UH-4 Commuter/Systems

SECTION 6. SYSTEMS

1 HUD

When you first wear the HUD it will be dark and "disconnected" will displayed to indicate the HUD has not connected to an aircraft. When you sit in either the pilot (right) or co-pilot (left) seat, the HUD will connect and light up. The HUDs of the pilot and copilot/passenger show identical flight data including control positions. There are two main parts of the HUD: gauges on the top; and instruments and flight controls on the bottom. The upper instruments can be collapsed by clicking on the THI logo.

It is important to realize that due to SL lag, the hud may take time to become responsive again after crossings. Take care to use small control inputs and not over control. This is a known issue that is related to SL.

If you find yourself without a HUD after a crossing and are not sure where your control inputs are, nudge the collective up (but not too much to not overspeed) and use the gesture (.) to center your cyclic and coast, until the HUD re-appears.

The gauges starting at the top are:

• Vertical Speed Indicator (VSI) - Shows the current rate of descent or climb in hundreds of feet per minute.
• Airspeed - The middle gauge shows the airpseed in mph. The red line is the "never exceed" speed.
• Altimeter - Shows altitude above sea level in feet.
• Heading - Shows current heading
• Oil Pressure - Shows current oil pressure
• RPM - Shows speed of rotor in RPMs.
• Oil Temp - Shows oil temperature
• Fuel Pressure - Shows fuel pressure
• Fuel Quantity - Shows remaining fuel. Only active when master switch is on.
• Amps - Shows current power usage. Numbers below 0 indicate a drain on the battery, numbers above 0 indicate a charge to the battery. This gauge is only active when master switch is on.

The switches are:

• Master - Main electrical switch for aircraft. Don't forget to turn this off after shutting down or you will drain your battery.
• Alternator - Enables recharging of the battery. Under normal conditions, this should always be turned on with the master battery. The alternator only produces power once the engine RPM is high enough.
• Governor - The governor automatically adjusts the throttle to keep engine RPM in in the green arc as you adjust collective. It should be turned on at the end of the start-up sequence.

Flight controls are:

• Start - Press and hold this to start engine. The engine must be primed and in the proper state for the start to be successful. There must also be adequate charge on the battery. The starter drains power quickly, so do not use longer than necessary.
• Throttle - Controls the throttle. Normally you only need to manually control (by dragging the red dot with the mouse) this at start-up and shutdown. In normal flight conditions the governor will automatically control throttle for you. There is also an "idle lock" feature that is activated by click on the word "idle" under the throttle. This will lock the throttle in idle position for practice autorotations.
• Collective - Collective controls the total thrust the helicopter is producing. Drag the red dot with the mouse to move the collective. You can also use the Up/Down arrow keys. The red dot will show current collective position regardless of which method you use to manipulate it.
• Cyclic - Cyclic controls the direction that thrust is directed. Drag the red dot with the mouse to move the cyclic. In cruise flight, turns should be performed primarily with cyclic, with the pedals used for coordination.
• Anti-Torque - Anti-Torque (pedals) is used to control the tail rotor thrust. Use the mouse in the horizontal bar to set pedal position, or use the Left/Right arrow keys to control anti-torque. The pedals should be used for turns during hovering flight, and for coordination while in cruise flight.
• Mixture - Controls the fuel/air mixture to the engine. See the start-up procedure for information on how to use it.
• Mags - Turns the magnetos on/off. There are both left and right magnetos. In normal flight you want to use both.

2 MINI-HUD

In addition to the standard HUD, there is also an alternative "Mini HUD". The mini HUD is simply the flight controls without the flight instruments.

3 FUEL SYSTEM

There is a single 20 gallon tank. You can refuel by typing "refuel" in chat, or use the @Service -> @Fuel menu to select a specific fuel level. Note that fuel has weight and will affect the performance of your aircraft. One gallon weighs approximately 6 pounds. If carnying a lot weight, it is sometimes useful to fill the tanks only part way.

4 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

This aircraft uses a 12V electrical system. There is an ammeter that shows when power is being drawn from battery or the battery is being recharged. Negative values indicate battery is discharging and positive values indicate it is charging. The battery is used primarily for the starter. The alternator switch must be turned on while the engine is running to recharge the battery. If the battery is depleted, you can recharge it with the "recharge" chat command, or through the @Service menu. The only indication of a dead battery is failure to start, and change in sound of the starter motor.

5 RESIZER

There is resizer that will let you select from 100% size up to 130% size. To resize, go to @Admin - > @Resize and choose a size. The aircraft must be empty during the resizing prococess. After the resize, the aircraft will automatically go through a recalibration process (same as pressing [Recal. W&B ] from @Admin menu). Please wait for this process to complete before sitting in the helicopter.

