Anyone taken the Army AFAST?

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

I know I can purchase a book to study for it (just like the ASVAB test), but I was wondering if anyone here took it and could give me a general idea of whats on it?

I'm looking at the WOFT program with interest, but would like to get a better idea of what it would mean for me to do it.

http://www.usarec.army.mil/hq/warrant/

Thanks for any information.
-SW

[Charon]

I did, and passed until I had the eye test

All I remember  from 1984 were a bunch of logic and other questions and illustrations "looking trough the cockpit" with questions about what to do with the cyclic, etc. to correct the problem. I got all i needed to know about that aspect from the book "Chickenhawk" by Robert C. Mason. It a helicopter pilot's tale from Vietnam (excellent book), but it goes into great detail about how the controls interact to fly a helicopter.

Charon

[AKIron]

Usta be pretty tough to get in as a civilian. Most slots (but not all) are reserved for active duty members. My brother managed to go straight into the WOFT program as a civilian but he already had his private pilot's license which he believes helped a lot. Of course this was a long time ago, he went in '82 or '83, program may have changed a lot since then. He got out just after the first Gulf War and is flying commercial jets now.

I bet he'd be glad to talk to ya about it. Lemme know if you want and I can hook ya up.

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

Thanks for the info, I'll see if I can find the book.

Just curious if this is right when it comes down to the basics of a helicopter: The control column controls left/right bank when operating it as an aircraft control column, but forward will increase momentum while backwards on it will decrease momentum while in level flight?

There's a secondary stick, a throttle?, which controls the primary rotor like an aircraft propellor? Pulling up results in taking off while pushing down will lower it?

Left/right on the rudder pedals reduce or increase the revolutions of the tail rotor to produce yaw?

Then theres the jet engines, I figure they produce thrust but is there also a seperate throttle system for them?
-SW

[AKIron]

The stick is called a cyclic and controls the lift of the main rotor in a specific area. If you move it left then the rotor increases lift on the right side causing to aircraft to roll left. Same for the other directions.

The other control that you pull up and push down is the collective. It controls the overall lift of the main rotor. Some helicopters also have a throttle which is controlled by twisting the collective.

The rotor pedals work as you stated. actually they increase or decrease the pitch of the rotor to counteract the torque of the main rotor and to yaw the a/c.

Oh, the jet engines turn the rotors, they don't produce thrust in the sense of pushing like a fixed wing jet a/c.

[AKIron]

Something interesting to note about helicopters. Unlike fixed wing airplanes helicopters will stall if they go to fast. The rotor on top is just a wing that gets it's lift by rotating. As the helicopter goes faster through the air the spinning main rotor goes through the air faster on one side of the helicopter than it does on the other.

The faster it goes, the faster the rotor must spin on the downwind side to keep generating lift. It will eventually reach a speed where the rotor cannot generate enough lift on the downwind side and the helicopter will roll (stall). This isn't just a theoretical limitation but a very real one for many helicopters.

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

Okay, so the cyclic controls the main rotor in the sense that when moving the stick it will change the AoA allowing the helo to either roll, loop, or nose down? Does it also allow it to flare, like a fixed wing aircraft, so it can slow down on approaches?

The collective can increase or decrease lift on the main rotor, thereby allowing the helo to take off and touch down, does it also create forward/backward momentum in conjuction with the cyclic (push slightly forward on the cyclic and pull up on the collective to produce forward acceleration?).

For the jet engines, I was confused by the statement from CW3 (Maybe CW 4) Micheal Durant when he said his co-pilot tried to shut down the jet engines but the centrigual force allowed him to only shut down one engine before his hand was pushed away and the aircraft spun in a lot harder minus one of the jet engines.

I sent you an e-mail too Iron, thanks for all the help.
-SW

[AKIron]

I'm not sure if all helicopters work this way SW but I know the ones my brother flew do. Don't think of the cyclic as controlling the "tilt" of the main rotor. Rather it changes the bite (pitch) of the rotor through a specific arc. If the cyclic is pushed all the way forward then the rotor blade pitch is increased as the rotor swings to the rear of the craft and reduced again as it continues around to the front. This will cause the chopper to tilt forward. Actually, this is a simplification as there are other forces at work here such as gyroscopic precession but you'll get the right idea if you view it like this.

I bet you can pick up Commanche vs Hokum pretty cheap. It will give you a pretty good feel for how all this fits together. Longbow 2 is another great chopper sim but older and more trouble to get working right.

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

I think I understand what you mean there, which would better explain why an onboard computer failure would result in a helicopter uncontrollably rolling into the ground(One Apache unit lost 2 crewmen and the helicopter to a computer failure).

