UH34 Dandy Lion - Shrouded Helicopter
This build was inspired by ProfNCognito's ( [url=https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198332068475/myworkshopfiles/?appid=573090]https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198332068475/myworkshopfiles/?appid=573090[/url] ) mini VTOL ( [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwRtsOt2ptk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwRtsOt2ptk[/url] ). At first I was just trying to figure out why his kept crashing, and I'm pretty sure it's that if you reach about 200 MPH the lift derived from the rotors fails. Perhaps the game is semi-accurately simulating the forward rotating edge of the lift rotors coming up against the speed of sound? Anyway, problem solved by limiting speed to below that, I built a fairly conventional helicopter hull around the now functional aircraft systems.
Flies very well in both hover and fly, switched by the spacebar. Forward thrust in flight mode is provided by a ducted fan thruster at the back of the tail, which is slightly above the center of mass/drag, so causes the craft to pitch down when engaged- make sure you're familiar with how much correction you'll need to provide before engaging flight mode at low altitudes. Full speed is around 100 m/s, which it builds up to gradually so the power of the thruster doesn't severely destabilize the aircraft. Has an autopilot which works very well in hover and fly mode, however it cannot cope very well with switching modes while in autopilot, so turn it off and manually speed up or slow down before turning it back on. Autopilot in hover mode will only attempt to achieve zero movement.
The copter has good buoyancy, and is safe to land in the ocean even in high waves. The sliding doors can have trouble opening and closing in unstable conditions, but the hatch above the cockpit is easily reached by ladders on both sides, and is of course safe to get to because the lift rotors are completely enclosed.
The interior is pretty simple, featuring 1 med bed and 10 passenger seats and a few tools in overhead compartments. There's room to add more tools behind the bed and under the passenger seats.
I intended to add some mags and connectors and such to the bottom, but honestly just completely forgot about that until this moment. There's also a lot of room in the middle of the cabin for a rescue harness system (which would reduce the fuel capacity, but the tank is over large anyway). I might add these later.
I added mags and a hardpoint, and a big floor hatch for a pair of harnesses. I usually prefer to put the landing hardpoint under the nose, so it is easy to spatially estimate its position from first person, but because the floor hatch slides forward that didn't work out. Instead, it's aft of the hatch, very near the middle of the aircraft. So, from first person I think simply locking on with the mags is the more sensible option. The mags and hardpoint are both controlled by foot buttons in front of the copilot seat. The floor hatch and winches can only be opened from the black "Control" harness, the orange harness is passenger only. The harnesses have a light and a mag all on the bar in between them, also controlled by the black harness. I'm unsure how useful that mag all will be in this configuration, but it's been useful on my other little vtol.
