Eurocopter EC130 B4

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Eurocopter EC130 B4 / EC130 T2
FGAddon
EC130 MedFlight N130NE.jpg
Type Helicopter, Civil aircraft
Manufacturer Eurocopter
Author(s)
  • Heiko Schulz (Basic 3d-model, FDM, Nasal Scripts)
  • Melchior Franz (Nasal)
  • Michael Habarta (Model details, Animations, Liveries, Configuration Menu, Debugging)
  • FlightGear Community (help and support)
FDM YASim
--aircraft= ec130b4
ec130t2
Status Production
 FDM Stars-4.png
 Systems Stars-4.png
 Cockpit Stars-4.png
 Model Stars-5.png
Development
 Website The website for the Eurocopter EC130 B4 / EC130 T2 developments.
 Repository The development repository of the Eurocopter EC130 B4 / EC130 T2.
Download Download the Eurocopter EC130 B4 / EC130 T2 aircraft package for the current stable release (2020.3).
License GPLv2+

This is a model of the Eurocopter EC130 B4 / EC130 T2 (H130), a single engine light helicopter based on and developed from the AS350's.

The Real Thing

Indeed “EC130 B4” is just a marketing name by Eurocopter, now known as Airbus Helicopters, the real name is still AS350 B4”. It is a widebody variant of the “AS350 B3” with a completely new designed passenger cabin and fuselage and rotor and hydraulics system from the AS355. It is also equipped with a fan tail (fenestron) instead of the conventional two-blade tailrotor. With this the “EC130 B4” is much less noisier than other helicopters of this class.

The helicopter was designed especially for tours, so it features a great visibility, a left-seated pilot and plenty of space inside. The “EC130 B4” is also used by the police in Long Beach/CA and by several medical services.

The “EC130 B4” has been built until 2013. As of 2014 it is replaced by the improved “EC130 T2”, which was renamed to “H130” in 2015. It has a new and more powerful Turbomeca Arriel 2D engine and a 70% modified airframe. The exterior, cockpit and interior has been also modified.[1]

  1. H130(EC130 T2). Published by www.airbushelicopters.com.

The FlightGear Model

This model of the “EC130 B4/H130” was built using very detailed drawings, the Pilots Flight Manual and pilot reports.

Rembrandtready.png Tutorialready.png Checklistready.png Tooltipready.png

Features

This model is a WIP to get a realistic and complete simulation of a helicopter.

By using Nasal-scripting nearly all main systems have been simulated to a degree which wasn't available at this time on FlightGear's helicopters. The flight dynamics model is custom made and though a lot of values could only be estimated, it should give an good impression on how the real one flies. Systems and Procedures are based on the real Flight Manual so the helicopter can be started and shutdown by using the checklist.

The exterior model is detailed and accurate and originally based on accurate drawings, using high-resolution textures and the latest Reflect-Bump-Spec-Shader.

The mainrotor is detailed and animated including blade-flex-bend.

Livery-over-mp including dynamic configurable external stores like skibox, deployable emergency floats, FLIR's etc. which affects CoG, weight and drag.

The Heli Alps version

Goals

  • Fully usable cockpit with controls
  • Complete startup procedure Done Done
  • System failures and engine fire

Issues

See latest version and issues in the development repository (link at the top)

Some simulation related issues are:

  • GTX328 and GNS430 only dummies (is Issue #4 (CR) in dev repo)
  • bad autorotation behavior?? at high speed above 110 ktn (is Issue #5)
  • some caution lights on panel (outside CWS) not working (is Issue #8 (CR)
  • Buttons on side of VEMD not functional (is Issue #10 (CR)

Pilot Flight Manual

Panel Overview

The FlightGear model of the EC130 B4 features the standard panel delivered ex works without any additional customer whishes.

Apart from the missing functions mentioned above it is a fully working helicopter cockpit.

Panel of the EC130 B4 showing all the instruments

Limitations

Type of Operation: Helicopter is approved to operate Day and Night VFR only.

The following is not allowed:

  • Aerobatics maneuvers
  • in flight engine power reduction except for engine failure trainings and other emergency procedure trainings

Occupants

Minimum flight crew:..................................................................................1 pilot (left seated)

Maximum number of occupants:...................................................................7- 8 passengers

Weight and Balance Limitations

Minimum weight:.........................................................................................3015lbs (1368kg) B4 / 3159lbs (1433kg) T2

Maximum weight:........................................................................................5350lbs (2427kg) B4 / 5512lbs (2500kg) T2

Airspeed limitations

VNE Power on:...........................................................................................................155 ktn

VNE Power off:...........................................................................................................125 ktn

Altitude Limitations

Maximum operating flight altitude:...............................................................23000ft (7000m)

Main rotor Limits

<170 rpm:............................................................................................ rotor brake operation

320 rpm.....................................................................................minimum rotor rpm power off

320- 375 rpm..................................................................................................Caution Range

375-405 rpm....................................................................................normal Operating Range

405-430 rpm...................................................................................................Caution Range

430 rpm …...............................................................................maximum rotor rpm power off

Low Rotor rpm aural warning < 360 rpm

High Rotor rpm aural warning > 410 rpm

Warning Panel

Still uncompleted and especially failures indicated on the panel keeps mostly without any follow-up.

