EC130-B4: major update

[efel]

hello
How to active the autostart ? I run EC130 much more than 5 times, and "autostart" is disabled always

[mhab]

5 flights means 5 times start+land and shutoff sucessfully

[efel]

successfully

I understand....!!! . Fine job,mhab!

[mhab]

Thanks for the flowers

Hope you made it to Autostart by now ...
B.T.W.: You may find the property to cheat your way through

Mike-DE

[wkitty42]

5 flights means 5 times start+land and shutoff sucessfully

well, poo... the docs state "start five times"... nothing is said about flying and landing although i have done the entire startup manually and the shutdown... i cannot, however, hover at 5 feet... as soon as the landing gear leave the ground, she's rolling over in addition to spinning counter-clockwise... for that matter, she starts spinning on the ground as soon as you start the engine and the top blades start moving and coming up to speed i can get it to stop spinning by rotating my twist grip on my joystick but that roll is deadly...

[mhab]

As a pilot in charge, please make sure the passengers are placed so that COG is not too far off. At startup make sure to trim the stick cyclic to counteract imbalance due to differing load.

Having done that, the spin which occurs during runup, should disappear once rpm is in flight mode and roll should be controllable.

[Thorsten]

as soon as the landing gear leave the ground, she's rolling over in addition to spinning counter-clockwise..

Welcome to the world of helicopter flight - they pretty much all do that, you don't get the landing gear off-ground with the stick in idle position, the controls already need to be set to compensate torque and roll, you need to anticipate the motion.

[wkitty42]

apparently my thrustmaster t160000m isn't a good joystick to try to fly this (or any other heli) craft with... there's no trim tabs on it, for one thing, and the centering spring(s) are real tight so it goes to center real quick... i won't even mention trying to hold it with the slight twist and pulled back to about the 5 o'clock position... my arm and wrist are sore...

maybe if one of the big egg beaters is modeled i might try it... with their counter rotating blades, they may be easier to handle...

[Thorsten]

Remove the springs (the wiki actually suggests that) - or fly mouse (that's what I do - for helicopter it eliminates the stick centering problem pretty good...).

Otherwise I guess it's a lot of trouble.

[mhab]

Trim for cyclic can be done easily by shortcut t
So if you hold the joystick in the desired position and press t -- release it and it can go back to center position working like before ...

[mhab]

I just found out, that the helicopter which crashed in Grand Canyon on Feb 10, 2018 is exactly the one I modelled here for Flightgear.
Registration: N155GC C/N: 7091 (built 2010)

My wife and me had had the time of our lives on a flight over the Grand Canyon in Sept. 2011 in exactly this helicopter, which was brand new back then.
This experience had motivated me to do all the work for the EC130 here in Flightgear.

B.T.W.: It is the second model of the EC130B4 in Flightgear which crashed, the F-GOLH C/N: 3882 (built 2004) being the other one.

It is a very devastating experience to learn about this and for me personally it is the second time a helicopter crashed I had been a passenger in.
The other occasion being an Alouette III of the Austrian Bundesheer back in 1982 or 1983 in the Austrian Alps near Landeck.

Sorry for bothering you, but I had to share this
Mike-DE

[hans05]

mhab, please stop flying in real helicopters!
It is dangerous for them.

[StuartC]

I agree. Stay clear.

[rominet]

Thanks for sharing this mhab. It is scary, but maybe a good reminder that, as fun as it is (or at least appears to be), helicopter flying doesn't come without risks...

[geed]

@mhab had a similar experience so I can totally relate to that but for me it was not the helicopter but the person flying it. Not related to Flightgear in any way but in real life flying helicopter is a game with handling lots of variables and staying calm and aware of the whole situation all the time. Sometimes, when this awareness shifts, very bad things can happen pretty fast.