Matt has one hour to hover a helicopter
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- Опубликовано: 30 ноя 2022
- With no experience but a lot of enthusiasm, Matt takes to the skies over Bognor. ■ With thanks to Elite Helicopters: elitehelicopters.co.uk/
Matt's video on how to record helicopter headset audio: • How to Record Helicopt...
The Technical Difficulties are:
🟥 TOM SCOTT: tomscott.com - / tomscott - / tomscottgo
🟨 GARY BRANNAN: / garybrannan - / brannersatlarge
🟩 CHRIS JOEL: / christhewrongun - / christhewrongun
🟦 MATT GRAY: mattg.co.uk - / mattgrayyes - / mattgrayyes
Editor: Elliot Gough
Location producer: Jacob Trueman
Audio mix: Graham Haerther
Music: Ellens dritter Gesang. Composed by Franz Schubert, performed by Dorothea Fayne (vocal) and Uwe Streibel (Piano). Licensed under Creative Commons 3.0 creativecommons.org/licenses/... and available at commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
techdif.co.uk
We're back! One new adventure every Thursday this December. Here we go again.
Commenting back in time?
I would like nothing more than to have a run of these every three months or so. A Tech Diff Days Out for all seasons.
GIVE ME MORE TWO OF THESE PEOPLE ARE LYING
Even on the 29th?
subtitles at 26:15 have a typo! subtle thing but it's still worth
I think the reason why I always appreciate Matt so much is because he seems to be much more unabashedly in touch with his inner 12 year old than most. It seems so genuine :)
That's the reason I like him. :) I think it's a good way to be.
Being goofy and childish really can get you places! Namely, a few hundred feet off the ground of the Isle of Wight.
More like 16 year old, based on his Twitter. He’s constantly retweeting social Justice outrage.
@ferretyluv wow, now I know that Matt is based. thanks for your small right-ish rant!
@@ferretyluv Ahhh, I see. You're one of those people who ignores deep-rooted social problems because you think they don't affect you, and flings childish insults at people who try to fix them because bringing it to your attention makes it harder for you to pretend nothing's wrong.
In true Tech Dif fashion this video has provided me with both the knowledge of how a helicopter actually operates, and the phrase "gyroscopic bullsh*t"
I feel like that phrase can be improved into "gyroscopic bullsh*ttery"
They can put it into words we can understand.
I have to say i really did not expect that hovering a helicopter would imply that much work. I always assumed that you basically would do just noting.
Exactly!!
@@sirBrouwer It's the complete opposite.
You change one thing and have to adjust 3 other things accordingly...all while the helicopter is slightly drifting around, like you're trying to balance a broomstick on your hand... and you have to make inputs proactive ... and it's very easy to over-correct and get into "pilot induced oscillation", which can make things worse.
Add some gusts of wind and a very light helicopter, and you got quiet some work to do.
I loved the juxtaposition of Kim’s utterly dry dad humour and Matt’s gormless bounciness 😂
Well he IS the bounciest man on the internet
Chris was pretty much spot on at 12:29
As a very wise man (my flight trained son) said to me. "In a fixed wing aircraft you dance with physics and nature. In a rotary, you're WRESTLING."
Hilariously, Croatian has a word for helicopter (apparently "non-standard", so it's not in the Croatian Wiki article) that basically means "air beater".
(Caveat: I'm Czech, so this is kind of just hearsay.)
My cousin, a Navy chopper pilot, described it thus: "A plane is essentially an airfoil - it WANTS to fly. A helicopter is essentially a flying brick that does NOT want to fly AT ALL, and also wants to tear itself apart."
He loved flying them. I still don't know why.
@@redwolf9342 I've also heard a helicopter described as "3000 moving parts spinning around an oil leak."
@@beth12svistI suspect that would come from the same idea as the English nickname "egg-beater"
@@88porpoise Not sure, since there's also a matching word for airplane that means something like "air floater". ("Air boat", I think, but the floating / swimming is very visible in the etymology.)
