Will My Helicopter Fly Straight?
Look at control design in two ways
- Provide enough control so aircraft can be used safely
- Referred to as ‘control authority’
- To have good directional control authority means that the helicopter can fly with the pilots always able to point the nose where they want.
- Control forces must be comfortable to pilots
- Requiring pilot to hold pedal against constant force is unacceptable.
- High control forces are unacceptable.
For our example we will calculate the forces required from the directional control system to give good control authority.