Stormy Weather2012/04/12-Elan Head
American Eurocopter?s inadvertent instrument meteorological conditions (IIMC) training course ? conducted in its AS350 simulator ? is leading the way in improving this element of emergency procedures training for all pilots.
Simulating the Emergency2012/04/12-Shawn Coyle
In this excerpt and adaptation from his new book, The Little Book of Autorotations, contributing editor Shawn Coyle looks at how flight simulators and flight training devices can be used to teach autorotations.
2012/02/02-Guy R. Maher
The battle to reduce human factors- and training-related accidents has largely been addressed from the ?top down? through management and regulation; new initiatives, however, are trying to attack these age-old problems from the ?bottom up.?
Playing Limbo in a Helicopter2011/12/01-Roger Barr
?Check that the scene is safe.? I must have said that a hundred times when I went through lifeguard training as a teenager. Our CPR instructor drilled that into us as though we were boot campers.
The Balance of Forces and Moments2011/12/01-Shawn Coyle
I would hope that all of our readers can remember back to high school physics and the formula for Newton?s second law of motion: F = m x a (force equals mass times acceleration). It?s a relatively simple concept, but a very powerful one, and pretty relevant to all things helicopter.
2011/11/07-Shawn Coyle
For a three-axis autopilot, control of pitch and roll only occurs above 60 knots in most helicopters. The stabilization aspects of the encompassing automatic flight control system, of course, work all the time; this makes the machine a fairly docile beast and reduces pilot workload.
2011/11/07-Shawn Coyle
In this third part of our series on understanding your AFCS, we?re going to start looking at the autopilot itself, as, by now, you should know and understand how the basic stabilization part of the system works.
Understanding Your Autopilot Pt. 12011/07/14-Shawn Coyle - Vertical Online
This series isnt going to have a bunch of schematics and wiring diagrams, and hopefully it will contain very little description of system components. What I am going to try to show you instead is what will happen in the cockpit as we step through the var
Understanding Your Autopilot Pt.22011/05/27-Shawn Coyle
In Part 2 of our series on the autopilot/automatic flight control system (AFCS), we look at what happens when you use the stability augmentation system (SAS) and attitude hold (ATT) modes of an AFCS in forward flight.
Taking Charge When Things Go Wrong2011/04/25-Vertical Magazine
Your proficiency at flying a helicopter has an active side. Underlying all the proficiency of such things as off-level and confined-area landings is your skill at being able to manage an in-flight emergency. You may fly for years without a mechanical
