@EwanWhoseArmy... The Dead mans Curve is establshed during test flying of a new type. A couple of test pilots start at say 2000' in the hover and chop the engine just as your instructor on the R22 did. They then enter autorotation and land. At the next attempt they bring the height down by 100' and repeat.... until they scare each other at which point they put an X on the graph and move on to the next part of the test. The Dead-Man's curve for the R22 will look very different to the profile for an AW169. Remember also... In a twin-engined helo the significance of the DMC is much less because you have two engines and the chances of one failing is very slim, the chances of two failing together in normal operation is infintisimal.
Originally Posted by Gustosomerset
So, if some of the observations above are correct and the pilot chose to climb to an unusually high hover, why might he have done so?
The safest way to leave a confined area like a football stadium involves balancing risks in order to minimise you exposure to them....
- Climb vertically until you are clear of obstructions and in 'clean air'.
- For a twin-engined helo continue climbing until you have sufficient height clear of obstructions that you will clear them in transition if one engine fails and you lose some height.
- Transition to forward flight as soon as possible
- For a single engined helo do all of the above minimising your time inside the dead-mans curve.
FWIW I didn't see anything particularly unusual about the height he climbed to on the night of the accident.
@VintageEngineer... Whilst some of what you say about the TR debris is valid, you are drawing way too many conclusions from a simple photo. TR blades are of a complicated composite construction and the AAIB engineers will have to put it all under a microscope before pronouncing on the cause of failure.