I guess some things I've learnt from doing truckloads of autos to the ground in R22's during my instructing days.... .. .1. If you inadvertantly push full left pedal in the R22 after you close the throttle, there is a very real chance that the next thing you know you are the best part of upside down and then possibly without a tail boom or main rotor or long to live.. .2. RRPM overspeed prevention and general RRPM management is one of the more common things an instructor does teaching autos and always because the student is distracted with other tasks. Solo autos in my opinion will inevitably lead to RRPM excursions beyond limits with potentially very serious safety implications.. .3. Mr Murphy will always find ingenious ways to try to bite you when you never expect it, and we are not playing games here, I have had a few experiences teaching autos where for a second or two it could have gone either way with serious consequences.. .. .For the students/low time pilots and your concerns:. .. .During your training there is always ways to improve your autos which your instructor no doubt suggests to you, and it is imperative that you can do them adequately. If you can consistently say to yourself when doing autos - on that last one I need to improve on this or that, but had it been for real I would have been unhurt, then I think you should feel reasonably confident in yourself should it happen for real. Know all your auto stuff backwards, but never forget the basics. In my opinion, at the end of the day if all you do is:. .. .1. Get the collective down immediately.. .2. Establish the R22 at close enough to 55 Kts (into wind if you can). .3. Flare at the bottom positively enough to lose ALL your groundspeed. .4. GET IT LEVEL FOR THE TOUCHDOWN. .5. Use all the collective when the aircraft is within a couple of feet of the ground give or take, (which I think you will do naturally anyway). .. .You will be very unlucky to be injured, let alone anything worse in my opinion. Even severe upright vertical impact is better than rolling it over, thats what they're designed for and hence point 3 and 4.. .. .Steve76 and all, one thing I have learnt as an instructor is there are always some personalities amongst students that do things when they know they shouldn't or do them spontaneously or do them for no real reason that they can explain afterwards. I wonder if threads like these, while controversially interesting, may plant seeds in the minds of those type of people. If you look at the stats on the many training accidents from autos, isn't it risky enough dual let alone solo? And the most dangerous risks are the ones you aren't even aware of. Some students may not share the same skill or proficiency or good fortune you had when you rolled off the throttle solo.. .. .I cannot stress this more to all student pilots: DO NOT do solo autos.. . . . <small>[ 27 March 2002, 05:25: Message edited by: the coyote ]</small>