6 MAIN MENU

Menus are only available to the owner and registered or guest pilots of the aircraft. In general button options beginning with an "@" are sub-menus, and options beginning with "( )" or "(*)" are options that can be toggled. The buttons on the main menu are:

• HUD Connect - Reestablish connectivity between helicopter and HUD if it becomes disconnected, or if you wear HUD while already seated.
• @Options - Control various flight option settings.
• Park/Unpark - Make the aircraft non-physical/physical. Normally this occurs automatically when you sit in the aircraft, but this option can be used to control this manually.
• CG - Shows the current CG (Center of Gravity)
• @Realism - Enable or disable "realism" features of the aircraft flight characteristics.
• Get POH - Get a notecard with the aircraft POH (i.e., the manual)
• Get Checklist - Get a notecard with the aircraft checklists (start-up and shut-down).
• @Admin (owner only) - Access owner-only options
• @Give HUD - Display a sub-menu allowing you to give a copy of the HUD to the avi sitting in the pilot or co-pilot seat. Since the HUD is no-transfer, this is the only way to give a HUD to your passengers. If delivery fails, try again after waiting a few minutes as the sim on which the HUD server is placed may be down.
• @Service - Displays the service menu for servicing the aircraft.
• @REGISTER - Access the aircraft registration menu. This button will only appear on the main menu if an N number had not yet been assigned.
• Safe Unsit - Slide avatar outside aircraft before unseating them. Useful when aircraft is physical.
• Fast Start/Stop - Use this button to start or stop your helicopter without going through the full procedure. You will still need to wait for the rotors to come to full speed when using Fast Start.

7 ADMIN MENU

The admin menu contains options only available to the aircraft owner. Buttons/Options are:

• Guest - If enabled, anyone can sit in the pilot seat and fly the aircraft. If disabled, only the owner, or pilots explicitly added can fly the aircraft.
• Passenger - If enabled, allows anyone to sit in the passenger/co-pilot (left) seat. If disabled, only authorized pilots can use the co-pilot seat.
• Eject - Ejects whoever is sitting in the passenger seat. Use this to get rid of unauthorized passengers.
• Add Pilot - Add an authorized pilot. A maximum of 12 pilots can be registered. The pilot to be added should stand within 10m of aircraft to be recognized by the system.
• Remove Pilot - Remove a pilot from the authorized pilot list.
• List Pilots - List the authorized pilots.
• Recal. W&B - If you make any changes to the linkset, you should use this option to recalibrate the weight & balance for the scripts.
• @Resize - Submenu that lats you select from several aircraft sizes.
• @REGISTER - Assign or change your aircraft's registration. See "N-NUMBER ASSIGNMENT" in Section 1 for more details.
• @Paint - Change the color/markings of your aircraft. See "PAINTKIT SYSTEM" below for more details.

8 PAINTKIT SYSTEM

The paintkit system allows you to change the appearance of your helicopter. It is accessed through the @Paint sub-menu found on the @Admin menu. On this menu there are several built-in colors, and a "Custom" button to load a paint set from a separate "paintkit" prim. For custom designs you can either use a paintkit from a 3rd party vendor, or load your own texture set into the paint kit that came with your helicopter. To apply a paintkit, simply rez the paintkit near your helicopter and select "*Custom" from the @Paint menu. The helicopter will search for nearby paintkits and allow you to choose which you want to apply. Instructions on how to create your own custom paintkits can be found in the paintkit object.

9 OPTIONS MENU

The options menu is accessed from the @Options button on the main menu and is available to any registered pilot. Alerts - If enabled, alert messages about collisions or other unsafe conditions will be given. If disabled, no alert messages will be issued. Dust - If enabled, dust effects are produced when the aircraft is near the ground, water, or over a prim. Fragile - If enabled, a crash will cause helicopter to burst into flames and become non-responsive. Resets after a set time (or until ELT is turned off). (n) Controls - Select a control scheme. Control schemes are discussed in the CONTROLS section near the beginning of this document. Copilot - Enable or disabled copilot controls

10 SERVICE MENU

The service menu accessed from the @Service button on the main menu. Options Include:

• Charge Bat. - Charge the battery to full.
• @Fuel - Accesses a sub-menu that lets you set the fuel level to a specific level.

11 REALISM MENU

The realism menu lets you enable or disable some of the RL helicopter flight characteristics. The features that can be enabled/disabled are:

• Density - If enabled, density altitude will have an effect on aircraft performance. This comes in play when operating at high altitudes. At high altitudes hover height and climb rate will be reduced from their values at lower altitudes.
• ETL (Effective Translational Lift) - If enabled, additional lift/performance is gained when forward airspeed goes above about 20 mph due to the main rotors constantly moving into clean air. When disabled, the additional performance is always available.
• Low RPM - When enabled, pulling excessive collective can result in decay of main rotor RPM. If this effect is disabled, rotor RPM will not decay when pulling too much collective.
• Vortex - When enabled, the helicopter can be subject to "vortex ring state" also known as "settling with power". This can occur when the helicopter is in a vertical descent of more than 300 feet/min with a forward speed of less than 30 mph while collective is at more than 50%. When vortex ring state occurs, the helicopter will experience a loss of lift and begin descending rapidly, even if additional collective is pulled.