ENG P lights up
Indication low oil pressure
Procedure check gauge and land as soon as possible
TWT Grip lights up
Indication twist grip not in flight position - engine idles
Procedure set twist throttle into flight position
MGB P lights up
Indication Main gear box oil pressure
Procedure check gauge and land as soon as possible
FUEL lights up
Indication low fuel
Procedure approx. 15min of flight time remain
FUEL P lights up
Indication low fuel pressure
Procedure switch on Boost pump

Helpful Usage Hints for Simulation

Livery of Grand Canyon Helicopters
Livery of Blue Hawaiian Helicopters

Besides the above documentation there is a lot of additional help available from within Flightgear.

Heli Setup

  • Configuration and Help-Dialog (Alt-o)
    • choose the desired Livery (Heli-Operator)
    • configure the Equipment
      • Baskets
      • Searchlight
      • Cargo Hook, ...
    • set Fuel and Payload
      • fuel amount
      • passengers
      • other payload like luggage
    • activate/deactivate Specific Views
  • --> see Menu: EC130-B4 or H130/Configuration (Livery,Payload,...)

Heli Usage

  • Info about the Heli-Operator --> see Menu: EC130-B4 or H130/Operator/Model Info (Alt-i)
  • Tutorials guide through the preparation and startup process --> see Menu: Help/Tutorials
  • Checklists based on pilot handbook help to follow standard procedures --> see Menu: Help/Aircraft Checklists
  • Autostart/Autoshutdown available after 5 flights --> see Menu: EC130-B4 or H130/Autostart or Autoshutdown
  • Shortcuts and general Info --> see Menu: Help/Aircraft Help

Updates as of FG 3.0 Version

The EMS variant of EC130-B4, used by MedFlight, Ohio, USA
Livery of MAC rescue (South Australia)
Livery of ZS-HOY Starlite Helicopters (South Africa)
Livery of beautiful F-GOLH
Livery of D-HSTS "Heli Gourmet" above snowy landscape
Closeup of EC130 Mainrotor, fully animated in all details
EC130 Helicopter using the SX-16 Nightsun searchlight

The Eurocopter EC130 B4 helicopter has recieved a major upgrade with FG 3.0 release. The existing model, which already had been of very high quality, has been refined in various aspects with lots of effort by mhab. The outside model has been enriched to a degree which should justify a 5* rating and the overall status of the aircraft improves to "production".

The Rotorhead has been brought to a new level of detail, a full detailed Fenestron was added and animations were introduced to all moving parts.

Cockpit was enriched for Pilot/Copilot controls, seats are textured now and a variable cabin configuration allows to set up 5 or 6 seats or an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) variant with 4 seats and a stretcher.

New Liveries

  • N155GC of Grand Canyon Helicopters, colorful painting in red/gold, 6 seats
  • N11QC of Blue Hawaiian Helicopters, 6 seats
  • N130NE of MedFlight based in Ohio, EMS rescue configuration, 4 seats
  • VH-OSA of MAC rescue based in South Australia, EMS configuration, 4 seats
  • F-GOLH a beautiful new livery of a private french model for those who want to travel in style
  • ZS-HOY of Starlite Helicopters based in South Africa, variation of F-GOLH, 6 seats
  • D-HSTS privately owned Heli Gourmet in reference to famous cook Johann Lafer. The livery was done by Sanni, contributed through FG Livery database and was adapted to FG 3.0 version.

A lot of equipment (most of which was there already but hidden) can now be used, including a full blown SX16-Nightsun searchlight.

All of this has been brought together in a fully integrated configuration dialog which allows to set-up livery, fuel, extra views, weights, cabin setup and equipment.

Extra gimmics include a fully animated pilot, glass reflection on windows and front shield and variable rotor wakes depending on the strength of the downwash.

