Essential Helicopter Airspeeds for Pilots

Welcome back to Helicopter Lessons in 10 Minutes or Less. I'm Jacob and in this video I'll be covering crucial air speeds that every helicopter pilot should know. So let's get started. Now aside from just aerodynamics, I'd like to start broadening the channel to other areas of interest that can help aviators. With this video I'd like to address some important air speeds and how they influence the way that you fly. The first I'd like to highlight is VBE. This stands for Velocity Best Endurance, also commonly referred to as your Maximum Endurance or Max Endurance Airspeed. Now, this is important because it gives you the greatest airborne time per unit of fuel consumed. So why is that important? Well, when many people first learn to fly, they kind of fly either like they're taught or just whatever comes naturally or feels comfortable. But once you begin working as a helicopter pilot, efficiency is the key. efficiency in time and fuel becomes one of the primary decision-making factors. While VBE, this airspeed, is just like the name implies, it gives you the best endurance or the most time in the air. So where this applies is, let's say you're a new station helicopter pilot and you want to provide the cameraman with the most time overhead in a helicopter so that you can film a car chase or traffic cam footage or a manhunt, whatever. VBE puts you in the the most fuel efficient profile to stay in the air the longest. And it's calculated from your cruise charts. So if you remember from your cruise charts, in every operator's manual they should have something in here that outlines this for you. On one side you're going to have your air speed, on the bottom side you're going to have your torque generally increasing in these directions, and at the top generally you'll have your fuel flow. I'm not going to put all the numbers in here because every single helicopter is different, but just kind of set the baseline. So at this point too you're going to have your your drag chart or your gross weight line, which if you remember from your types of drag, video that I put out. This is just where the drag is, your total drag on the helicopter and how that affects the way you fly. For more information I'd say check out that video because I go into this line a little bit more in depth. But for the purposes of this, max rate of climb endurance airspeed, sorry max endurance airspeed is going to be at the point where the fuel flow is the least and you can still maintain flight. So you're generally going down to where's the least amount of fuel flow I can get away with. figuring out where that is on your gross weight line and getting that speed right there. So this is going to be your max endurance, your VBE, your best endurance airspeed. It's the point at which the fuel flow is the least, it gives you the most time in the air. So this is going to be very, very close to our next airspeed, which is going to be Vy. Now Vy is going to give you your maximum rate of climb. So your max rate of climb airspeed. This is the speed at which the aircraft climbs at the fastest rate per unit of time. This speed is important when you want to expedite climbing to, say, cruising altitude for cross-country flight or IFR flight, whatever. But the key thing to note here is that these two speeds are taking place at roughly the same airspeed Many manuals just go ahead and lump both of them together and call it max rate of climb endurance airspeed But it's important to note that the efficiency is due to the aircraft being at the lowest point of total drag at this point. So generally at this point in the drag curve or in the cruise chart is going to be your VBE VY, so your max endurance, your max rate of climb. It's the point where you have the least amount of fuel flow, usually the least amount of torque required to fly. Alright, so the next airspeed that we'll go over is Vx. And this one can get a little bit confusing with max rate of climb if you don't really have a good handle on it. So Vx is going to be your best climb angle, and I'll outline that a little bit more. So Vx applies to a slightly different type of climb performance. Vx offers the best climb angle, meaning that it yields the greatest altitude gain per a given distance whereas max rate of climb is per a given unit of time. So what that means is this is your best altitude over time and this is best altitude over distance. So generally this is the airspeed if you're using or going cross country with ATC going to climb altitude making huge altitude deviations but if you need to say get out of a confined area, your VX is actually going to be your better airspeed to go to. So what that looks like is, say we have a spot here, just a clearing in the woods, we have our helicopter, and the helicopter needs to get out of this clearing. Well your max rate of climb, it's efficient for climb angle over time, but it's not necessarily the best airspeed to go to when you need to get out of a tight quarter. Your best climb angle is going to give you the most climb per distance or unit of distance. So what that looks like is our Vx angle is potentially going to give us an angle that clears us getting out of this confined area, whereas our max rate of climb angle may give us an angle something like that, a Vy angle. But how that looks like on the cruise charts, how to calculate that, is you enter the chart where your max torque is, and you want to go to the point at which You intersect the drag chart just once, or your gross weight line just once, and follow it over here and you'll get a speed for vx. But once again to reiterate, this is going to give you your best climb over time, this is the best climb over distance. This gets you out of tight quarters, this allows you to expedite climbing, you know, thousands of feet when you're going cross country or whatnot, you need to get over something and it's not so much the distance as it is the amount of time you need to get that altitude gain. Alright, so the next one is going to be our VBR, and this stands for velocity best range, also referred to as your max range airspeed. This is the speed that gives you your greatest range per unit of fuel consumed, think of it as being the speed that gives you the most miles per gallon. So anytime you're transitioning from A to B, this is the speed that is most efficient for getting you there. It's calculated by dividing your fuel flow per hour by your airspeed and finding where that range per unit of fuel is highest. So if your fuel flow is up here, you would take whatever it is, say it's say 200 pounds per hour right here intersecting with 100 knots gives you a 0.5. Whereas if you look at 50 knots, the fuel flow may be at a slightly different number that gives you a 0.35. What you're looking for is the highest number. You're looking for the most fuel or the most distance per unit of fuel. Some of your charts will break it down for you, but if you had to do the math, just remember your fuel flow per hour divided by your airspeed and you want the highest number that'll give you your max range airspeed. But the difference here, we talked about fuel efficiency, is that max range is going to be based on giving you the greatest distance per unit of fuel, whereas this up here is giving you your best time. per unit of fuel. Alright, the next speed is going to be VH, and VH is going to be the max speed that you can fly based on your power setting. And this is given for if you're flying straight and level and you pull in all the power that you have for the helicopter, this is the max speed. Sorry, I wrote max range. This is the max speed. that the helicopter can give you. So how you calculate that is you intersect the chart at your max power. You go all the way up to your gross weight line and follow this over to your airspeed line right here. And this is going to be your VH. This is the maximum speed if you have all the power implied that the helicopter can fly straight and level. Last is going to be V and E. This is the velocity never exceed. I have an entire video about this but basically if you exceed this you can get into your retreating blade stall. and damage to the helicopter. I'll put a link to a video here, but just keep in mind to never exceed this value. But I'm running out of time, so this concludes the crucial air speeds that every helicopter pilot should know. I hope you enjoyed the video. Be sure to hit like and subscribe below. Thanks for watching. Once again, I'm Jacob and this has been Helicopter Lessons in 10 minutes or less. Safe flying!

