Know your numbers before you pull pitch

Rotorcalcs is a weight and balance calculator and an engine performance calculator for helicopter crews, starting with the UH-60A Black Hawk.

Two calculators, one loading plan

Work out the load once. The weight you plan is the weight the performance check uses.

A UH-60 flying a long line over a mountain lake

Weight and balance

Enter crew, cabin load and fuel. See gross weight and center of gravity against the limits, at takeoff and at landing.

A UH-60 with a belly tank and snorkel hovering near a wildfire

Engine performance

Enter pressure altitude, free air temperature and your aircraft torque factor. See maximum torque available against the torque you need to hover, in or out of ground effect.

The flight manual chart work, in the same order you do it by hand

  1. Torque ratio from aircraft torque factor and free air temperature.
  2. Specification torque available from free air temperature and pressure altitude.
  3. Actual torque available from the torque conversion chart.
  4. Torque to hover from gross weight and wheel height, checked against the transmission limit.

Move the load, watch the limits

A simplified preview of both calculators. The numbers here are for illustration and are not flight data.

Load
Conditions
Center of gravity
Forward limitAft limit
Gross weight
Density altitude
from altitude and temperature
Torque to hover out of ground effect

Built around the Blackhawk

Stations, limits and performance charts are set up for the Black Hawk, so you start from the aircraft and not from a blank spreadsheet.

Main rotor diameter 53 ft 8 inWheel base 29 ftOverall length 64 ft 10 inTail rotor diameter 11 ft Top Side Front
Main rotor diameter
53 ft 8 in
Tail rotor diameter
11 ft
Overall length
64 ft 10 in
Wheel base
29 ft

Run the numbers for your next flight

Create an account