PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Leave helicopter rotor running
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Old 30th Jul 2020, 22:23
  #27 (permalink)  
CGameProgrammerr
 
Join Date: Nov 2018
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Blades can indeed flap at low RPM, every rotorcraft pilot should know that, but I don't see how that would cause the helicopter to lift up unless the wind is REALLY strong. With the collective down, the blade pitch is 0 and the blades are generating no lift. Centripetal force is straightening the blades, not aerodynamic lift. An idling helicopter generates basically no downward air. People can enter/exit an idling helicopter easily without feeling like they're in a hurricane because it's not blowing air downwards, hence not generating lift.

Likewise a parked airplane generates no lift. However there have been occasions where extremely strong winds have actually made upwind-facing airplanes go airborne if they're not tied down, so the same could happen to an idling helicopter, but that would have to be a really strong wind of the sort you would never fly in anyway.

That said, personally I wouldn't ever be comfortable leaving an unattended helicopter running, but then again I'm not even comfortable leaving a car running unattended.
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