ETA: In other words, the English nickname is based on superficial similarity to the very thing the nickname means, whereas the Croatian one would be more along the lines of "if airplanes float on air, what do helicopters do?!"
I love that Matt finally gets an opportunity to live his aviation fantasies, sponsored by Tom! LOL
Pretty sure Matt has earned this for all the work he's done on technical difficulties.
Edit: they all do, really.
That would be so cool! Happy for Matt as well.
Matt going from pottery to flying a helicopter: well, I guess both have spinning bits… Holy moly that is brilliant!
I mean, in pottery you have a collective too, and you steer through tiny movements.
If you're implying what I think you're implying then I'm all for it
@@coryman125
Gary cooking in unusual ways, Chris learning new skills and Tom fulfilling childhood dreams?
@@ragnkja I was thinking using a helicopter for pottery, but yeah I suppose those other things are nice too :)
So what's next season going to have? Ballet dancing? Unicycling? Beyblades?
The Technical Difficulties crew would like to apologize for this slow-motion of this chin wobble
If you have been negatively influenced by this slow-motion of this chin wobble, please call the number below
That face. From that thumbnail. From that video.
it's seared into my mind, thank you for reminding me that that exists.
@@mercurialinterference6931 You mean of that face? In that thumbnail? In that video?
@@user-hi4sm3ig5j what face from what thumbnail from what video
I THOUGHT THE SAME THINGGGGGGGGGGG
There are no human words to express how excited I am for this new season. Cheers to the wonderful horseshittery that will probably ensue!
What are the dog words?
Use Klingon then!
Shithousery, surely? ;)
I think "horseshittery" expressed it pretty well, actually.
Man, Flight Instructor Kim is an absolute legend. "Teach this impossible thing?" "...Sure." How much of the usual lesson structure did he change on the fly to match the task at hand? How calm is he, helping Matt focus on just doing the thing and not worrying about the thing? Fantastic!
On the FLY lo l
Gary: Makes joke about never wanting to get in a helicopter with a track record of bits falling off
Viewers with knowledge of the Robinson R44's track record: genuinely concerned for Matt's life
I think it would be fun if each of you plan your adventure, then swap them so you get somebody else's plan. So you'd turn up with no idea of what you're going to do, and then afterwards try to guess whose idea it was.
A white elephant adventure exchange?
This
woooow! man, that’s such an amazing idea!!
Sounds like a good plan for next season.
I think it'd be even more fun as a Secret Santa thing. See how much they know what each other would want.
I like how Matt basically, accidently, trained perfectly for this ahead of time. Picture your playing some kind of role play survival horror, and you've got this thousand to one chance to escape, but the escape craft is a helecopter. Every body is looking at the pages, the randomly produced characters and stats and matts like, "actually, I think I've got exactly the right stats for this, and some of the traits"...
Course the next chapter of the game starts with everybody surviving the crash but...
Matt’s skills are what made the crash survivable in that scenario.
Fun fact: a string on the dash is the most reliable yaw indicator we’ve come up with, and everything from Matt’s Robinson to F-14 Tomcats have a string indicator.
The one thing I'm wondering is why there isn't a weight on it. Y'know, like a plumb line.
@@dojelnotmyrealname4018 For it to indicate direction of airflow, you need to allow it to flow freely with the air, so any sort of weight would run counter to its purpose.
Also, do you really want something that could potentially whip around quite fast just in front of your glass/composite windshield to have a heavy weight on it?
Sometimes some things just don’t need to be over engineered!
I love this format so much. Part because you get to do cool stuff you've been wanting to do, and part because everyone is so supportive of each other. Men supporting other men is content that we could use more of
Totally, the format and the content are so good. However (and I get why people wouldn't know this) Matt is nonbinary! He/him pronouns still though, it's in his twitter bio
@@marys.9367 Oh awesome. Had no idea
That is the sensation I wanted to put words onto, generalizing men being supportive of other men's passions is so wholesome
This channel is just full of examples of what wholesome friendship can look like.
