Bell Huey Pilots/Maintainers...a few questions, if you will?

jrsteensen · May 23, 2015

Hello! My name is John and I am a flight simulator junkie. (Weird right?) For the day job, I am the lead draftsman/mechanical designer on my program for one of the Aerospace/Defense corps. For fun/my living room, I am working on designing and building a two-place Bell UH-1 sim. Downloaded over 500 cockpit/interior pictures, and have all the TMs to include the IPM (-210-20P), and even got some dimensions second-hand from a couple of Bell 205s.

Hoping that when complete, I can trailer mount this setup and take it airshows, large events, and such - just something to help inspire kids to get into aviation and/or the engineering disciplines.

I was hoping that one of you Huey pilots or maintainers might be able to help me out a bit here with a few dimensions (Hopefully accurate to the ten-thousandth of an inch, but as accurate as the tape measure will go will work as well.)

I'm sure I'll discover more missing dimensions as my model comes along.

AC Breaker Panel: (Panel near pilots left foot)

Width of Panel?
Height of panel? (As measured by laying the ruler on the face of the panel.)
Angle of Panel from the center console?
Distance from aft edge of center console (not including map case) to aft edge of AC Breaker Panel?

Pilots Seat: (Also, as many pictures as I can get, from every odd angle/detail)

Length of Seat Pan?
Width of Seat Pan?
Dimensions of Cyclic cutout on front edge of seat?
Height above the cockpit floor of FWD edge of the top of the seat pan?
Height above the cockpit floor of AFT edge of the top of the seat pan?

Pictures:

Those odd little details everyone overlooks?
Collective (especially face on, but overall as well, and dimensions of the control head would be awesome!)
Overhead Panel (Especially the structure. Maybe opened on the hinges?)
Overhead Panel w/o panels? (How many holes in the dzus rails?)
Center Console w/o panels? (How many holes in the dzus rails?)
Collective Lock?

Here is a render of the status of my model a few days ago. (I've roughed in the floor, and started designing my cyclic gimbals since.) I took some liberties with the Avionics, opting for a ARC-210 control head, and an ASN-128D for simplicity.

adam32 · May 23, 2015

Where are you located? I'm sure we could locate a Huey nearby for you to inspect in person.

Sounds like a cool project!!!

jrsteensen · May 23, 2015

Thanks Adam!

I'm down here in Sierra Vista, AZ. (Outside Fort Huachuca, about 20 miles from the Mexico border.)

apacheguy · May 23, 2015

Yuma Proving Ground used to fly Hueys (2012ish). Not sure if they still have them or transitioned to the Lakota. If you can get to French Valley airport in SoCal there's a Huey in a museum you could check out. I'm sure there must be some civilian Hueys closer to you though.

jrsteensen · May 23, 2015

Thanks! Don't see many Huey's flying down here, though I'd be willing to drive as far as Phoenix (4ish hours) to check one out. Been trying to get in contact with the Pima Air and Space museum to see if they would be willing to open the UH-1H up for me and let me go to town measuring and modelling on my laptop, but from what I recall, the cockpit is pretty stripped in it.

Flying Pig · May 24, 2015

Air West Helicopters has a Huey locate just north of you.

adam32 · May 24, 2015

Air West Helicopters has a Huey locate just north of you.

I thought of them too, then checked their website and they only have a 206 and Enstrom listed??? But then it says they can lift up to 4000lbs??? Worth a call to them, maybe they lease a Huey as needed or something like that. Either way it sounds like that would be a good place to contact.

RussL · May 26, 2015

There is no cyclic cut out on the front edge of the pilots seats on Hueys and they adjust up and down so the height measurement wont matter . Look for Bell maintenance manual or ilistrated parts breakdown books for gobs of info . bellhelicopter.net has them but you'll need a username and password to log in .

jrsteensen · May 26, 2015

Please pardon my absence this weekend - was my oldest 8th birthday and we had a great weekend!

I thought of them too, then checked their website and they only have a 206 and Enstrom listed??? But then it says they can lift up to 4000lbs??? Worth a call to them, maybe they lease a Huey as needed or something like that. Either way it sounds like that would be a good place to contact.

I'll definately get in touch with them. Seems like as good a place to start as any.

There is no cyclic cut out on the front edge of the pilots seats on Hueys and they adjust up and down so the height measurement wont matter . Look for Bell maintenance manual or ilistrated parts breakdown books for gobs of info . bellhelicopter.net has them but you'll need a username and password to log in .

Good to know regarding the cutout. I did notice on the IPM TM that the seats have five holes for vertical adjustment, however, knowing the center hole height above the cockpit floor, and then the spacing of the two additional holes up and down from the center hole would be useful. Unfortunately, the IPM I have is from the 60s, and while it has a TON of details, its hand drawn and a poor scan, which makes me miss some critical details. A more modern IPM would be a godsend.