The cold weather trials of the Indian HAL Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) were carried out at Air Force Station, Leh recently.
The LCH prototype, TD2 was ferried from Bangalore to Leh and the flight trials were carried out involving customer pilots from Indian Air Force and Army and with the participation of representatives from certification agency.
The trials covered engine starts with internal batteries after overnight cold soak at 3 km altitude and 4.1 km altitude.
The engine starts were satisfactory in the temperature of minus 18 degree C at 4.1 km. The flights were also carried out to assess high altitude performance and low speed handling.
The 5.5 ton class LCH, powered by two HAL/Turbomeca Shakti(Ardiden) engines is derived from the Advanced Light Helicopter.
The LCH features sleek and narrow fuselage, tri-cycle crashworthy landing gear, crashworthy and self-sealing fuel tanks, armour protection, nuclear, and low visibility features which make the LCH lethal, agile and survivable.
The helicopter would have day/night targeting systems for the crew including the Helmet pointed sight and Electro-optical pod consisting of CCD camera/FLIR/Laser Range Finder(LRF)/
Laser Designator(LD).
The LCH is fitted with Self Protection Suite consisting of Radar/Laser Missile warning systems and Counter measures dispensing system.
The first prototype helicopter had its inaugural flight in May 2010. The second and third prototype had their first flight in June 2011 and November 2014. The forth prototype is currently being built to speed up the trials for certification process. The Intial Operational Clearence (IOC) is expected in the later part of this year.
