How I Flew a Huey in Arizona

A couple of days ago I returned from my trip to the U.S. We had traveled on business to Phoenix, AZ. Although there were no arrangements to do any flying, I had decided to bring a flight suit with me. I figured, you never know…

We had received an invitation to meet with the Dillon Aero company. They own a number of helicopters, including a UH-1H Huey very similar to our model in DCS.

The hangar at Dillon Aero

A Huey in the Dillon Aero hangar

We received a very warm welcome from the staff, who showed us around, demonstrated some of the equipment and described the company.

The watchful guard of Dillon Aero

After showing our software, including DCS UH-1H, I was offered a ride in their Huey as a co-pilot. This was quite a pleasant surprise! Needless to say, I was very eager to try the Huey and see for myself what the real machine feels like, and how it compares to the model we’ve been toiling over for so long. How similar would it be? How would it be different?

The next day I showed up at Dillon Aero overdressed for the weather – it was 30°C outside and I was wearing a flight suit! As an old Army hat, I just couldn’t show up for a flight like this dressed like a street hooligan in T-shirt and jeans. It was quite toasty, but the Phoenix dry air helped.

I was introduced to Nick, a Huey pilot with over 9,000 hours in various helicopter types. He is a very pleasant fellow and radiated optimism. It was a pleasure to meet him. He would be our Huey pilot for the day. Another passenger tagged along for the flight, Brent, a brother of our friend and colleague in Phoenix and a software architect by trade. Like myself, he had never flown in a Huey before.

Nick and I

We left the hangar. The Huey was waiting on a wheeled platform, which had been moved out of the same hangar a little earlier. I took my seat on the left side of the cockpit. A mechanic came up to adjust the pedals and seat for my height, not hiding what appeared to be some excitement about the unusual passenger. He showed me how to properly fasten the safety harness and then secured my bag to the floor of the cargo compartment. All of this was done very professionally: carefully, quickly, and reliably. Next he explained how to use the intercom and radio switches on the cyclic control stick.

“Ready!” I reported to the flight commander sitting in the right seat.

Nick checked the position of the throttle and pressed the start button underneath the collective. By the way, this is one aspect in which our Huey model currently differs from the real thing. In our model, the engine is started by a different button located on top of the collective. I looked at Nick at this moment - what a great person! It was clear that for him, flying is pleasure, not work.

Meanwhile the compressor began to wind up and the temps started to rise. As the main rotor started to turn, the helicopter began to wobble and vibrate. The open window allowed heated exhaust air to enter the cabin along with the smell of jet fuel. I was blasted into the past and suddenly I was 25 again! I was a young Captain and I was just gleeful! It was awesome!

With both side doors open, the Huey easily lifted off the platform and Nick transitioned into forward flight. I kept a soft touch on the controls. I noted that Nick prefers to fly with the trim turned off, so the cyclic actually felt similar to our joysticks in its lightness of movement.

“So far, so good,” I thought. I took a moment to look outside and check out Phoenix from a bird’s eye view. The city is large, mostly filled with typically American single or two-story homes. It’s very clean and the streets are nice and wide. I saw mountains to the north, northwest and the cactuses below us, which was a little unusual for me. It was just pretty!

Phoenix from a helicopter

Once we passed through about 5,000 ft in order to climb over a mountain ridge, Nick let me take the controls and gave me a heading and speed to maintain. Level flight felt quite normal with no control issues. “Just like in DCS,” I thought. We were flying into the wind and there was a little turbulence. At this altitude, it’s much cooler and now I was glad for the flight suit and the jacket, which luckily I kept on. Nick, wearing only a light shirt, appeared to be unaffected by the colder air.

Nick split our flying time fairly in half, so I had plenty of time to get a good feel for the Huey, at least in level flight. It took about 50 minutes to get to our destination, Prescott airport, elevation 5,360 ft above sea level. It is a nice, clean airport that services small aircraft and some light helicopters. We spent about two hours at the airport. Before flying out, I asked Nick if it would be possible for me to try the Huey in a hover, of course only to test how it compares with our model! Smiling, he agreed.

After getting clearance for takeoff, Nick entered a hover over the helipad and let me take the controls. Hovering is essential to get an idea of how a particular helicopter handles. It is 70% – 80% of the “knowledge” of helicopter dynamics. It is one of the most complex elements of helicopter control to manage and for this reason is taught in flight school from the very beginning.

The cyclic did feel somewhat heavier than a joystick, but this makes sense – it is metal! However the frequency and input-return pattern of commands on the stick are just like in our model. Only the amplitude of inputs is slightly greater given the longer throw of the real cyclic compared to a standard joystick. Wow! I was hovering steady as a rock! There’s the beauty of our model!

