I’m watching videos of rescue helicopters and noticed that some have their blades form a cone when flying low in bodies of water. This doesn’t seem to happen often on land so why in water?
In: Physics
Missions over water probably involved hovering, at least the parts you’re watching. If it’s a high hover, out of what’s called “ground effect”, it takes even more power (than hovering in ground effect). Also, it’s likely the chopper is quite heavy at the time, for example, if it’s hovering to pick up a big bag of water (Bamby bucket) to dump in a forest fire. A gallon of water weighs a bit over 8 lbs, so imagine picking up a quick 500 gallons or more. That’s A LOT of extra power needed which makes the rotors cone.
Ground effect over water and land, when there isn’t many waves, shouldn’t be all that different. Power required out of GE should be the same because the ground doesn’t affect the power at that point.
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