircraft if you run out of gas they still turn and provide some power so I do not see why this should be any different for helo's

Try the helos and you will find they ARE very different. For one thing, with most choppers in FS2004 just cutting the engine equals stopping the main and tail rotors spinning instantly. This equals stopping the prop, reducing airspeed to zero and disabling rudder, elevator and ailerons in a regular plane. Now see if you can get your Baron down in one piece under these conditions
Try it and you'll see what FS_pilot means.

AJ

[Calb]

The FS2004 helicopters will autorotate if you add a small amount of throttle (collective) soon after you enter the manoeuvre -- otherwise, as has been mentioned, the rotor will stop.

Cal

[Scottler]

For those who don't know, autorotation is the "magical" maneuver which allows a helicopter, with engine off, to land gently on the earth below.

How?  

As the aircraft moves downward and forward, wind rushing through the main rotor blades cause them to rotate, as if the engine were on.

This is just enough lift to absorb most of the weight of the helicopter, causing a much gentler landing.

[Billerator]

It is harder on some helos, you just need more forward speed.
Just as the engine cuts out you should really decrese throttle from your cruise setting to save some kinetic energy for later  ;) .

When you near the ground flare and increase throttle, dont over do it since you will have quite a lot of energy left in those rotors.

Hope Ive helped.

[FS_Pilot]

The problem i am having is that on a normal helicopter there is a clutch built into the gearbox that allows the rotor to freewheel when the engine stops and this feature is built into some FS2004 helicopters and not into others. There is something that can be added or changed in aircraft.cfg to add this feature and this is what i am trying to find out. You cannot autorotate a helicopter unless this feature is enabled. Does anyone know how to enable it?

[MattNW]

The problem i am having is that on a normal helicopter there is a clutch built into the gearbox that allows the rotor to freewheel when the engine stops and this feature is built into some FS2004 helicopters and not into others. There is something that can be added or changed in aircraft.cfg to add this feature and this is what i am trying to find out. You cannot autorotate a helicopter unless this feature is enabled. Does anyone know how to enable it?

I don't know how what you are wanting but the Gazelle autorotates extremely well. You can even cut the engine completely and land it. Take a look at it's .cfg to see what the differences are between it and the others.

[Billerator]

I still havn't come across a helo I cant autorotate.
Though if there is one I would love to see if I can do it.

[FS_Pilot]

I would suggest you go to http://www.swedbird.com/ and download and try and autorotate the Bell 47J. It is a great helicopter and i fly it all the time but it doesn't autorotate. Try flying along at about 1000 feet Then hit CTRL+F1 to cut the engine back to idle then try and land it. let me know how you get on.

[Delta_]

The default Bell does not auto-rotate, but the Robinson does.  I have not been able to land without crashing with no engines, you need the engines to be put back on to land it after an engine cut out.

[Billerator]

Ah, I see your point  :P .
Well its not the problem with the clutch since if you reduce throttle, the rotors will continue spinning.
The problem is that they dont carry enough momentum to give some lift when you increase throttle, to touch down.
This may be the case in real life ( it is an early chopper ) ,or the designer simply did not enter ( or did not have ) the correct data.

Im not great when it comes to .air files, but im sure this could be solved somehow. Increasing the momentum of the rotor would sureley do the trick.


ps. the default bell will autorotate.
Remember to reduce throttle as soon as the engine cuts out, get some speed and find a landing spot.
When you get near the ground start slowing down ( dont be afraid to fully hover in a point for a couple of secs ) then start to slowly increase the throttle to ease your landing.