Originally Posted by
kansarasc
All the humor aside, can someone please elaborate on takeoff technique and hazards from slippery surface like ice? I do not remember reading this in Helo Flying handbook. But one of my instructor mentioned one time to me.
Not sure how that is relevant to the sh*t show referred to by the original post, and this question may be worthy of its own thread, but: when operating from a slippery surface (which is not always ice, some ramps can be incredibly oily and slick), probably the biggest issue is transitioning the main rotor between fight RPM and ground idle RPM (both directions, speeding up or slowing down). Obviously this must be done gently and slowly while working the pedals appropriately to prevent the ship from spinning right around on you. In Robinson helicopters, under slippery conditions I've been trained to turn off the governor and manually control rotor RPM until safely up to flying speed, then turn the governor back on. I operate onto and off of glare ice often in the winter and this works quite well, and of course it works under less slick conditions also. Even if you don't think the conditions are slick always be ready to put some power pedal in when coming up out of ground idle rotor RPM.