Purely Pete
4
The subject ofthis article concerns ini-
tial and recurrent autorotation training for
professional helicopter pilots. Actually, it
should concern all helicopter pilots, but
Jet me address this specifically to those
of you who fly helicopters for a living
and need to be really proficient at per-
forming touchdown autorotations to the
round or water.
Before we successfully graduated from.
flight school, whether military or civilian,
all of us had to master antorotations to
the level mandated by flight school stan-
dards and/or the PTS. For eiviian train-
ing all the way through commercial stan-
dards, power-recovery autorotations were
all that was required. A few decades ago,
rlitary flight training included touch-
down autos, but that requirement went
away when it was decided thatthe cost of
repairing helicopters was greater than the
benefits to the crew gained by such train-
ing.
‘Most of you remember the typical
training scenario, Enter at 500 AGL and
£60 keots or whatever, fly either a straight-
in, 90 degree, or 180 degree path and do
a power recovery without exceeding the
limitations of the engine of airframe or
kissing the ground. Do this over and
‘over and over again until you get it right
‘and until you could do the recovery at or
close to the designated target, if there
was one
If you missed the target by too much,
the solution was pretty simple. Enter the
auto either earlier or later, By keeping
the entry altitude and airspeed consistent
between tries, moving the entry point
‘would move the flare point. Problem
solved.
‘And by all means keep the ball cen-
tered on the way down! No skidding or
slipping, “‘S” tums? Yeah, okay, but in
moderation, The most important thing
oth: tr Pl Gis; Tom Mogi
‘vas to Team to enter the auto atthe right
point, so $ turns would not be necessary
in the first place. Remember the Number
‘One Mandate when taking a flight check:
Don’t scare the examiner! Be smooth, be
nice, be respectful ofthe helicopter, don't
4o anything abrupt, no wild maneuvers,
and so on. Practice makes perfect, or
nearly perfect. So you passed your flight
check. Now you're a ral helicopter
pilot!
Sometime later.
for your annual 135 check-ride, Same
scene, Act Two. Around and around you
£80, maybe the same helicopter, maybe the
same airport, same check airman, same
speeds and altitudes, same autos. Maybe
a few practice tries, then one for the
check airman, Same rules. Don’t scare
anyone and don’t have any exceedances.
‘You passed!
much later...it's time
‘What's wrong with this picture?
Is there an engine or drive-line failure
in your future? When it happens, will
you be in the familiar pattern at your
favorite airport, with lots of open runway
or taxiway space in front of you, with no
obstructions, jut like when you were
first in training and passed your last 135,
check ride? And with an idling engine to
fall back on ifthe auto isn’t going right?
T very much doubt it. You'll be over any-
thing but sn airport, and you may be
‘caught totally by surprise by a sudden
loss of power to the main and tail rotors.
Look below you. What do you see?
Houses? Water? Industrial area? The
‘middle of « town or city? Farmland?
Open country? Trees? Mountains?
Canyons? Slopes? Heavy foliage?
Giant boulders? Boats? Docks? Rigs?
Do you think that all you have to do is
put the pitch down, dial in the perfect
‘utorotation speed, make a straight in, 90
degree or 180 degree approach, flare and
‘make a nice, smooth, no-damage landing
‘on a nice, smooth, hard surface? Dream
fon! There is one chance in thousand
you'll be that lucky!
Let’ get real. Something pops. Here's
‘what you need to do, and in the following
order.
First and foremost, start the eyelic
‘moving back NOW. Don't take time to
troubleshoot the problem. Sure if your
left hand is on the collective, star it
down at the same time. But DON’T
NEGLECT THE CYCLIC! Itis one of
‘your two flight controls and just as
important. Many of us fly long hours
‘without having our hand on the collec-
tive, But we almost always have one
hhand on the cyclic. You're not in ao
utorotation until the ai is passing
upwards through the rotor system.
atting the pitch down tips the rotor dise
forward, complicating the picture even
more. Again, eyelie back the moment
anything happens to your helicopter that
you didn’t purposely cause. And pitch
down, of course.
It you've reacted in time, you will
catch the falling rotor rpm before it drops
below that ob-so-critical rpm from which
recovery is not possible without help
from the engine or engines. If you delay
‘more than the blink of an eye, you may| pemeetiee read
be just a passenger as the helicopter
‘makes its way to the ground or water
‘And you won't like the way it “lands
Second, pick a place to land! With
the rotor somewhere in the green, you
have a flying machine. When the rotor
pm is below the critical point, you are
part ofa falling object over which you
ave no control. Like I said above,
you're just @ passenger.
ick a place to land and do whatever
‘maneuvering you have to do to make it,
Don’t worry about the actual landing.
