Kaman HH-43 Huskie

This is the first photo I'm sharing here and I would appreciate feedback. It is Kaman's HH-43 Huskie. One of only two flying in the world. This one is used by Kaman for initial and recurrent flight training for their single seat KMax helicopter.

So what do you think I could do to make future shots better?

It's an OK shot, but a slower than the 1/200 sec. shutter speed you used would give you more interesting rotor blur: Airshow guys - prop freeze


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Thanks for the suggestion. I wasn't the biggest fan of the shot either, but I see that helicopter out flying a couple times a year and wanted some ideas of what I could do to make it better. I liked having the Kaman logo in the shot as well as the helicopter and the fall foliage. I don't like the green fence or concrete wall. I think it would be nicer if the helicopter was backlit a little more from the sun so I didn't get that direct reflection in the glass.

I was a bit curious about the rotor blur though. This helicopter has a rotor speed of, I believe, 250ish RPM. That means in 1/100s the rotor is only moving 15 degrees (or 25 degrees at 1/60s). As compared to a propeller of most general aviation single engine prop aircraft with their props spinning at around 2000 RPM at cruise, which would yield 120 degrees of travel in the same 1/100s (and 200 degrees at 1/60s).

Can I really expect any decent rotor blur at that slow of a rotor speed with a shutter speed that I would be able to get the helicopter in focus? Personally, I don't think I could get the helicopter to stay in focus at any slower than a 1/100 shutter speed and that's only 14 degrees of travel.

s1a1om wrote in post #16439037
Can I really expect any decent rotor blur at that slow of a rotor speed with a shutter speed that I would be able to get the helicopter in focus? Personally, I don't think I could get the helicopter to stay in focus at any slower than a 1/100 shutter speed and that's only 14 degrees of travel.

You'll have a lot of failed shots at first at slower shutter speeds, but eventually you'll get a really nice keeper.
https://photography-on-the.net …p?p=14546105&po​stcount=12

I realize I'm revitalizing an old thread, but here are two more shots of the H-43. They were taken a couple weeks ago. The H-43 is an awesome old bird. It seems like she's being flown less frequently in recent years and the pilot receiving instruction this day told me that they're working on getting a simulator so they don't need to fly the Huskie at all. That will be a sad day.

2. Getting ready to start her up for the day.

I'm pretty sure that the blur in the back end is a result of him doing the pedal turn, Because the aircraft tends to rotate around the center point of the two rotors, that is going to be pretty much the same as for a "normal" helicopter, with a tail rotor, so the axis of rotation will be just behind the cockpit. So the tail will have a much higher translational speed, compared to the nose, for the same angular velocity. When shooting at the slow shutter speeds necessary for good rotor blur, which you have here, you really need for it to be in a true hover, or for it to be traveling horizontally so that you can pan with it. Unfortunately shooting aviation subjects with slow shutter speeds is not easy, there are just so many things that can happen to spoil a shot slightly. I have lots of shots of aircraft where the front end is perfectly sharp, but the tail has some blur, simply because not all parts of the aircraft have the same relative velocity . Oh and of course the competitive aerobatic types, that can roll at 540 degrees/second, when shot at 1/100 and they decide to throw in a full stick movement. It can be instructive to see the axis of rotation at times too. So all you can really doo is keep perservring taking lots of pictuers, hoping that one day you will get that perfect shot.

Alan

BigAl007 wrote in post #18177232
I'm pretty sure that the blur in the back end is a result of him doing the pedal turn, Because the aircraft tends to rotate around the center point of the two rotors, that is going to be pretty much the same as for a "normal" helicopter, with a tail rotor, so the axis of rotation will be just behind the cockpit. So the tail will have a much higher translational speed, compared to the nose, for the same angular velocity. When shooting at the slow shutter speeds necessary for good rotor blur, which you have here, you really need for it to be in a true hover, or for it to be traveling horizontally so that you can pan with it.

I had noticed the tail vibrating like crazy when it initially started up and just assumed that that was what caused the tail-section to blur. I didn't even think of the motion as a result of the pedal turn. Thank you. You are almost certainly correct with your suggestion.

No anti-torque rotor on this bird, right? How does it accomplish a pedal turn or is it a cyclic kinda thing?

tsamarin wrote in post #18177484
No anti-torque rotor on this bird, right? How does it accomplish a pedal turn or is it a cyclic kinda thing?

I've been told that it is by done by applying differing torque to the two rotors. Apparently in autorotation a right pedal input would result in a left turn (and vice versa). To fix this, Kaman actually has a reversing mechanism that reverses the helicopter's response to pedal input while in autorotation.

Another interesting thing to note about this helicopter, are the blade flaps (clearly seen in the second photo in this thread). Rather than utilizing conventional cyclic control, the H-43 uses this flap to control the helicopter. This style of control is also used on both the K-Max and SH-2.

Very interesting; thank you for the explanation. Some far-out engineering, here. Wasn't Charlie Kaman the guy who created Ovation guitars? They were pretty innovative, as well.

tsamarin wrote in post #18177773
Very interesting; thank you for the explanation. Some far-out engineering, here. Wasn't Charlie Kaman the guy who created Ovation guitars? They were pretty innovative, as well.

Yup, the story goes that Charlie Kaman was always into guitars and when there was a downturn in the economy rather than layoff his engineers, he put them to work creating a better guitar. Along those lines, I think there was also a special type of guitar string they invented as well.

Charlie also founded the Fidelco Guide Dog foundation, which trains seeing-eye dogs.