I apologize if this is not the right category for this post.
I’m having difficulty just taking off smoothly in Taog’s Hangar UH-1H. When attempting a vertical takeoff, I slowly increase collective. I’m expecting the helicopter to life off the ground gradually. Instead it rockets upward!
Everything else works fine. I can (more or less) fly around and land safely. How do I not have it launch upwards like a missle? Or is this just what helicopters do when trying a vertical takeoff instead of a transitional lift takeoff?
Thanks.
You must reverse throttle axis for helicopters.
That shouldn’t affect the issue I described above. Besides my throttle axis is in the correct orientation.
Has anyone else experienced this issue?
I do believe the original weight settings of this chopper are very light (like 1 pax loaded with some fuel) Fiddling with that makes the huey easier to control.
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Sort of. First of all, I’m relatively inexperienced with helicopters, have had no real-world training and only maybe a dozen hours in the sim (as opposed to fixed-wing experience). So take this with a grain of salt.
I’m over-cautious when using the collective, being very slow and deliberate. I have a Virpil Rotor Plus that has a pretty long throw, plus a twist throttle grip on the collective. So it’s sensitive.
Two things I noticed:
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It’s very easy to over-torque the engine with the throttle. Doing so might produce an overabundance of lift using the collective.
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when doing an engine-out autorotation, I was not only able to flare, but I shot up several hundred feet when I pulled the collective, then re-settled, and shot up several hundred feet twice more before I was able to get it to land. Overzealous on my part, maybe, but I’m not aware of a helo being able to initiate a rapid climb three times during an autorotation. So maybe there’s something to that? Or it could have jeust been me.
Someone with IRL helo experience might be able to provide a better answer.
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I have the same Virpil controller. When taking off, once N1 is above 40%, I keep the throttle around 70% and rely on the governor to adjust the throttle. I never bring the collective to 100%. I usually try not to go over 80% because I was over torquing the engine and would crash every 5 minutes. Once I kept the maximum collective below 80%, I was able to fly and land without losing the engine.
I’ll try fiddling with the Huey weight settings to see how that goes.
Thanks ya’ll!
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I also wonder if something isn’t a bit off with the flight model.
I haven’t flown it much, but I noticed some very pronounced yaw and lift at times. I could certainly understand that the nose might yaw if I made dramatic changes to the collective or throttle. But I’m pretty steady state, at low airspeed, and the nose will just swing like someone kicked the rudder pedal.
I didn’t catch the torque at the time, but I wonder if there is a “catch” or corner in the torque response somewhere where just a little more throttle suddenly gives you a lot of response. 
That’s not correct, as far as I know. To my knowledge the Huey is always flown at 100% throttle. Like you said, the governor takes care of the rest and the governor needs 100% throttle to work properly for optimum performance.
You can however use the RPM Increase / Decrease switch on the collective to fine tune the RPM. The target should be between 6,400 and 6,600 turbine RPM at the most.
Any overtorquing is usally the result of too sudden control inputs (too fast collective movement, for example) or too extreme maneuvering putting stress on the whole system.
EDIT: Case in point. Here is a comparison of the turbine RPM and torque gauges at 70% and 100% throttle. As you can see, the RPM are past the red line at 70% throttle and the torque is also much higher than it should be. Only at 100% throttle the governor can dial in the proper RPM (6,400 in Taog’s Huey) and the torque is much, much lower:
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Quick update. After increasing the fuel load and my weight (thereby making the helicopter heavier), plus probably patch 1.06, I was able to lift off much smoother! Thanks everyone!
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Also check the rotor isn’t in overspeed, there’s a known bug with the aircraft that if you spawn on the runway with the engine running, the rotor might be overspeeding and it produces the same effect you’ve mentioned. You can also overspeed the rotor during the start up sequence if you’re not careful
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How could I overspeed the rotor during startup?
Seems to be if you advance the throttle too quickly during the start. Just make sure the rotor rpm is at the high end of the green arc and you’ll be fine
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