Q: Flight control to main rotor sequence? A: Flight controls, broom closet (bell cranks and torque tubes), pilot assist servos, mixing unit, primary servos, swashplate.
Q: Flight control to tail rotor sequence? A: Flight controls, broom closet, pilot assist servos, mixing unit, tail rotor rod to cable transition, tail rotor quadrant, tail rotor servo, tail rotor pitch control rods and beams.
Q: Pilot assist servo axes? A: Collective, pitch, roll and yaw.
Q: Electrical trim servos axes and function? A: Collective and yaw. Drives the flight controls (e.g., radalt hold, heading hold, etc.) and provides force gradient.
Q: Hydraulic trim servos axes and function? A: Pitch and roll. Drives the flight controls per electrical inputs. Long term outer loop (e.g., four way trim switch) and provides control gradient.
Q: Trim button function? A: The trim button controls hydraulic pressure to the pitch and roll trim servos as well as signaling power to be provided to the collective and yaw electronic trim servos. With SAS boost off, but trim on, you’ll have trim (e.g., boost servo malfunction). If the pilot assist servos are secured (e.g., #2 res low) you won’t have any hydraulic trim.
Q: Boost assist servo function? A: Provides hydraulic “assist” in the pitch, yaw and collective channels. No electrical inputs. The collective and yaw boost servos have an arm that allow for the controls to be moved after a boost servo failure. The pitch boost servo doesn’t have this arm because the control forces are significantly lighter.
Q: SAS servo function? A: Electrical signals are provided to the servo from SAS 1 and SAS 2 to provide rate dampening and short term inner loop static stability in all four channels.
Q: Mixing unit function? A: Complex series of bell cranks that adjust the tail rotor and main rotor for control inputs.
Q: Mixing unit control combinations? A: Collective to yaw (increase collective, increases pitch on tail rotor), collective to roll (increase collective, tilts main rotor left), collective to pitch (increase collective, tilts main rotor forward), yaw to pitch (increase left pedal, tilts main rotor aft). Not a function of the mixing unit, but control mixing also occurs through collective to airspeed to yaw (as airspeed increases, tail rotor pitch decreases).
Q: Primary servo function? A: Two servos for both forward, aft and lateral. They receive mechanical inputs from the mixing unit to the primary servo pilot valves. This results in servo movement and inputs to the stationary swashplate.
Q: Tail rotor description? A: The tail rotor is on the right side of the helicopter and pulls the tail, pushing the nose (the tractor/pulling set up is different/opposite from most helicopters).
Q: Tail rotor quadrant function? A: The tail rotor quadrant takes the inputs from the mixing unit and provides input to the tail rotor servo pilot valves.
Q: Functionality of the tail rotor quadrant when one of the two cables is broken? A: The tail rotor quadrant will still work with one cable. If both cables are broken, the springs will center and we’ll have our balanced flight at 45 and 120 kts at mission design gross weight.
It is our mission to do work that optimizes our unique capacity to serve others.
We will humbly play the roles assigned to us to the best of our ability, while empowering others to do the same.
We will embrace the inevitable discomfort, uncertainty, and hard work as well as the joy, laughter, respect, and love that result from worthy pursuits.
We will continue to be students of “the game” and never stop developing as leaders and teachers in our community and world, as we cultivate our potential to serve.
Spiraling up, overcoming mistakes, closing the gap between who we are and who we can be.