@@marys.9367 Good looking out!
For those who may be wondering how Matt can do this without having a pilot's license (and yes, it's called the same regardless if the certification is for fixed wing or rotors.) It sounds like the UK has a similar rule as the FAA does in the US. In the US, the rule is the Pilot in Command (PIC) can let anyone sit in the co-pilot's seat and operate the plane, even if the person sitting there does not have a pilot's license. The PIC doesn't have to even have to hold a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) rating. It comes with the following caveats:
- When the PIC says, "I have control now," the non-pilot has to let go of the controls and not fight the PIC for them.
- The non-pilot may not fly certain parts of the flight (like landings and take offs).
- The PIC has to be monitoring the non-pilot's actions at all times, because the PIC is the one the FAA will hold responsible for the flight.
- And the obvious that it cannot be a commercial flight.
I suspect the pilot in this case is a CFI that does regular helicopter flight instruction beyond the "4-5 hour tourist thing" that it sounds like Matt alluded to.
Matt is in the pilot seat. RHS is the pilot seat in most helicopters.
@@gasdive & the actual difference between the pilots seat & the co-pilots seat?
All depends on who's in which seat.
@@Tinker001 it depends on the aircraft. The R22 for instance can't be flown solo from the left seat, even if you install the dual controls. It just won't balance.
Added to that is the collective is on the left. If the pilot sat on the left, then
@@Tinker001 oops, hit post by accident. If the pilot sat on the left then they could roll on the throttle while exiting a running aircraft. That doesn't end well. So the centre position for the collective is important for safety. Yes, that can happen when the instructor exits the aircraft with the dual controls fitted, but the manual tells the pilot to be ready for that, and even if they're not, they should be hands on and ready while the engine is running and things are happening. .
@@gasdive flew from the left in 300s all the time. I wouldn't get in a Robbi, even if you paid me a lot a money.
This video has confirmed that the most impossible thing in the mission impossible franchise is when Tom Cruise works out how to fly a helicopter on the go in a matter of seconds
"When your parents tell you 'Stop playing that computer game. It'll never do you any good.' It did me some good."
I'm a cargo pilot these days, and can definitively say that having playing FSX helped me tremendously when I was starting out flying. My stick and rudder skills were pretty decent right off the bat. My study skills however... hahaha
Every time I learn something about helicopters I think "christ helicopters are dangerous"
They are. As Chris said, they're literally a device made to fight the laws of physics.
Whose idea was it to just put giant spinny things on top of a car to levitate it?
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721
The idea goes back centuries, but the one you can blame for actually putting one together (that had an internal engine and wasn’t just a toy) would be Mikhail Lomonosov.
It's a giant flying blender, what do you expect
The “Jesus nut” remains my favourite.
It’s cool to see Chris progressively becoming more of a hermit each series and growing a beard like Merlin
He's like an old wiseman. He reads books, you know.
Things we know about Chris:
- Ornithologist
- Blind in one eye
- Formerly licensed chainsaw user
- Reads books
- From Rotherham
- ???
@@kkyehh
Worked or works at a nature reserve.
And the whole TechDif series is an accidental doccumentary of the process. The show must go on until Chris becomes a full on hermit!
- T-
Sorry, never happened.
I have a coupon for a helicopter simulator that I couldn't and then actively didn't use because _vaguely points at everything_
I think I should set a date to go. This looks fun.
Absolutely; Once the machine picks up to a hover, 3 feet off the ground, you are FLYING, AND not going anywhere: absolutely magical! DO IT!
6:29 You may be interested to know that single engine planes actually have similar behavior usually called "left turning tendency" which is due to the gyroscopic precession of the propeller (as well as some other factors).
I can still hear my flight instructor saying "more right rudder" on every take-off 😅
The nose propeller would induce a roll moment similar to the yaw moment of a helicopter propeller I suppose.
