Generally speaking, In forward flight you use anti-torque to keep the aircraft in balance, so keeping your balance ball, located under the Artificial Horizon, in the middle. Do you correct that with anti-torque or simply accept the angle? Also why is the Hind always turning to the right if the rotor torque should turn me to the left? With the Hind I experience over 10 degrees of drift angle at times. I was wondering how helicopter pilots use anti-torque in real life during normal flight and combat. Russian helos (like the Mi-24 and Mi-8) the rotors spin clockwise, requiring right pedal to compensate for increasing collective. Regarding specific torque effects, with US helicopters (like in the Huey) the rotors spin counterclockwise as viewed from the top, requiring left pedal to compensate for increasing collective. So for a given collective setting, you will require less anti-torque input at higher speeds compared to low speeds. As you increase your speed, that vertical tail produces more lift to counter-act main-rotor torque. There is also a sidslip indicator in the ASP-17 CCIP reticle that can help you get the aircraft into "coordinated flight" for attack runs with rockets.Īlso, keep in mind the Hind's vertical tail is essentially a wing on it's side. If the ball is right, apply right pedal to push back to center. You can use the trim ball on the main artificial horizon instrument to see what direction you need to apply pedal to "step on the ball". You make an input with one control, you need to adjust the others to compensate. Thiugh I don’t trust yaw autopilot so I keep adjusting pedals manuallyįlying helicopters is all about balance. In the hind with autopilots and dampeners and a heavy frame designed for stability you can trim out to flight hands off for the most part But when you enter a bank to turn, you’ll need to probably adjust collective, pitch, and pedals to keep the bank angle smooth. Generally speaking the helo pilot is almost always working the control surfaces a bit. Combat landing, take off, hover? Combat turns? Then once you get near top speed you may need right pedal to stay straight because the airframe is helping with lift and rotor isn’t doing as much work, so tail rotor is over doing it. Once you enter ETL / forward flight, you need less left pedal eventually because the rotor uses less power to create lift. So you need a bit of left pedal and left stick to counter it on take off and on hover. Can’t remember if it’s counter spin to the spin of the rotor? Anyway, on the Huey it spins the airframe to the right/clockwise. Taking the Huey as an example with no autopilots or any assists, the rotor (I don’t remember off hand the direction it rotates) transfers a lot of torque force to the airframe, cause the frame to spin.