To: All
I was specifically and very politely asked not to participate in this thread so as not to add credence to any of the various posts. I did so willingly and then found myself participating on another V22 thread on this same forum.
I don’t know if I got it right but from what I read the pilot was trying to arrest his downward velocity and by pulling aft cyclic he entered the Vortex Ring state and either because of inadequate experience on the V22 or, insufficient altitude he could not tilt his engine pods forward to power out of the situation. Hopefully that is close enough for government work.
His downward velocity was measured a 2000 FPM and he could not slow down. My question is, how does even an experienced pilot autorotate and perform cyclic flares to both slow down and to build up rotor speed if when he enters into a flare, he could enter the vortex ring state causing himself a lot of problems, and since his downward velocity is predicted to be 4-6000 FPM ROD how can he arrest or, at least slow it down in order to at least have a controlled crash.
One other theoretical question, if the aircraft is in an autorotational situation and the proprotors are being propelled by the upward flow of the onrushing relative wind can the vortex ring state be initiated when the flow of air is up and not down. Get out your thinking caps and figure this out.
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The Cat