Noise Abatement: Forward flight to hover, “What’s in your wallet?”

Hawaii FSDO gets 100’s of complaints regarding helicopters every year. And legislation is constantly being introduced to regulate rotorcraft. I agree somewhat. There are dudes abusing the privilege.

On the Oregon Coast, it’s been pretty friendly for helicopters. But, I’m always concerned about noise and safety regardless.

When a chopper terminates forward flight to a hover, it uses a lot of steam. Therefore, when I approach an airfield (LZ) I fly over an unpopulated area (if possible) using very little power. Then position myself near the LZ before pulling the juice handle.

NOTE: Post is Not for guidance ENTERTAINMENT ONLY!



Video below: No “Blade slap”. A reasonably quiet approach, eh?

https://robinsonheli.com/r44-cadet-poh/

Very nice, slow, safe, and quiet approach.

Army pilots, in order to limit enemy target acquisition time, developed the very bad habit of a fast, unsafe,and noisy approach. I was in a Cobra or Loach acting like a gentleman, but lift pilots learned treetop at 100 kts until I called flair and they immediately stand the Huey on its tail.

We just have to get over that hot LZ stuff.

Again, good job.

contactflying wrote:Very nice, slow, safe, and quiet approach.

Army pilots, in order to limit enemy target acquisition time, developed the very bad habit of a fast, unsafe,and noisy approach. I was in a Cobra or Loach acting like a gentleman, but lift pilots learned treetop at 100 kts until I called flair and they immediately stand the Huey on its tail.

We just have to get over that hot LZ stuff.

Again, good job.

Thank you Jim. We all come from different instructions and environments. I’m just a civil hobbyist who believes “What comes around, goes around” the karma thing. Do on to others...

Mahalo and glad to have you onboard the thread.

Good stuff, whether airplane or helicopter we can’t do enough to be discreet and under the radar (figuratively).

Flying twin hueys in, er, non-urban areas, we could deliberately get some pretty good blade slap going to wake up the fuelers. So within our control.

Karmutzen wrote:Good stuff, whether airplane or helicopter we can’t do enough to be discreet and under the radar (figuratively). Flying twin hueys in, er, non-urban areas, we could deliberately get some pretty good blade slap going to wake up the fuelers. So within our control.

BC is the absolute most beautiful place I have ever seen! Never saw any traffic and occasionally a remote village! Noise abatement did not seem like an issue compared to where I fly in Hawaii! Lucky you live BC! God bless Canada!

8GCBC wrote:Hawaii FSDO gets 100’s of complaints regarding helicopters every year. And legislation is constantly being introduced to regulate rotorcraft. I agree somewhat. There are dudes abusing the privilege.

Excellent post, and a great way to be considerate of your neighbors. When I flew OH-58 helicopters in the Army, we used to try to "sneak" back into our bivouac area and see how close we could get to touchdown before any of the troops reacted to our presence... Same concept, taken to the extreme.

These days, I'm flying fixed wing, but still try to "fly friendly" to the max extent possible. Lower tip-speed 3-blade props (no trans-sonic activity, reducing RPM slightly once clear of obstacles with good rate-of-climb established, and keeping a relatively quiet muffler in the exhaust system all contribute to reducing my noise signature.

Every little bit helps, because "They" outnumber "Us" by a huge percentage, and politicians respond to numbers...

JP256 wrote:

8GCBC wrote:Hawaii FSDO gets 100’s of complaints regarding helicopters every year. And legislation is constantly being introduced to regulate rotorcraft. I agree somewhat. There are dudes abusing the privilege.

Excellent post, and a great way to be considerate of your neighbors. When I flew OH-58 helicopters in the Army, we used to try to "sneak" back into our bivouac area and see how close we could get to touchdown before any of the troops reacted to our presence... Same concept, taken to the extreme.

These days, I'm flying fixed wing, but still try to "fly friendly" to the max extent possible. Lower tip-speed 3-blade props (no trans-sonic activity, reducing RPM slightly once clear of obstacles with good rate-of-climb established, and keeping a relatively quiet muffler in the exhaust system all contribute to reducing my noise signature.

Every little bit helps, because "They" outnumber "Us" by a huge percentage, and politicians respond to numbers...

Agreed! Flying friendly is super important to me. I love the sport and love the freedom. But, it can be regulated in many ways that could ruin it too. Thank you for the sensible attitude, it helps us all.