With this video I'd like to address some important air speeds and how they influence the way that you fly. The first I'd like to highlight is VBE. This stands for Velocity Best Endurance, also commonly referred to as your Maximum Endurance or Max Endurance Airspeed. Now, this is important because it gives you the greatest airborne time per unit of fuel consumed.

So why is that important? Well, when many people first learn to fly, they kind of fly either like they're taught or just whatever comes naturally or feels comfortable. But once you begin working as a helicopter pilot, efficiency is the key. efficiency in time and fuel becomes one of the primary decision-making factors. While VBE, this airspeed, is just like the name implies, it gives you the best endurance or the most time in the air.

So where this applies is, let's say you're a new station helicopter pilot and you want to provide the cameraman with the most time overhead in a helicopter so that you can film a car chase or traffic cam footage or a manhunt, whatever. VBE puts you in the the most fuel efficient profile to stay in the air the longest. And it's calculated from your cruise charts.

So if you remember from your cruise charts, in every operator's manual they should have something in here that outlines this for you. On one side you're going to have your air speed, on the bottom side you're going to have your torque generally increasing in these directions, and at the top generally you'll have your fuel flow. I'm not going to put all the numbers in here because every single helicopter is different, but just kind of set the baseline. So at this point too you're going to have your your drag chart or your gross weight line, which if you remember from your types of drag, video that I put out.

This is just where the drag is, your total drag on the helicopter and how that affects the way you fly. For more information I'd say check out that video because I go into this line a little bit more in depth. But for the purposes of this, max rate of climb endurance airspeed, sorry max endurance airspeed is going to be at the point where the fuel flow is the least and you can still maintain flight. So you're generally going down to where's the least amount of fuel flow I can get away with.

figuring out where that is on your gross weight line and getting that speed right there. So this is going to be your max endurance, your VBE, your best endurance airspeed. It's the point at which the fuel flow is the least, it gives you the most time in the air.

So this is going to be very, very close to our next airspeed, which is going to be Vy. Now Vy is going to give you your maximum rate of climb. So your max rate of climb airspeed.

