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