Originally Posted by
gulliBell
If I'm doing high altitude heavy sling loads to mountain tops in a 206 (or 212, or whatever helicopter), I nurse it in sensible ways so the unexpected does not lead to disasters. And it's real simple, slow down to a speed that maintains stable load in flight, keep it pointed outside the critical wind azimuth on arrival, keep the NR at 100, keep the sink rate near zero, keep the apparent closure rate until you have arrived where you need to put it. And if you can break the loads up into lighter sorties, do it. We all know these things. Short of the donk stopping at the perfectly wrong time, which would be a disaster, nursing a helicopter so it can safely complete a task is just basic operational airmanship.
GulliBell,
you don’t catch the point.
Sure you can baby a helicopter, like most of us do or have done.
Itˋs the question of reserves available, when the last chainlink tries to spoil your day.
May be the lack of scan, cause a flu is on its way and you missed the creeping in decendrate, the f... big bird which surprises you and you instinctively try to avoid, the gust you haven’t anticipated or the fool, who hasn’t seen you and flies over you giving you just an extra bit of downwash to play with.
Thatˋs when reserves, pulling power AND having tailrotor authority, comes in handy.
As long as you stay lucky through your career, everything seems ok. It´s interesting, when luck isˋt with you all the time.