Purpose
To transition from a hover to a normal climb over a specified ground track.
Description
- Complete pre-takeoff procedures (pre-takeoff checks, clearing turns, and radio calls).
- Transition from hover to takeoff configuration.
- Estimate where aircraft will gain ETL.
- Apply proper procedures for crosswind departures..
Instructional aids and pre-requisites
- Ground Lesson pre-requisite: Aerodynamics: ETL, Height Velocity Diagram
- Conduct in parallel with lessons BM-1 through BM-3
Content
- With the aircraft in a hover and in position for departure, clear the downwind and final approach paths for traffic
- Conduct a hover power and pre-takeoff checks
- Make appropriate radio call prior to initiating maneuver
- Identify a distant reference point to use to maintain ground track
- Apply gentle forward cyclic and maintain ground track with ATPs
- As aircraft accelerates to ETL, maintain 5 ΄ altitude by adding forward cyclic
- When airspeed reaches 45 kias, initiate climb by leveling the aircraft to a 60 kias attitude
- Trim the aircraft when >50 ΄ AGL
- Confirm airspeed increasing to 60 kias, altimeter and VSI showing climb; check need for carb heat
- During crosswind takeoffs, maintain ground track (slip) below 50 ΄ AGL; above 50 ΄, apply cyclic into the wind and trim aircraft
Common errors
- Attitude control during transition from hover
- Initial forward cyclic should be just enough to begin moving the aircraft forward; an excessive nose-down attitude will cause the aircraft to descend
- Once ETL is attained, the nose tends to pitch up, causing the aircraft to decelerate unless additional forward cyclic is added
- Heading control
- Aggressive cyclic inputs will necessitate compensating collective and ATP inputs
- As airspeed increases, the increasing effectiveness of the tail rotor and fuselage streamlining provide directional stability, reducing the need for left ATP
- Directional control during departure
- Provide student with a distant references to prevent drift (eg, into the departure path for parallel runways)
- Altitude deviations
- A descent during the initial acceleration may be caused by overly aggressive forward cyclic
- A climb as the aircraft accelerates through ETL is caused by pitching up of the nose/insufficient forward cyclic
Completion standards
- Climbout initiated at 45±10 kias
- Avoids shaded areas of the H/V diagram
Teaching considerations
- Use a bulleted list here to describe any tips that will help instructors teach the maneuver, help students who are having difficulty mastering the maneuver
- Safety considerations can be highlighted in red text
Additional practice
- Estimate the distance to attain ETL–this helps students when learning confined area operations
Additional resources
- Use a bulleted list here to link out to additional resources (files, diagrams, other pages)