Some of the most interesting changes

  • Flight Model tremendously improved (CoG and agility much more realistic) (fix by HHS)
  • Mainrotor fully animated and adapted to original
  • Fenestron fully designed and animated, incl. control rod
  • Cockpit Controls added: Stick, Collective, Pedals, Co-Pilot Controls (optional)
  • Compass (magn.) added (HHS)
  • Doors movable
  • Searchlight
  • Snowshoes
  • Hoist/Hook
  • Checklists implemented with conditional display
  • Pilot: fully animated
  • Autostart/Autoshutdown enabled after 15 flights
  • Rotor-Wakes off-low-medium-high cyclable
  • Sound improved (doors moving, low/high rotor rpm, overspeed warning, and noise inside depends on open doors/window)


Configuration Dialogs and Help Screens

Updates as of FG 3.5 version

EC130-B4 of Maverick Helicopters (Grand Canyon) at LOWI
EC130-B4 Broward County Sheriff in flight near Miami
EC130-B4 PR-BOP using the SX-16 Nightsun in Parana/Brazil
EC130-B4 of MAC rescue using Trakkabeam A800 Searchlight during flight
EC130-B4 PR-BOP view from below
Beautiful Night-Scene with EC130-B4 of Blue Hawaiian landed at Patscherkofel above Innsbruck (LOWI). Look at what Rembrandt can do !
ZS-HOY of Starlite Helicopters with wide luggage boxes seen from above

FG 3.5 version of EC130 B4 is the first update after FG 3.0 version and the first one made available in FGAddon - ec130 at the new Sourceforge FGAddon SVN repository.

New Liveries

  • N812MH Maverick Helicopters (Grand Canyon)
  • N156BC Sheriff Broward County Florida
  • PR-BOP Parana Police Policia Militar, Curitiba (Brazil)


Enhancements of Model / Equipment

  • NEW Searchlight Trakkabeam A800 (as seen with MAC rescue) fully functional with stow/deploy, color-filters (white,amber,red,IR),...
  • NEW Stabilization for Trakkabeam A800, i.e. lightbeam direction remains stable in the air despite helicopter motion
  • NEW Searchlight Watch View, allows to watch searchlight in action, automatically adjusted to selected searchlight
  • NEW Searchlight Follow View, synced to searchlight direction, automatically adjusted to selected searchlight
  • NEW Strobe Light at the rear gear mount (as seen with Maverick, MedFlight,Blue Hawaiian)
  • NEW additional landing lights (as seen with MedFlight)
  • NEW wide luggage boxes (as seen with Starlite)
  • Searchlights optimized for Rembrandt
  • Light-Cone Visibility adjustable (off,low,medium,high)
  • Searchlight Portability: completely separated from other model parts, easy reuse with other models
  • NEW additional antennas of different kinds (as seen with Broward County Sheriff, Parana Police)
  • Fixes: handling of startselector guard fixed, rembrandt related fixes, ...


Enhancements of Instruments

  • NEW Horizon Offset Adjustment (AI)
  • NEW Altimeter Pressure adjustable
  • Lighting: improved INST.1 dimming
  • Rotor Break Lock operable
  • Cutoff Lever Guard operable


Updates of User Interface

  • Configuration Dialog extended/updated new model/operator info, new equipment, antenna setup
  • Simulation Options Dialog extended/updated light-cone visibility
  • NEW Operator/Model Info Dialog with background info about the operator of the selected livery
  • NEW Antenna Setup Dialog for configuration of all possible antenna
  • Help Dialog updated
  • NEW Multi-Key Shortcuts for Buttons on System Control Unit (SCU), Twist Grip, Start Selector, etc.
  • NEW Tooltips for pick animations
  • Pick Animations for knobs unified (all knobs use half-cylinders left/right)
  • Shortcuts modified and some new added
  - Alt-o    ... Config Dialog (was AltGr-o)
  - AltGr-o  ... Simulation Options (was Alt-o)
  - Alt-a    ... Antenna Setup Dialog (new)
  - Alt-i    ... Operator/Model Info Dialog (new)
  - Alt-L    ... cycle Light-Cone Visibility (new)
  - AltGr-L  ... cycle Slew Rate (new)
  - Alt-s    ... toggle Stabilization (A800)(new)
  - Shift-S  ... toggle/cycle Searchlight Filter (was Alt-s)
  - Ctrl-s   ... reset Searchlight (was Ctrl-k)
  - Ctrl-p   ... pause Searchlight (was Shift-S)
  - Alt-w    ... W/LT TST (Warning Test) (new)
  - Alt-r    ... toggle Rotor Break Lock (new)
  - AltGr-c  ... toggle Cutoff Lever Guard (new)
  - :A*      ... Multi Key Shortcuts (new)


New and improved Dialogs

Updates as of FG 2016.1 version

EC130 GC Gold-015.jpg
The 50 year anniversary "Golden Copter" EC130 , of Grand Canyon Helicopters, USA
"Golden Copter" EC130 , of Grand Canyon Helicopters, USA in a 5 ship formation ready for take-off
Five helicopter formation of Grand Canyon Helicopters in flight over Arizona

In FG 2016.1 release the following improvements are done. If you are interested in the newest features see Gitlab development repository

New Liveries

  • N836GC Grand Canyon Gold 50 years anniversary special Golden Copter painting

Formation Flight

  • NEW: Formation/Wingman Support: A fully animated wingman model and several formation scenarios are available. For details look for the Readme_Formations.txt file in AI sub-directory of ec130 aircraft ... and at Howto:Add wingmen