@@ragnkja not only that but the propeler creates a vortex around the plane which will eventually hit the tail and rudder
My instructor and I have joked that, in the end, the only control an airplane truly needs is right rudder.
Hence why some later prop fighters had contra-rotating props.
That's why the bridge island is on the right when landing so you turn left and miss it, allegedly 😂
It feels weird for me to be proud of somebody I've never met, and likely never will, but here I am, proud of Matt. Well done. This was absolutely wonderful to watch.
Skills of flying a helicopter aside, the skill of the instructor to act and sound so calm whilst giving clear instructions is impressive!
As a pilot it was really interesting watching how helicopter instruction is given versus aircraft instruction. Really good job done by Matt given such a small amount of flight time!
This is one of those things that can very easily induce a strong Dunning-Kruger effect in people. They see Matt doing it and they think, "Okay, I've flown a helicopter in GTA and Battlefield 4 and I saw Matt's instruction video. I could fly one if I needed to."
No. No you couldn't. You absolutely could not. Not without getting the same training and practice Matt went through and even that is with an extremely experienced instructor next to you because you _will_ mess up.
When the instructor told him to look around to the right, I thought for sure they'd start spinning that way. When I was learning to ride a motorcycle, I was taught, when making a sharp turn, to look at where I want to go. I thought the instructor was about to show him helicopters work the same way. But he held it straight which is impressive. It doesn't look impressive but it can be hard for some people to not naturally, subconsciously, make a vehicle go where they're looking.
It’s worth mentioning that besides the simulator games, Matt’s background also includes not just fixed-wing flying _experience,_ but fixed-wing flying _lessons._ Those probably made a big difference.
And I’d definitely be terrified to try any of this for real unless I had a good instructor next to me, ready to take over at any moment if I messed up.
@@ragnkja Oh, I thought the comments the instructor made, "Yeah, you've definitely flown before," were tongue in cheek and compliments because he _had not_ ever flown before.
Well, that's even more to my point. Dunning Kruger effect will convince people they are right or can do something to the point of over confidence.
I know it's _way_ harder than it looks, too, and I'd never want to try it without a professional there to take over.
I absolutely love watching Matt doing anything, he's so consistently joyful.
like when he told the story about meeting a penguin in the desert xD
As an aircraft mechanic and massive aviation nerd, I feel the need to highlight that, at least from a mechanical and aerodynamic perspective, everything is more complicated than they make it sound.
At 6:29 he said that planes don't have a turning tendency like helicopters do, which is not true! Nevertheless, great video.
@@austinrose3728
In a helicopter, turning left and turning right are inherently different actions, unlike in a plane. One way is forcing the helicopter to turn extra, while the other is letting it counteract the top rotor less.
@@austinrose3728 he expressed it weirdly, but what he was trying to say is that helicopters are dynamically unstable. If you let go the controls in level flight it will start to oscillate in pitch, with increasing amplitude until the rotor cuts the tail off.
@@austinrose3728 far as i know, propeller planes do have the tendency to steer in a certain direction. maybe Matt was talking about jet powered planes?
@@wytfish4855
Or maybe twin engine planes.
it's actually surprising to see how the corrections on the stick while hovering are like driving a car. when you first start out, it's a whole bunch of little, immediate reactions, but once you're told to smooth it out, it's just a more pleasant experience!
Absolutely in love with the fact that each of the guys has their own "color", not only in the description but IN THE CAPTIONS AS WELL, brilliant! When are we gonna see Gary sporting a yellow shirt like his other color-coordinated friends hmm???
and soon enough they become the pokemon difficulties with red, blue, green and yellow
or maybe the printer difficulties with cyan, yellow, magenta and black xD
This was incredible. The genuine joy on Matt and everyone's face in this was lovely to see!
I love how you’ve gone from a shoestring budget in a kitchen to flying lessons in a helicopter, but you have not changed one bit otherwise.
