Flight Safety,
For my sins, I am a helicopter and aeroplane instructor and have demonstated and taught low level aerobatics in both aircraft categories.
In a stiff wing spin, depending on the aeroplane, the pitch/roll/yaw rate is actually relatively slow. However, the pilot is unable to control the attitude during the spin and the aeroplane generally consumes !!!!!loads of altitude while you sort it out. After gross anti-spin control (remember that all controls are still working) defeats the spin, one then recovers from the steep nose-down unusual attitude and flies away. Alternatively, you eject/parachute/strike the ground.
In a helicopter, life is considerably different. If one loses T/R authority in the cruise, there is a reasonable chance of keeping it all together. If it happens in the hover, the onset of rotation is rapid and eye-watering. Unlike our aeroplane, the helo pilot must make control inputs to maintain some semblance of a survivable attitude - the machine has no inherent ability to keep all of its bits in the intended location.
Here is the scene: the helicopter has started to spin rapidly at the torque currently set and the options are:
a. reduce the torque and slow the spin in order to bring the reaction time for survival manoeuvres closer to your capabilities, or
b. increase the torque substantially to generate vertical movement, knowing that one will dramatically increase the yaw rate and the demand for control inputs that are required simply to keep the rotating bits between you and the sun. In most cases, this requires a conscious move to take the reaction time for survival manoeuvres further from your capabilities.
Now I reckon 'b' is a poor option unless, as I have found myself, falling into the mouth of an active volcano is the only alternative. In that case,
sangfroid is but a dream.
I used to teach loss of T/R authority in the high hover, simply because the almost automatic entry to autorotation created its own, very real, problems. Thus, the height took all the fun out of a relatively straightforward recovery. Suffice it to say, the control motions required to keep the sunny side up while trying to gain sufficient forward speed to alleviate the rotation and permit either a running landing or some sort of fly-away manoeuvre were always illuminating, both for me and the victim.
And one could never ignore the gut feeling that both Mr Bell amd Mr Robinson's mast stop margins were always threatened to a point that neither could have contemplated.
Bottom line - the only similarity between F/W and R/W spins is that a rotation is involved - that is all.
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Stay Alive,
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