The Trainer
The TR115 Trainer is a training platform which can be mounted under any VA115 single seat helicopter. It is an additional feature which can be used for schooling purposes and was designed due to the lack of a second seat for a teacher.
The TR115 allows the helicopter to perform any movements in all degrees of freedom but prevents it from falling to one side and damaging the rotor or from lifting up higher than about 1.5m. Appropriate to the skills of the pilot, the stops of tilting can be adjusted in order to realize a stepwise increase of real flight characterisitcs. As you can suspect, only slow manoeuvres can be carried out. The main point of the Trainer is to give the possibility of learning how to hover.
Capabilities
The target of the TR115 is to simulate the most realistic flight characteristics in addition to the safety given by the ground-bounded setup. All degrees of freedom and a flight height up to about 1.5m can be simulated. In contrast to a lot of other simulators, our TR115 is attached to the helicopter from below and the tilt axes of the Trainer are nearly in the centre of gravity of the helicopter. In this way, the behaviour of the helciopter gets more realistic.
In detail, the following movements can be simulated:
- tilting in all directions (angle can be adjusted)
- flying in all directions (can be restricted by fixing the whole setup to the ground)
- lifting up to about 1.5m
- yawing
Due to the stops of tilt movements, it is impossible to strike the ground with the rotor blades of the VA115.
Functions
Tilting forward & backward
By clicking the pictures below, you can see the upper frame tilting forward and backward.
Tilting sideways
By clicking the pictures below, you can see the upper frame tilting to the left and right.
Lifting up
By clicking the pictures below, you can see the upper structure lifting up and down.
Rolling
The chassis of the TR115 has 6 wheels which are freely mounted. Therefore, the Trainer can follow the helciopters movements quite easy. It is possible to roll straight in all directions or to yaw around the vertical axis. And of course, combinations of those.
With a suitable fixation to the ground, rolling movements can be restricted in order to carry out schooling lessons in small area.
The tires are designed mainly for asphalt or concrete surfaces. Grass runways should be very plane otherwise we could design bigger wheels for “offroad” operations.
The TR115 in action
You’ve seen all the theoretical descriptions above with computer-generated pictures. But now, let’s see the TR115 in action.