Worry about not making the spot. What
‘out airspeed? What about coordinated
1°? What about not making abrupt
saneuvers? Forget those things. Just
‘eep the rotor in the green and fly the
-zeek out of the machine! What you must
4p is make that helicopter fly to the target
‘you have chosen, No excuses. You can’t
‘break the machine in flight as Tong as the
ror is im the green and you don't (for
‘lade teetering-rotor pilots) over-
due the negative g thing,
So you've made the spot. Now what?
Third, make the best flare you can,
level the ship if possible, pull whatever
pitch you have left, sit up straight, close
your eyes and wait until the noise
stops! The objective isto get the heli-
copter as low and slow as possible before
mking ground contact, thus redueing the
crash forces, if any, as much as possible,
‘That's itl The “landing” will take place
whether or not you are proficient at doing
touchdown autorotations. Sure, being
proficient in this skill may help with the
‘outcome, but that skill may not help very
such if you miss the only good spot 10
Jand within gliding distance,
Here's the bottom line: Once you've
‘gotten good enough to do the very sani-
tary flight-school type of autorotations, it
‘would behoove you to start challenging
yyourse\f by entering autorotations at vari-
ous altitudes, speeds, attitudes and direc
tions. Pick a target and learn the ticks of
hitting it every time. Do this with a fel-
‘ow pilot on board who knows how to do
this and wants to share it with you. And
remember: Training ofthis type should
always be done with the understanding
that the engine may quit when the throttle
is rolled toile. Always be sure you are
within gliding distance of a smooth, hard
surface, and don’t initiate practice autoro-
tations while you're in the HIV curve.
‘Learn that with the engine gone, the
pitch down and the rotor in the green, the
helicopter will do every maneuver it
could do with the engine running except
‘a sustained climb. The airframe could
care less ifthe engine has quit. As long
as you are willing to descend, and with
the rotor in the green, the ship will do
anything you want to do. Speed up, slow
down, turn left or righ, stop, back up, fly
sideways, and so forth, The ship coulda’t
care Jess about the “quiet” engine
‘We've been doing advanced autorota~
tion training here at Western Helicopters
since 1975, and we've learned a lot over
the years. Fora long time we empha-
sized making the best landings possible,
knowing thatthe less the metal is bent,
the less likely injuries will occur. That is
still tue, of couse, but more important is
the need to successfully get into the
autorotation in the first place, and right
‘behind that, to fly as decisively (aggres~
sively, assertively) as necessary to make
the best reachable landing spot. A lot of
pilots we've trained over the years can
make wonderful landings, but they glaze
cover ifthe fight path is not what they
‘want. They forget that they ae pilotin-
command and thatthe helicopter will do
their bidding as long asthe rotor is in the
green,
We also have the 0 degree / 90 degree (
180 degree mentality, as though the heli-
copter will only autorotate in those par-
ticular directions. What a joke! The hel-
‘copter does not care which way you tum.
it or the exact amount of the tum! But
what do we practice over and over and
over? Those three entries, just like way
back in flight school.
‘One more thing: The H/V curve.
Sure, if you ean avoid flying within the
HV curve, do so when you can, ‘This is
‘good risk management. But many of us
have to ignore the H/V curve to get the
{job done. What I've said above applies
any time you are in ight, W/V curve or
not, The most important thing is to have
rotor rpm all the way to ground or water
contact, then hit the spot. If something
happens when you are in the H/V curve,
don’t automatically push the nose over to
gain airspeed, Remember that pushing
forward on the cyclic accelerates the
decrease of rotor rpm. Do so very care-
fully, or you may end up with plenty of
airspeed but a rotor that is slowing down
rapidly, and quickly becomes of no use to
you, Read between the lines here...
Is there a place for the sanitized type of
autorotation training practiced in flight
schools and at the factory schools? Sure.
Just know that this traning is primarily to
‘give you the skills to pass check rides. It
satisfies the FAA and insurance folks.
Nothing less, nothing more. Knowing
only how to pass check rides does not
equip you to handle some of the reat-
‘world emergencies you may face from
time to time in your career.
Purely Pete
Pete Gillies isthe Chief Pilot of Western
Helicopters, a diferent kindof fight schoo.
Western's predominant clientele includes loca,
state an federal law enforcement and other pro-
fessional pilot groups from around the country.
‘Their claim to fame is precision autorotations—
‘how to hit "that spo right there rom diferent
alaiudes, airspeeds and wind directions. They
also reach longline and mountain ying. The
estrn folks provide primary Incretion: pri-
vate, commercial, CF, and instrument as wel,
from their base in Southern Colyer,
Pete Giles, Meer ops@aol com
Avlowlte Mas Vol S ea! 1
5