Thread: RCHA Achievement Scheme

Phase 1 is nearly complete with a draft produced comments welcome on our A cert. Its simple and challenging in our view.

Oh and before I forget - FBL systems are allowed an old debate I know but incase anyone was curious we view FBL as technology that can only respond to a pilots input.

Nice idea.
But "Spool up the rotors with the helicopter no less than 10ft in front of you, upon the helicopter becoming light on the skids take off with the tail pointing directly to you. Hover the helicopter no more than aprox 3ft off the ground, keeping the tail pointed towards you at all times.
Engage Idle 1 – the headspeed of the helicopter will increase ensuring in a steady hover and the headspeed has reached the required idle 1 state, engage throttle hold.
Gently reduce the pitch to zero, then onwards to -4 and allow the helicopter to descend and land."
Would cause a lot of broken skids.
to get the pitch to -4 from 3' you'd be picking up bit's.
Also "Hover the helicopter no more than aprox 3ft" is mentioned more than once don't really make sense you should take out the "aprox"

Paul

..like I'd ever be within 10 feet of my Spectra G with the rotors at takeoff speed! It doesn't matter how much you preflight stuff there's always something ready to fall off, fracture or catch you out...'specially with a gasser.

I like the idea of the "Mini Auto"

One on the basics everyone should learn.

Another vote for increasing the 10 foot minimum mark though Stu.

It says no LESS than 10 feet so 20 feet is OK

Minimum is good,maximum would be bad.

Originally Posted by ChrisB

It says no LESS than 10 feet so 20 feet is OK

No less means the candidate "CAN if he wants to" take off just 10 feet away though Chris.

Not good IMO.

I little adjustment there to keep everyone happy I think.

5 meters on the BMFA 'A' felt bl**dy close.

Very true Tim a higher minimum distance would be better i suppose just in case.

If i was attempting a test i would certainly choose a bit more myself

Okay shall increase the minimum distance :-) to 16ft (same as BMFA's) but its a minimum - trying to encourage safety first if the guy/gal took off from 20ft or 12ft provided they are safe and bearing in mind I would expect most examiners would have watched the person fly before taking the test and would have a good idea on how confident they are when operating there heli.

My personal view is that the 'a' test should be just a safety and basic competence test showing ability to fly solo without endangering anyone else. A 'b' test should be reasonable ability to fly safe sports flying. A 'c' test should be the ability to fly and teach basic safety and compentence to 'a' level. Further tests for advanced flying and advanced teaching..

..but then what do i know?

Otherwise why go duplicating/fettling current stuff?

How fast can a little 'ol 450 accelerate when yu dumb thumb it sideways? I can tell you daamn fast and I wear a crooked finger to show that from my learner days..it travelled 15 feet faster than I could duck and has mde me way more cautious than Mr Average... and a right pain to pilots not carrying out proper pre-flight, range checks etc..

Safety is the key to any examination, but more importantly in the A as this is a general measurement used by many to say your okay for solo. As such we need to ensure safety and control sit at the top of the needs but to achieve this we need to challenge also pilots orientation.

We like the idea especially in the A to give hints and tips to help them to understand whats needed, and we intend to make Phoenix sim downloadable recordings also as well as .avi files for those without Phoenix.

We live in a metric world. Measurements should be in metres, not feet. We don't use 2 foot blades on our 50 size helis do we?

Don't make elements of it different from the BMFA just for the sake of it.

On a similar note, maybe call the schemes 'bronze, silver, gold' etc rather than 'A, B' - an area where it would actually be beneficial to be different.

Originally Posted by Steve

On a similar note, maybe call the schemes 'bronze, silver, gold' etc rather than 'A, B' - an area where it would actually be beneficial to be different.

Like this idea and also yours pgk about having 3 instead of 2

Originally Posted by Steve

We live in a metric world. Measurements should be in metres, not feet. We don't use 2 foot blades on our 50 size helis do we?

Don't make elements of it different from the BMFA just for the sake of it.

On a similar note, maybe call the schemes 'bronze, silver, gold' etc rather than 'A, B' - an area where it would actually be beneficial to be different.

This just draft we used ft as people tbh still work off ft i know I'm 5ft 6 and can roughly judge this distance well and felt that most will very easliy understand ft better than M for exactly this reason.

Personally I think ft is better.

We intend to have three levels not yet in tablets of stone the name or etc.