Handling the Astar

Light controls, no feedback

Because the servos carry the rotor loads, the cyclic tells you nothing about what the rotor is doing. Pilots from unboosted types tend to over-control at first, chasing each movement with a bigger one.

Hold the cyclic lightly, make small inputs and wait for the aircraft to respond. Use the friction controls to stop the collective creeping.

The day the controls do push back — heavy with the hydraulics off, or moving by themselves in servo transparency — the change is the warning. Both have their own chapters.

Sources 1, 4, 5

Lift-off

Raise the collective smoothly until the aircraft is light on its skids, then keep going. As power comes in the nose wants to go left: feed in right pedal with the collective.

Feel for which skid is leaving the ground last, and stop the aircraft moving sideways before it leaves. Tail-rotor thrust is pushing it left — a left skid that stays stuck while the right lifts is a pivot. If the aircraft starts to roll, the collective comes down.

Sources 1, 6, 7

Set-down

The reverse of lift-off: stop all drift first, then lower the collective slowly. As power comes off the nose wants to go right — ease off the right pedal to hold heading.

Once the skids touch, keep lowering smoothly to full down; don't hesitate light on the skids with the aircraft half flying. And touch down level: a hard landing on one skid is one of the triggers for ground resonance.

Sources 1, 6, 7

Turns on the spot

Turning right in the hover means more right pedal, more tail-rotor thrust and so more power — the mirror of American types, where the left turn is the one that costs power. Watch the FLI in a slow right turn when you're heavy or high.

Turning downwind, the fin and tail meet the wind from behind and the aircraft may weathervane. Turn slowly and at a steady rate. The LTE chapter explains which wind directions are worst on a clockwise rotor.

Sources 1, 6, 8

Sideward and rearward flight

Moving sideways, look where you are going and keep the speed down: the fuselage and fin are not built to lead, and the tail rotor meets the air from the side. Drifting left, translating tendency is already helping you; drifting right, it's working against you.

Moving backwards, you cannot see what the tail rotor is about to meet. Keep it slow, high enough to clear everything behind, and only over ground you've already looked at.

Sources 1, 6

Into forward flight

As you accelerate, the aircraft vibrates and rolls slightly left through transverse flow, then climbs as translational lift arrives. The fin and stabiliser take over, and less right pedal is needed.

On approach, it happens in reverse: more power and more right pedal as you lose translational lift, just as you're slowing and lowest.

Sources 2, 6

Cruise

In cruise the fin carries much of the anti-torque load, so the pedals sit close to neutral and the tail rotor works less. Fly in balance: with light controls it's easy to fly with a little sideslip and not notice.

The never-exceed speed is a table, not a number — it changes with density altitude, mass and configuration. In turbulence, slow down: high speed and high loading is where servo transparency and retreating blade stall live.

Sources 2, 4, 9

Approaches

A normal approach holds a constant angle to the landing point. Through effective translational lift, power comes up and right pedal with it; if the pedal lags, the nose goes left.

A steep approach keeps you clear of obstacles but brings you towards vortex ring state if the rate of descent is high and the airspeed low. A shallow approach to a running landing is the one for marginal power or hydraulics off.

Choose the approach from the site, the power and the wind — not from habit.

Sources 6, 7, 10

Quick stops

A quick stop slows the aircraft rapidly while holding height: aft cyclic to flare, collective down to stop the climb. As the speed goes, the nose comes level and the collective comes back up — and with it a large, quick power increase.

On the Astar that power increase needs right pedal, promptly, or the nose swings left just as you're slow and low. Keep the tail high enough: a nose-high flare puts the tail rotor closest to the ground.

Sources 1, 10

Running landings and take-offs

Above effective translational lift, the rotor needs less power than in the hover. A running landing or take-off uses that: when the hover is marginal, or when hydraulics are off and the hover is exactly what you want to avoid.

It needs a suitable surface and the skids aligned with the direction of travel — any drift or yaw at touchdown puts sideways loads on a pivot. Once down, lower the collective gradually.

Sources 5, 10

Slopes

On a slope landing, the upslope skid touches first and becomes a pivot — the setting for dynamic rollover. Lower the collective smoothly, and don't let the upslope skid stick while the other is still flying.

The handbook lists the critical conditions for anticlockwise rotors and says they reverse for clockwise ones. Mirrored for the Astar: the left skid as pivot (translating tendency adds), a left lateral CG, a crosswind from the right, and right yaw inputs. And with the right skid upslope, less lateral cyclic is left. The RFM gives slope limits.

Sources 1, 7, 10

The mirror, item by item

Clockwise rotor against an American anticlockwise one — physics, mirrored:

• Power in: right pedal (American: left).
• Power loss or engine failure: nose yaws right (American: left).
• Hover drift: left, held with right cyclic (American: right).
• Transverse-flow roll: left (American: right).
• LTE yaw: left (American: right).
• Retreating blade stall roll: right (American: left).
• Hover turn that costs power: right (American: left).

Sources 1, 2, 8