Just learned (literally) about gyroscopic precession.
http://www.cybercom.net/~copters/aero/gyro.html

I should probably just search the net and bookstores for a decent or some decent book(s) for the basics of it all - I'm assuming all I need is that since the 40 weeks of rotary wing aviation training should teach everything to me.

I read your e-mail, may not reply till Sunday if you send me one over the weekend (will be away). Thank you!
-SW

[Raubvogel]

I took it and scored a 120. I'm really trashed right now, but if you have any helo questions, ask away and I'll answer later.

[Mini D]

Get Jane's Longbow.

The tilt of the helo is controlled by the cyclic.  It does this by cycling the blades at a specific point to increase the lift at that point.  If you push forward on the stick, the blades increase in angle at the back of their rotation and cause lift to be generated at the back tilting the helo forward.  If you push right, the blades increase in angle on the left side of the rotation causing more lift on the left and resulting in the helo tilting right.

The collective is your up and down action.  It controls the tilt of all the blades uniformly.  If you pull up on it, the angle on the blades increases and they generate more lift.  If you push down, the angle is decreased and all of the blades generate less lift causing the helo to go down.

To go forward, you push the cyclic forward and pull up on your collective (since just pushing forward on the cyclic would tilt you forward, but you'd start to drop) to counter for the minor drop (slip) you'd have from changing your pitch.  The more you tilt forward, the more collective you'd have to use to stay level resulting in faster forward motion.

The pedals are easy... just like rudders crossed with a collective.  All blades on the tail rotor increase/decrease angle.

MiniD

[Drifter1234]

SW,

Been a while seen I went through flight school at Fort Rucker.

I scored really well on the test because a pilot friend of mine told me it was an "aptitude test".  In addition to basic helicopter flight questions they asked a lot of personality questions. Remember when flying helicopters there are so many moving components (as opposed to fixed wing) that you have to adopt an attitude of waiting for the next part to break.  They do not want gung-ho charge in the line of fire people but someone that will not panic under extremene pressure.

One question I remember is "would you rather play a game of chess or tackle football"  personally football but they wanted the chess player.  Again someone that keeps their emotions in check.

Basic weather was also on my test.  I remember several air density question.  Would a helicopter have more lift at sea level than at 5000ft.  (sea level)

Helicopter Basics (In Bert and Ernie Language)

Throttle:

Motorcycle grip on the end of the collective.  Remember that the throttle is either in Idle or Full.  When in flight and anything other than sitting on the ground your rotorblades are at a constant RPM. (Unless you lose your tail rotor and you can use the throttle to adjust the yaw of the aircraft).

Collective:

Lever on leftside of seat attached floor that controls the pitch (angle of attack)  this is where the power comes from.  You increase the pitch you increase the "lift" of the blades through the air and force more air through them.  When you increase the lift the engine must supply more power to the rotor (through the governor)  increasing torque.


Cyclic:

Imagine the rotor on top as a big disk which ever way it leans the helicopter will follow.  The cyclic is primary responsible for the pitch and bank of the rotor blades which controls the airspeed of the aircraft.  Puch forward fly forward, push further forward fly faster forward (in conjunction with increase in collective).

Pedals. (Anti-torque control) or yaw control

The body of the helicopter wants to turn opposite of the rotor blades. More power to rotor more torque on body.  You apply pedal to counteract this which increases the pitch of the rotorblades.  It is basically a trim control in cruise flight due the aerodynamic effects of the body of the aircraft.

While hovering the pedals allow youto turn the helicopter.


In summary:

Move one control you generaly have to move other controls.

Raise collective gotta add pedal.

Push cyclic forward drops the nose must add collective thus more pedal to maintain same altitude.


Hope this helps.

I still have my old manuals in attic. If wife did not purge them.

Email me i will try to find them.

Good luck been since the mid-eighties in flight school.



Drftr

[Udie]

My uncle has flown helo's for over 30 years now.  He started back in '67 or '68 in Vietnam.   Back when I had Longbow2 and was really in to helo's I talked with him about it.  I was having problems controlling the thing in the game and figured he'd be able to help me hover and stuff like that.  I talked with him for a little while about the stuff and he really helped me learn to fly them in the game.  He said one thing though that I have never forgotten.  "Learning to hover in a helocopter was like learning to ballance a marble on a bowling ball"

[AKS\/\/ulfe]

Thank you all for the information and advice. When I further decide on whether or not (depending on pending information) I have a chance of making it in the WOFT and Army Flight School, I will either bump this thread inquiring about certain aspects of the AFAST or not bump it at all.
-SW