Automation in cars is bad enough, but now they're going after my beloved 22!

[r22butters]

I didn't spend all those training flights nervously awaiting the next throttle chop, only to have that quick instinctive reaction I developed replaced by a machine!

[zippiesdrainage]

So what happens when a nervous student death grips the throttle and gets low rotor? It seems great for engine failures but would create a big mess in the seats for overly nervous pilots

[adam32]

Cool video but it will never get an STC.

[Eric Hunt]

In an auto when you are going for range, you pull the revs down until the horn beeps - and this thing snaps it to the floor??

 

It better have an easily-over-ridden clutch or there will be a lot of accidents of machines dropping out of the atmosphere.

 

You can't legislate against stupidity, and you can't make an R-22 idiot-proof. Starting the engine proves that.

[WolftalonID]

Cool video but it will never get an STC.

This is already STC approved and available. This device is actually pretty nice and well thought out. See this video.

 

https://youtu.be/qiZrk76zXfM

Edited October 17, 2017 by WolftalonID

[r22butters]

Well, for a nice bit of irony, at least half the 22's I've flown over the years already have collectives that creep down on their own if I let go!

 

,...the other half creep up!

[Wally]

Not an Robbie driver, so I can't comment on the specifics of this device. I understand that Robinsons are very efficient, delivering more speed than comparable recip helos. At a high cruise, in a lot of helicopters, the critical initial action after a power failure is an attitude pitch up, reversing the disk as a whole's relative airflow quickly, minimizing the RPM decay and loss of altitude in recovering to a stable autorotation. Is this the case in Robinsons?

This thing looks like the throttle kicker that was installed on TH55s while I was a basic IP. I hated that thing kicking the throttle back on an already overloaded student...

[ARM_Coder]

In an auto when you are going for range, you pull the revs down until the horn beeps - and this thing snaps it to the floor??

 

It better have an easily-over-ridden clutch or there will be a lot of accidents of machines dropping out of the atmosphere.

 

You can't legislate against stupidity, and you can't make an R-22 idiot-proof. Starting the engine proves that.

 

The pilot can override the mechanism as its pull is not that strong. Their website shows this.

 

https://www.helitrak.com/products/collective-pull-down

 

Maybe the worst problem here is an engine failure close to the ground, when you really don't want the collective going full down in a split second. You will definitely need a new set of skids (and maybe a few new vertebrae too).

 

Cheers!

[adam32]

Sounds freaking stupid for a training helicopter...get students used to not having to fly the machine then when they get out in real life and have an engine failure at 100 feet over the tree tops they will be sitting there waiting for the little contraption to lower the collective for them...