PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - What was your scariest moment in a helicopter?
Old 26th Sep 2003, 14:14
  #90 (permalink)  
HeloTeacher
 
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Canada/around
Posts: 148
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
As requested.

While conducting training on a new hire just prior to letting him loose on the customers I elected to give him one last surprise engine failure just at the limit of our range to reach the runway, so a max-range full-down in an R22. Unfortunately, at dusk.

As he drooped the rotor to '90' to extend the range everything looked good, then started sinking low. I looked across and he had all parameters perfect, so I let him continue. It was getting darkish, late dusk, so it was a little tough to see precisely the gauges on his side of the cockpit.

We were no longer going to make the runway so I took control to overshoot and figure out what he did wrong. I was still quite comfortable until I rolled on throttle and the engine only growled with insignificant acceleration. A little panicked I leaned over to look at the RRPM and saw he had been at 80 not 90! A sharp flare allowed the RRpm to increase sufficiently to get the engine back and I recovered in ground effect.

No more late in the day training flights where eyesight gets weak and fatigue dulls the senses. No more casual glances to confirm the students actions.
HeloTeacher is offline