General Updates

  • Non-Rembrandt aircraft-shadow improved and ALS compatible
  • Nasal Errors handle nil values whereever necessary, hopefully fixes some really irritating bugs ...
  • Tooltips improved/fixed
  • Knob Animations: many pick animations replaced by knob animations
  • MGPU (external power unit) can be removed by mouse click now
  • Panel/Instruments Lighting Controls fully functional with day/night selector and dimming
  • Multi Key Shortcuts added for panel/instrument lighting controls
  • CWS Warning/Cautions next to CWS added, LITE+LIMIT+GYRO+GOV (amber+red) is operational
  • Beep Sound whenever a red warning lights up on CWS
  • Taxi Light independent of Nav lights
  • Light/Searchlight Shortcuts adapted for Taxi Light
  - L        ... toggle Taxi Light
  - Shift-L  ... toggle Landing Light (was L)
  - AltGr-L  ... toggle Searchlight (was Shift-L)
  - Ctrl-L   ... cycle Slew Rate (was AltGr-L)
  • Stretcher Backrest adjustable (EMS variants only)
  • EBCAU TEST implemented, EBCAU = Emergency Backup Control Ancillary Unit
  • EBCAU Check Tutorial implemented
  • ELT Emergency Locator Transmitter operational
  • Rotor RPM improved variable rotor speed management
  • Floats VNE Warning if airspeed exceeds max. speed with inflated floats
  • Crash Fire if enough fuel is available at crash time

Enhancements of Instruments

  • W/LT TST shows ALL warning lights
  • Rotor Break disables starter
  • Rotor RPM Indicator improved, dim knob added
  • fix cockpit clock so it displays sim time
  • VEMD Flight Report shows helicopter and turbine hobbs time
  • Instrument Lights dimming in NIGHT1/NIGHT2 position
  • EMER SW new emergency switch for emergency shutdown

Updates as of FG 2017.2 version

H130 of Air Zermatt
new Blue Hawaiian H130
Grand Canyon Helicopters H130
new Maverick Helicopters H130

General Updates

  • H130 (EC130 T2) variant added
    • engine params
    • 3D Model
    • new/changed doors on right side
    • new bumpmap
    • liveries split up EC130 B4 and H130
    • menu/dialogs adjusted
    • panel instruments modified
      • Turn indicator removed
      • CWS redesigned
      • Horizon (AI) redesigned
      • ELT switch moved to panel
      • KA51b moved to panel
      • Emergency switch removed
    • New panel of H130
  • Autostart enabled after 5 flights (previous 15)
  • Full autostart including external power fetch/remove and Twist-Grip run-up
  • Co-Pilot, Passenger and Patient models added
    • Co-Pilot animated model (like pilot)
    • Patient follows backrest adjustment
    • internal views adjusted and limited to human view behaviour
    • Pilots/Passengers can be seated/removed by click animations
    • Co-Pilot can fly without Pilot
  • Luggage added
    • visible luggage is added according to weight,
    • special stretcher roller added for EMS configuration
    • can be added/removed by click animation
  • Tooltips
    • Fuel tooltip shows percentage of tank fill
    • Weight related tooltips (passengers,luggage) show percentage of used MTOW
  • Limit Warnings
    • VNE warning considers altitude, pwr on/off and checks for open doors
    • New temperature warning if air temperature is outside of range -20°C <-> +50°C
    • improved limit warnings with more details and two warnings simultaneously possible
  • Multi Player
    • MP behaviour extended and compatibility improved
  • FDM improvements
    • more stable hover behaviour
    • simulate main rotor downwash on horizontal stabilizers
  • Use of new fresnel effect in reflection shader

New Liveries

  • HB-ZAZ Air Zermatt (H130)
  • N836GC Grand Canyon Gold, converted to H130
  • N832GC Grand Canyon Helicopters, adapted from EC130-B4 model N155GC
  • N11EQ Blue Hawaiian Helicopters, adapted from EC130-B4 model N11QC
  • N872MH Maverick Helicopters, adapted from EC130-B4 model N812MH

Updates in Development Repository (after FG 2017.2)

After FG 2017.2 release the following improvements were done. If you are interested in the newest features see Gitlab development repository

General

  • more stable flight behavior, especially in hover situations
  • VEMD looks better (implementation now uses canvas), Thanks to @deltaecho for this
  • New instrument KX165 (replaces KX155A thanks to @deltaecho)

New Liveries

  • N127LG Flight For Life Colorado (H130), operational since May 1st, 2017.

The helicopter started operation on May 1st, 2017 and provides transportation to pediatric patients within a 120-mile service area, including Colorado, southwestern Nebraska and southern Wyoming.

Gallery (Flightgear 2018+)