Assessment of Helicopter Pilot-in-the-Loop Models

The aim of this paper is the evaluation of several pilot models found in the literature, suited for helicopter pilot-assisted and pilot-induced oscillations analyses. Three main topics are discussed: (i) sensitivity of rotorcraft-pilot couplings simulations on the application of the different pilot models available in the literature; (ii) effect of vehicle modeling on active pilot modeling; (iii) effects of interactions between active and passive pilot models. The focus is on hovering flight, where a specific adverse rotorcraft-pilot coupling phenomenon, the vertical bounce, may occur. Pilot models are coupled with a comprehensive aeroservoelastic model of a mid-weight helicopter. The numerical investigations are performed in frequency domain, in terms of eigenanalysis and frequency response analysis.