Gaseous,
Interesting point, and from a strictly aerodynamic point of view I think I agree with you.
I see some danger in what you advocate (gentle forward cyclic as the only course of action because aft cyclic may/will produce rotor stall) largely from a human factors and a 'big picture' point of view:
1 - What is important to realise is that you are talking about a specific and dire situation (Nr well below limits and close to stalling) and a last ditched attempt to survive or to not drop the bundle. A theoretically possible technique to prevent rotor stall in a situation that the pilot should never have got into in the first place.
2 - If the pilot does happen to be in this situation, their heart is going to be in their mouth and it is unlikely that any input made will be gentle, but rather an adrenalin driven excessive stab.
3 - You may be planting a seed of contradiction and confusion that could kill someone who is NOT in such a dire RRPM situation, but has suffered a power failure. You are talking about a situation that requires identification, awareness and conscious thought to override instincts. In a time critical emergency good training produces instinctive actions, without such conscious thought. Your suggestion may just open the door to enough cognitive confusion in the heat of the moment to lead to 'brain fade', similar to someone inexplicably pushing the wrong pedal upon entry into auto.
It is impossible to train for every scenrio. But I think there is a very good reason for that as well: to not jamn the noodle with too much information, so that it can produce the right results when it is critically needed.
Prevention is better than cure. This scenario to me demands prevention, simply don't let the Nr get that low when you've got a long way to fall. And if you do, its a product of pilot error and your fate is yours.
While you are trying to save a sub-standard pilots skin (in my opinion anyway) in a very rare AND preventable situation, you may well be endangering another (not sub-standard) pilot who's Nr is low but not THAT low. And for that reason your idea fails in my opinion.
And one last thing re your advice on entry to autos: "do not make any large cyclic inputs". If you do that the nose is going to drop a mile on entry, allowing the Nr to decay far more than it would if you simply kept the original attitude.
The holy grail is Nr, if a pilot can't protect it they simply shouldn't be flying. My advice: stick to your training!
Last edited by the coyote; 8th January 2005 at 07:10.