Gary's skepticism about the reliability, functionality and sensibility of a helicopter is both unwarranted AND entirely reasonable.
It's always nice to see pure joy in an adult. Well done Matt. I look forward to what the rest of you get up to next.
Matts uncontrolled, nervous laugh mode and Kim's just acting like he's talking someone through it back in the office 😎 Unless Chris is finally chainsaw juggling I think Matt has already won this season 👍
They arent joking about the military using string either. I used to fly RAF Gliders through the air cadets. One of our most important things to tell us whats going on and how 'balanced' we were was the string in the middle of the cockpit canopy
I love that this format has returned, it's wonderful.
And I am greatly amused that at certain points Gary, watching a video, seemed to be more scared than Matt was while in the helicopter.
This gives me a lot of memories of me starting out my helicopter licence. Really well done Matt and it is harder then it looks. Super impressive
It already looked pretty hard to me.
So! Actual helicopter pilot here. And about the 15-minute mark they ask about "how do you know where the wind is coming from [at altitude]?" The answer is "a few ways." Wind checks fall into 4 general categories.
Ground Indicators: looking at trees, smoke, dust, water, etc to see how the wind is blowing. Excellent for getting a lot of information at a quick glance as well as not needing to go from looking outside of the aircraft, to inside to read my instruments, then back outside to continue flying. Just a quick glance around and I know generally where the wind is coming from.
Cockpit Indicators: in the aircraft I've flown (Eurocopter EC145) we have 2(ish) indicators on our instrument panel that tell us what direction the wind is coming from. The first is called the "wind barb" and it is like an arrow that points from the direction of the wind (think of it as the wind shooting the aircraft with the arrow) and it shows current direction and speed of the wind. It requires a little bit of interpretation, but it's center in the cockpit and is easy to find and reference. The other indicator is on the Garmin GPS system. The Garmin shows a top down arrow with the wind direction and a readout in knots. Very precise, but it's in a location where I have to physically turn my head to reference it (in their helicopter it's in the center console at the bottom. The flashing screen). There's also what we call the "wind diamond" but that depends on who you ask.
Aircraft Indicators: Chris (I think) had it 100% right. You feel the wind pushing the aircraft. So if I'm trying to fly a heading of 360 magnetic (due North) and the wind is coming from 090 (due east), it's going to push the aircraft so that I'm actually flying Northwest. And the magic boxes inside the avionics rack compute this and show me what course I need to fly in order to maintain a heading of 360.
The last is just the forecast. I don't know what voodoo the weather people do to know what direction the wind is blowing at 4000 feet, but generally, they're pretty accurate. So I'll check my weather at my departure airfield, my destination airfield, and a few in between to get an idea of what to expect for winds.
I hope someone finds this useful.
Regarding The Technical Difficulties I went from "Who are these guys next to Matt and Tom, this can't possibly be funny" to mindlessly consuming every bits and pieces of crack-brained comedy you've put online.
And I love it.
15:45
Kim: so put your left hand down on the leaver
Matt: (raises right hand)
Matt: *nervous laughter*
Instructor: "You can talk..."
Matt: *nervous laughter*
Matt finally had a go on a hovercraft, just not the one I expected.
He did have a go on a hovercraft a few years ago; they all did, and you can find the evidence in the form of the bonus video for the CN episode about Sark.
Me sitting at home vorrying that Mat is trying to hover THAT close to a VOR transmitter, instructor just having a total poker face...
can we appreciated how in sync matt and his instructor at 7:32
As an R-22 pilot, I can confirm his descriptions. Motions are tiny and after a while you 'pre-input' corrections in that tiny amount. These helicopters are like ultra precision sports cars. But after a while it becomes natural. Matt giggling like a little girl is still how I feel after hundreds of hours. Having skydived, flown paragliders, hang gliders, ultralights, sailplanes, single and multi engine aircraft, helicopters are still the best. But as an aside, a winch tow in a sailplane is off the charts too. The instructor was VERY good and very honest about HOW good you were doing; getting the feel for hovering is very difficult and the feedback Kim gave you was completely accurate that you did VERY well at mastering the fundamentals quickly and with precision, far above the average. Incredible, great segment.
