Originally Posted by
aa777888
Touchdown auto's are safer when done to pavement, it is far more forgiving of mistakes. On grass all it takes is a little left or right yaw on touchdown and an errant bit of turf to turn it into a rollover.
What cobblers!
AFAIK no British service or civil helo training ever uses anything else but grass for touchdown auto's(sic). More advanced types with wheels are twins and don't do touchdown autos at all.
There is simply no concept in UK that grass is hazardous - it's all we use and it simply does not cause problems or else we wouldn't do it. The thought of doing an auto to a hard runway makes me cringe with horror at the thought of all that metal being ground away, even if they are sacrificial pads. Why do it???
In any case when you auto for real there ain't gonna be a nice concrete patch to land on so the ability to touch down straight and feather the aircraft onto the ground smoothly is an esential skill that you won't learn if all you learn is to plonk it on the concrete with drift on and dump the lever as you grind your way along half-sideways in a bonfire of expensive sparks...
However we are well aware that with t/r failures high speed run-ons are to be done on runways if at all possible. In a normal auto youalways have the ability (skill permitting...) to land straight if you choose to, in a t/r failure you likely do not.
It seems the objection to grass is a cultural rather than a realistic or practical concept.