Results of Flight Tests to Investigate Civil Certification of Sidestick Controllers for Helicopters

摘要

This report presents the results of flight tests conducted to compare two sidestick controllers with a conventional rotorcraft cyclic, collective, and pedal controller configuration. The sidesticks were tested in several modes ranging from full control of all rotorcraft angular degrees of freedom plus height, to control of just pitch and roll. The emphasis in this document is on issues related to civil certification, including exposure of FAA and Transport Canada pilots to sidesticks. The task emphasized maneuvering in visual meteorological conditions (VMC) very close to the ground, although some traffic patterns and autorotations were flown. Each pilot also flew one or two decelerating instrument approaches with each controller. The test helicopter was the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) variable stability Bell 2O5A, which was augmented with rate feedback to produce angular response characteristics similar to the Sikorsky S-76. Identical rotorcraft dynamics were used for all of the tested controller configurations. This report presents interpretations of the data believed to be directly applicable to U.S. civil certification. See also 'An Investigation into the Use of Side-Arm Control for Civil Applications', NRC, IAR-AN-67, June 1990.