JD says:
At 285 ft AGL and -2500 fpm, one had best be either, getting ready to flare, if in autorotation, or starting to apply collective/power if not.
John,
You mentioned to Lonewolf that the reasons you performed a zero airspeed vertical descent VRS demo at 6-8,000 feet was because:
Two reasons. First is that it isn't easy to find a fully developed VRS situation, and the second is that once found, a respectable length of recorded data is appreciated by all except the flight crew being bounced around.
Is it possible that not putting the a/c in an unrecoverable position was a factor also? Do you believe if the CH-53 was in the same scenario as the Marana V-22 a CH-53 could have recovered? (none of the other CH-53 drivers I have spoken to believe it would have been survivable, but perhaps there is some empirical data we are not aware of?)
Sas mentions in those conditions (slowing rapidly with a tailwind and max power being pulled in at 285ft agl with a 2500+fpm ROD) it might be possible to recover with a "slight turn, lowering the nose a bit, easing the collective down." Do you believe the CH-53 could recover using these techniques in that scenario?
thanks,
21stC