I love the way Matt really pushes himself out of his comfort zone on these challenges. Years ago a friend took me up in his private airplane to celebrate getting his first commercial pilots licence and allowed me to steer it for a while, he said I did quite well keeping it stable. I had played Flight Sim 98 previously too, so maybe that was the key! I'm pretty sure I'd not have done so well in a helicopter however as my hand/leg coordination isn't all that great and fixed wing is far more forgiving!.
Matt: "Ooh, down a bit.."
My brain:'...FROM TROMSO!!'
wow that is going to be hard to follow boys, what an effort from Matt. Outstanding episode!
next it's Garry with a pig at a airbase with a fighter jet with a afterburner. 🥓
I don't know how Matt was so calm while flying. My excitement level made me shake and I'm not even in the helicopter! Lycky you
This is some of the most joyous, wholesome stuff on the internet. I absolutely LOVE how enthusiastic and totally supportive of each other you all are, and the energy you put into pursuing what each of you are interested in.
This makes me smile like few things can. Thank you so much for this.
It's so good to have the boys back. I hope they are able to put a few more episodes together like 18 -20 maybe
I would like to see some group videos later on. like have a go at go kart racing together.
For this format I think we can always expect runs of four episodes each time, simply due to the nature of the format.
Genuine excitement by the one doing the activity and genuine appreciation and interest from the rest. Other shows might go for cynicism or taking pot-shots so it's nice to see friends being friendly!
Gary's face as Matt explains autorotation is amazing.
21:46 "So you are just doing stuff with the stick" is not a phrase I thought they would miss
One thing to add, it isn't the air being pushed down and hitting the ground that makes lift, lift is simply caused by the differential air pressure. This is why copters can continue to climb at altitude. The air being pushed down has very little if any effect on lift, and in fact can cause lift to be broken, called VRS or Vortex Ring State
Love Matt's joy at doing this is the helicopter called Dave. Also love Gary's Red Dwarf t-shirt
Matt’s giddy laughter at every new thing and Kim’s just generally calm and excellent training delivery were standout moments for me
I love the contrast of Matt doing pottery and then flying a helicopter this round of videos 😁
You can really see every once in a while the instructor is proud Matt gets something or expands on an idea like the wind creating different peddle needs
Matt's very good at explaining helicopters. Thanks for that, Matt. I feel a tiny bit smarter now.
I have a huge smile on my face! Love seeing Matt feel unabashed joy :D
Oh man, flying a helicopter is one heck of a challenge even if you've done the flightsims a lot, good job Matt!
I used to make those strings. Bought a roll of the most garish orange wool I could get, on sale at the local habedasherers, and spent an afternoon braiding it into a long braid, then cutting it into lengths and knotting the ends, then using a drop of superglue on each knot. Then you simply went to the aircraft, tied a new one on, and another drop of superglue to hold it there. Pilots liked having a visible slip indicator, that you could see day and night easily, even in heavy rain.
The admonition about not pushing forward too much is that this then causes the tail strut to rise, relative to the rotor plane, and this in turn means first a lot of noise as the rotor starts to eat through the tail strut, followed by it then cutting through the drive to the rear rotor assembly. This is considered to be bad, because then, though the rotor is turning, so is the helicopter, and you come down and dig a nice hole, so all they have to do is fill it in, and put the grave markers there.
Some helicopters have a heavy blade in the tail strut where the blade will hit, on the theory that it is better to come and land missing a foot or three of rotor blade, over filling in that big hole. Incidentally the one manouver you can do with pretty much every helicopter, is the same one a Boeing 747 can do, which is the barrel roll, as the entire manouver is all positive G loading.I do remember it was interesting looking up at the ocean, and down at the sky, all the time sitting in the open side door, and with the only thing holding me there the grit on the painted floor, and my hand through the side strap.