I should note that compared to the sim, in the real helicopter you have the benefit of not only longer control devices, but also peripheral vision and a fine feel for motion changes, all of which make it easier to sense and respond to the helicopter.

I decided to try a vertical landing. The collective has a mechanical friction control, so it felt a little different from the hydraulically boosted collective of the Mi-8 I am used to. It felt a little like the collective lever is connected to a rubber band. It wasn’t a problem, though, and I got used to it quickly. Considering the much longer throw of the real collective compared to the CH throttle I use at home, control presented no difficulties. Excellent! I’d never flown a Huey before, but was able to hold a solid hover without much time to get used to the controls. I descended vertically, being careful to avoid any drifting, until we reached ground effect. Another half-inch off the collective with just a touch of right pedal to push through ground effect and we were on the ground.

As I looked over at Nick, he gestured for me to take off. I began to raise the collective, adding about 1/4 - 1/3 of left pedal simultaneously and using the cyclic to counter any drifting tendency. Looking good! I was able to take off straight up and hover once again. Nick complimented me and I again felt the satisfaction of my far and away cadet days of 1982!

The Huey seems to me to be much easier to control in the hover than the Mi-8 with stability augmentation disabled. It takes less work with the cyclic to maintain position. What is common between the two – cyclic inputs are small, smooth, and reversed (input in one direction, then return). Actually, this should be hammered early on to all beginners trying to learn hover control – “small, smooth, reversed” (cyclic inputs).

I found the pedal responsiveness to also be very close to our DCS model.

Feeling grateful for Nick’s trust, satisfied by the likeness of our model to the real thing, and generally delighted that everything has turned out so well, I was smiling and in great spirits! A hell of a good time!

Nick

But this wasn’t the end of Nick’s plans in demonstrating the Huey. As we made our way back to base, we flew over a beautiful lake in the mountains, which we had passed over earlier in the day on the way out. Nick decided to show off the view with a hard right bank, reaching about 70° of roll in probably under 2 seconds. The helicopter started to “slap” the blades through the air and I could only see water off to the right through Nick’s window. Nice!

Banking over the lake

He rolled her out of the turn, accelerated to 95 knots, pitched up to 30° and did a climbing turn to head back down. Impressive! I turned around to check up on Brent and his eyes were wide open! In case you’re wondering, we weren’t being dangerous and doing this at minimum altitude. We kept it nice and safe at 400-600 ft.

Next Nick allowed me to try a takeoff and landing in open terrain. He found a clear spot just wider than the main rotor and landed there himself then gave me the controls. I took off once again, flew a short pattern and landed in the same spot.

Hovering in open terrain

Turning at speed

When I was slowing down on the approach, Nick kept a soft touch on the cyclic, even making small corrections. The helicopter’s handling when reducing airspeed was practically identical to our model. At least I didn’t notice any major difference. Great! I was very happy!

We then landed in a flat clearing with lots of cactuses and I asked Brent to take some photos from outside. Fun stuff!

On the plateau

The only major discrepancy in our model as far as balance in flight is the position of the pedals in level flight. In the real thing the right pedal is pressed in about 1.5 - 2 inches at speeds of 80 – 90 knots, whereas in our model the pedals are almost neutral. Because of this, Nick sometimes had to correct me in level flight to center the ball.

The flight back was mainly a tour of some of the scenery around Phoenix. It’s very nice!

Foothills

Phoenix

Nick’s landing back on the platform was excellent – very precise and without much “aiming” required despite the fact that it was hardly longer than the Huey skids. His deceleration was a little quick for me, but the Huey was light and the pilot was good!

Landing on the platform

I am incredibly fortunate to have had this opportunity to fly a real Huey. I’m very flattered that the Dillons showed such warmth and welcome to their Russian guests and organized this opportunity for a flight in a UH-1H, moreover gave me a shot at the controls!

A special thank you to Nick, a real pro, for trusting me with his helicopter and showing me some of its great capabilities. He is a true aviation romantic and it was a pleasure to have flown and spent time with him.

Another thing I noticed – everyone who we saw at the firm, including the preflight crew, appeared to genuinely love their work and be proud of it. A group like this makes you feel safe and certain in your flying.

So, dear users, overall the DCS model is very, very close to the real Huey. We did not fail you!

- PilotMi8

Alexander “PilotMi8” Podvoyskiy is a project manager at Belsimtek, developers of the realistic PC helicopter simulation “DCS: UH-1H Huey”. Prior to joining the team, he was a consultant for Eagle Dynamics during development of “DCS: Ka-50 Black Shark”. He is a former Russian military helicopter pilot, rated 1st class with over 1,200 flight hours in various models of the Mi-8 “Hip” helicopter.