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Flying the Ka52 Alligator

  by Zero G

 

  The only way to get out of this is to lower the collective and try to get some forward speed on, then you can add collective pitch to stop the descent. When doing bob ups from the side of a mountain be ready to use the pedals to turn your nose away from it as you try to duck an incoming SAM. You will find that you may need to dive out of the fall you put yourself into.

You will have very little time to react when you enter the vortex state so it might be a good idea to practice some dives in the training missions before you use them in the campaign. Turning this off will leave you with the ability to drop like a rock then recover by adding power to stop. This is how most of you are used to flying in helo sims.

TA

TA

One of the FM features that can't be turned off and increases the danger of the VRS ten fold is Translational Lift (TL). This is another feature that will be hard on virtual pilots for the first little while. TL happens because as the helo picks up air speed the rotors get clean undisturbed air to use. With the clean air comes a great deal more lift for the helo. This also works the other way around as well. As you slow down the helo will need more power to hold its altitude.

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TA

If you are not watching what is going on you can slow down and lose TL causing the helo to fall while at a slow speed, thusly putting you into VRS. You have to watch your power as you slow down below 30km/h. Keep a close eye on the vertical speed indicator (VSI) and add power as needed to keep you from losing altitude quickly. If you think this is a lot to think about just be happy that you are not worrying about the added torque snapping the helos nose around caused by the sudden need for added power!

TA

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Last Updated December 3rd, 1999

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