Heck yeah gents. You’re collective work is a joy.
Not only the collective work, but the cyclic work as well!
@@wilfriedklaebe I see what you did there
in re helicopter reliability: studying aerospace engineering in university made me: 1) far more comfortable in airplanes 2) vow never to set foot inside a helicopter :)
There are generally, I find, 2 types of people. One finds out how monstrously dangerous helicopters are and decides not to ride in a helicopter if they can ever avoid it. The other finds out how monstrously dangerous helicopters are and gets their license.
You did really well Matt! Kim is a legendary instructor at Goodwood as well. The key is not to overthink it.
It's a shame R44's are so much more expensive than R22's to fly. I did my helicopter lessons in an R22, and when you do an autorotation in THAT puppy, you drop like a freaking rock. Your landing area will basically be just above your toes, and you can't reach much further than that. I've heard that the R44 is better, but the fact that Matt wasn't scared shows just how much better it really is (and I didn't realize the difference was that severe).
There's one thing about the auto-gyro to know: the outer parts of the rotor are spinning much faster than the inner parts. So while "falling" through the air, there is a rotor speed above which the helicopter would climb, and one below the helicopter will sag. During autogyro, the inner portion is slower than the climb speed, therefore it actually acts like a fan that you blow on, excerting a force that wants to spin the rotor faster. The outer parts are moving so fast that they generate lift and want to slow the descend. The angle of attack of the rotor blades is used to balance the proportions of both section such that these forces cancel each other out and keep the rotor at a steady speed while slowly sinking to the ground.
Im happy to see you guys return, always such an interesting series
Yeah, I genuinely do not care what these 4 blokes do. It'll always end up funny and sometimes even educational
An utterly, utterly excellent video.
As a RC helicopter flyer, I have to admire Matt for this, and his explanations.
I have a manual of RC helicopter maintenance, and _every_ chapter basically starts with 'If you get this bit wrong it'll be disastrous.'
Famous quip: "Helicopters don't fly. The ground just repels them."
I've also worked with real helis. And the problems are much the same.
The complications of flight (compared to a plane) are just astonishing. Everything you move invokes a new force which must be resolved by moving something else. Which makes another new force which must be... and so on. It's a wonderful ballet of interactive, recursive nuance that eventually gets committed to muscle memory. And all has to be done concurrently.
Also: even Neil deGrasse Tyson denied emphatically that helicopters could land with no engines. (What an idiot.) I hope this makes people more aware of autorotation. (And check out some 3D RC vids on YT, where people even autorotate a heli _inverted_ to land on the rotor hub.)
Good on you, Matt for even taking this on. You did good. You did real good.
And kudos to the instructor, who is someone I'd certainly want to lean to fly the real thing with.
Brilliant, how exciting! I didn't realize how dynamically unstable a helicopter was when you weren't flying forward, but I guess it makes sense, and that's probably why that part isn't automated...
I really love his genuine joy in his face at 28:23
I think Chris is getting confused between the hillclimb at Goodwood and the one at Brooklands. The one at Goodwood is twisty, but the one at Brooklands goes straight up. :)
The way Matt explains the up-down lever makes me think that it's about as sensitive as the steering wheel of a car on the highway.
I will never again be able to hear Ave Maria without having a little chuckle to myself for reasons that I'll never be able to adequately explain the the rest of the people at the funeral.
