I had recently installed Flight Sim 2004 on my computer. I've fallen in looooove with the cub, but that's for another topic.
I decided to give the Robinson R22 a spin, to see whether or not getting in a real helicopter is something I should ever aspire to or not. I know only slightly more than a neophyte about flying a helicopter. (I'm aware of a concept called "autorotation".)
If you have FS2004, and want an idea of my starting point, you can enter airport code KABI, and start on runway 17R. Only the ramp and runway layout is accurate. The painted lines and even some of the buildings are a bit out of place. If you look right, and a bit to the rear, you'll see a gas pump right where some scrapped airplanes should be.
So, I started looking at the gauges, and was promptly perplexed. There wasn't even an engine RPM gauge! I saw a gauge called "Manifold Pressure" and thought, "That sounds like it has something to do with the engine. I guess I'll keep my eye on that."
So, I steeled myself against whatever might happen, and opened the throttle, trying not to bring the needle in the Manifold Pressure into the yellow. As I slowly applied throttle, I suddenly started to feel like I was trying to balance a spinning plate on a broomhandle. Fortunately, the helicopter was still facing more or less in the same direction, but I started to "slide" waaaaay off to the left. If my airport had been accurately portrayed in FS2004, I would have cut down a lot of trees.
Now I'm thinking, "Okay, I read somewhere that helicopters are most squirrelly in hover, so maybe if I can get some forward motion, this will become a little more manageable." I tilted my joystick forward a little, and was off! My airspeed indicator went into the green arc, and I was going... Somewhere... I hadn't read or heard anything about how to gain altitude, or even how to manage straight and level flight. The manifold pressure was well below the yellow arc, so I decided to see what would happen if I throttled up some more.
By some magic, I began to gain some altitude. I kept going up, and kept going forward, so I felt a bit more comfortable, and decided for some experimentation. (By the way, I had JUST put all of my settings to hard, so stress on the airframe would cause damage.)
I noticed the manifold pressure was somehow staying more or less at the same spot, even though I had only advanced the throttle at this point, albeit it slowly, and in small increments. I figured, "Hey, let's find out what slamming the throttle open does!"
Within a couple of seconds, a "Low RPM" light came on, and my VSI was letting me know what a rock would indicate if it were at 3,000 ft and had a VSI strapped to it. I quickly throttled back, but something was broken now. I got the manifold pressure back down, but I no longer had the ability to ascend, no matter what else I did with my throttle.
Well, this concept of autorotation finally clicked in my mind. I decided to see if I could gain some speed to get my rotor spinning again. I chopped the throttle and pushed the stick forward. My airspeed went well into the green arc, and my "Low RPM" indicator turned off. One catastrophe averted. Now the ground was rising up to smite me.
"Hey, Rocky! Watch me pull a landing out of my hat!"
I hope I grabbed the right hat...
Well, I've actually seen helicopters land before. They appeared to flare much like airplanes did, so as the ground became close, I started to gently pull back on the stick and level up. I was still descending rapidly, so I pulled back soundly (but not jerking) on the stick. The ground in my view slowly gave way to sky, and then the horizon jumped back into my view, skittering around like a tire dropped carelessly to the ground, rolling and settling until its momentum had stopped.
Well, a crash wasn't registered by the Flight Sim, so I decided to try to take off again. I played with the throttle for a few seconds to see when the helicopter would actually develop lift, but not enough to actually take off. When I had gotten a kind of feel for it, I had a wild hair to see what would happen if I slammed the throttle open again.
I felt kind of like Han Solo did when he tried to activate his hyper drive, but things started getting worse, instead of better.
All my gauges went dead, and my rotors began spinning down. I had killed my poor R22. Not entirely sure how, but it had definitely given up its ghost. I decided that was enough for one day, and began to wonder how everyone here would respond to such tragic digital butchery of a fine machine.