This is the speed at which the aircraft climbs at the fastest rate per unit of time. This speed is important when you want to expedite climbing to, say, cruising altitude for cross-country flight or IFR flight, whatever. But the key thing to note here is that these two speeds are taking place at roughly the same airspeed Many manuals just go ahead and lump both of them together and call it max rate of climb endurance airspeed But it's important to note that the efficiency is due to the aircraft being at the lowest point of total drag at this point. So generally at this point in the drag curve or in the cruise chart is going to be your VBE VY, so your max endurance, your max rate of climb.

It's the point where you have the least amount of fuel flow, usually the least amount of torque required to fly. Alright, so the next airspeed that we'll go over is Vx. And this one can get a little bit confusing with max rate of climb if you don't really have a good handle on it. So Vx is going to be your best climb angle, and I'll outline that a little bit more. So Vx applies to a slightly different type of climb performance.

Vx offers the best climb angle, meaning that it yields the greatest altitude gain per a given distance whereas max rate of climb is per a given unit of time. So what that means is this is your best altitude over time and this is best altitude over distance. So generally this is the airspeed if you're using or going cross country with ATC going to climb altitude making huge altitude deviations but if you need to say get out of a confined area, your VX is actually going to be your better airspeed to go to. So what that looks like is, say we have a spot here, just a clearing in the woods, we have our helicopter, and the helicopter needs to get out of this clearing. Well your max rate of climb, it's efficient for climb angle over time, but it's not necessarily the best airspeed to go to when you need to get out of a tight quarter.

Your best climb angle is going to give you the most climb per distance or unit of distance. So what that looks like is our Vx angle is potentially going to give us an angle that clears us getting out of this confined area, whereas our max rate of climb angle may give us an angle something like that, a Vy angle. But how that looks like on the cruise charts, how to calculate that, is you enter the chart where your max torque is, and you want to go to the point at which You intersect the drag chart just once, or your gross weight line just once, and follow it over here and you'll get a speed for vx.

But once again to reiterate, this is going to give you your best climb over time, this is the best climb over distance. This gets you out of tight quarters, this allows you to expedite climbing, you know, thousands of feet when you're going cross country or whatnot, you need to get over something and it's not so much the distance as it is the amount of time you need to get that altitude gain. Alright, so the next one is going to be our VBR, and this stands for velocity best range, also referred to as your max range airspeed. This is the speed that gives you your greatest range per unit of fuel consumed, think of it as being the speed that gives you the most miles per gallon.

So anytime you're transitioning from A to B, this is the speed that is most efficient for getting you there. It's calculated by dividing your fuel flow per hour by your airspeed and finding where that range per unit of fuel is highest. So if your fuel flow is up here, you would take whatever it is, say it's say 200 pounds per hour right here intersecting with 100 knots gives you a 0.5. Whereas if you look at 50 knots, the fuel flow may be at a slightly different number that gives you a 0.35. What you're looking for is the highest number.

You're looking for the most fuel or the most distance per unit of fuel. Some of your charts will break it down for you, but if you had to do the math, just remember your fuel flow per hour divided by your airspeed and you want the highest number that'll give you your max range airspeed. But the difference here, we talked about fuel efficiency, is that max range is going to be based on giving you the greatest distance per unit of fuel, whereas this up here is giving you your best time.

per unit of fuel. Alright, the next speed is going to be VH, and VH is going to be the max speed that you can fly based on your power setting. And this is given for if you're flying straight and level and you pull in all the power that you have for the helicopter, this is the max speed. Sorry, I wrote max range.

This is the max speed. that the helicopter can give you. So how you calculate that is you intersect the chart at your max power. You go all the way up to your gross weight line and follow this over to your airspeed line right here. And this is going to be your VH.

This is the maximum speed if you have all the power implied that the helicopter can fly straight and level. Last is going to be V and E. This is the velocity never exceed.

I have an entire video about this but basically if you exceed this you can get into your retreating blade stall. and damage to the helicopter. I'll put a link to a video here, but just keep in mind to never exceed this value.

But I'm running out of time, so this concludes the crucial air speeds that every helicopter pilot should know. I hope you enjoyed the video. Be sure to hit like and subscribe below.

Thanks for watching. Once again, I'm Jacob and this has been Helicopter Lessons in 10 minutes or less. Safe flying!

Transcript for:Essential Helicopter Airspeeds for Pilots

Transcript for:
Essential Helicopter Airspeeds for Pilots