I have a newfound appreciation for all of the helicopter shots in movies and tv now
I feel quite proud for Matt! Loved Kim's encouragement and calmness. How can next week match this?! Especially because matt is just so genuine and a bit giddy :)
When I clicked on this, I thought it said that Matt had one hour to hoover a helicopter, and was expecting a very different video.
absolutely in love with Matt's Bubbles t-shirt. I've never thought of it before but they are really similar
The whole time I was wondering how the helicopter headset audio was recorded, and then at the end is a link to Matt's video on exactly that! You guys never fail to provide edutainment when I need it 😁
I love Matt's Bubble's shirt, and i love even more that he owns it :3
This sort of thing makes me wonder why "hover" isn't an autopilot function. The controls are well defined, the inputs are well defined, and how it should react depending on the wind is well defined. You'd think this should be something they can easily automate so you can just hit a switch and say "hover" and it sticks. Very cool video btw, learned a lot about helicopters =)
Tom needs more credit for consistently providing impeccable captioning
3:20 Gotta love that he calls the company "Elite" with that British accent, gives me Frontier vibes :-) (or Elite: Dangerous for that matter haha) ; I hope they start giving spaceship flying lessons soon!
I love the chemistry between you 4. When i watch these Videos i feel like i am part of the Group. Good shit Tom, matt, gary and Chris. Keep it coming.
0:19 I'm expecting a public apology
I never clap for a performance when they can't hear the applause, but damn Matt, I clapped for you. Well done!
I’ve always been terrified of helicopters but this has made me add flying a helicopter to my bucket list. I always thought it was black magic but it’s actually more of a contraption!
Go down to your local helo instruction facility and take a 'demo ride': 100% worth it!
Yay I didn’t have technical difficulties finding this video. Hehe Great job guys. Can’t wait to see more
I love how matt always finds these things hilarious
had to save this one for last because it stressed me out SO much, congrats for doing this Matt!!
I did this as well, except I flew an R22! And I could hover after just 4-5 minutes, thanks to countless hours in Flight Simulator and DCS Huey! So awesome to see you do the same thing, it really brought back my memories of that awesome feeling! You did really well!
This is the most heartwarming dumb-happy laughter that i haver ever had the joy to experience.
in the first few minutes matt baited the boys so much omg
oh wow its 'this image' from 'this video' all over again
I’m a little surprised that drifting is on Tom’s radar. Tom, if you want to learn drifting I can organise arguably the best teacher in the world.
Been wanting to fly a heli since I was 10 (33now) and some day I will, It's like patting your head and rubbing your stomach.... while walking in a straight line. As you twist the throttle the blades speed up because there's more power...as you pull up on the throttle (collective) the swash plate on the rotors tilts them so they become more angled and take a bigger "bite" out of the air.... which causes more drag and makes you want to spin around like a "whirling dervish" even more.... unless you counter it with more pedals..... but as you relax the throttle and collective to maintain altitude you need to push on the pedals less......unless you want to change which way you're facing.
Thats before you start using the cyclic "stick" between your legs which changes the rotors pitch in a given section of thier rotation which makes you bank like a plane in any given direction... front, back, left or right for travel.. like how you can fly sideways.
Also another effect is because as you fly forwards, say the rotors (from birds eye view) are spinning counter-clockwise, so forwards on the right side of the heli and then left in front of you, then rearwards on the left side of the aircraft and then right behind you (so the circular path the tips make)..
as you fly forwards the blades going forwards on the right side of the heli create more lift and the rotors returning backwards on the left side generate less lift, and the faster you go the worse it gets and the heli wants to roll into the left as you're trying to fly forwards, A bit like carrying a really heavy bag of shopping home on your left arm and it pulling you over. The current fastest record for a helicopter is a Westland Lynx doing 249.1mph with special rotor tips.
So yes like Chris has pointed out heli's take the laws of physics and then blend them.
I'll settle for GTA5 at the moment.
Fun fact about the "counteract the spinning" - that's why so many RC helicopters (and some real ones, obviously) have twin rotors that spin in opposite direction - because then that rotation is not something you need to worry about a lot anymore. Balancing out the yaw for an RC helicopter would be HELL no matter if manually while flying or through calibration.
I'm very impressed with how well Matt was able to hover this quickly.