Autos and other emergencies- My perspective!
This is one of those occasional threads, where people are really trying to learn, and others are really trying to help, so here’s my 5 cents …
Advice aimed at low time pilots but remember advice is often worth the price you paid for it ?
I can’t help you make the right decision when you’re in a jam, but!
as a loose kind of philosophy, this has worked for me...
I know you plan to continue learning and refining emergency techniques throughout your life. But it won’t come as fast and easy as you might think …unless you take the instructor route and get to teach it daily, and then it’s only until your out of currency…
Once you get on the payroll, probably a light single turbine. You’re not going to have the opportunity to fly around throwing in an auto whenever the mood strikes! And after a few months,your not going to want to. The Pax really hate it and the CP won’t be amused…
Yes, some of you may get picked up as a co-pilot with a larger operator. Whole different story for those of you that take that route, for better or worse, you’ll have some kind of training and career development within that corporation’s culture (or lack thereof)…
But many of you will struggle thru the ranks of on the job training…
Drifting from one ‘character building’ outfit to another, finally finding a series of semi-permanent homes somewhere…slightly different in Europe from what I can tell, but can’t say it seems any better
No, I’m not crying about this, it’s just the way it’s always been, at least in the places I’ve been hanging out…
Most people play around for a few years, experimenting with working in the ways helicopters are used in the real world, building time and getting experience on different machines. And then settle down to a type of work that we find personally rewarding, financially or otherwise.
Or the only job you can find at the time 
At a certain point, a degree of complacency will settle in. We fight it, but it’s always hovering just under the surface.
Remember that you’re keen, motivated individuals right now, trying to perfect your craft. Yes, I think it’s more a craft than science….
In many helicopter emergencies, there is more than one ‘right answer’ and different people will respond in the way they prefer, or the way they were trained. Or simply the only thing that comes into your head during the emergency…Lots of things are not in any book I’ve ever seen…
It’s going to hover around the RFM procedures, but remember, apart from the limitations section, the rest is recommended, not set in stone! Just remember that if you deviate greatly, be able to back it up with solid reasoning…You’re going to have to convince at least one inspector…
I’m an
average pilot who’s at his peak! (When I was 25 I thought differently of course, I thought I was at my peak then as well;-)
The reason I’m at my peak is I now got to the bathroom more than I used to, so I figure it’s all down hill from here…
Having said that I’m at my peak, now let me say, I’m at my average peak. No, not another attempt at humor, I mean in general flying terms I’m at my peak.
Your flying skill-sets tend to mimic the roller coaster ride of life in general. At some point you’ll get the opportunity to perfect (in your own eyes) specific skills. I’ve had times when I’ve felt I could auto a 500 into a dumpster from anywhere…because I demonstrated 50 of them that last month, going thru a check and training cycle…
Get out of Check & Training for a couple of years, and it’s a different story completely …
Right at this minute (in a 500) I’d settle for anywhere on the runway, road or tightly packed soft trees…
Which gets me ever closer to the point I’m trying to make, regarding autos and emergencies We’ve had some words about reverse autos and various techniques with different machines… I can’t give any advice on specific types as I’m not current on any training machines, I wouldn’t know a R22 if it bit me in the ass. I’m in my fifties now and the last time I flew a recip I was 19…
But as a general rule to live by! …Get comfortable with YOUR style of auto; think of it as your backup ‘ace in the hole’… Others will disagree. Hell, maybe everyone will disagree… but for me, I get the thing into an imaginary gate, using whatever technique fits at the time and fall back on my favorite technique for putting it on the ground. I can’t or don’t want to explain it blow by blow, as my background is different to yours, and the machines I fly handle much differently to say a 206…
But as Warrigal said.
The one thing that will save your life is always knowing where the wind is. Not just in autos, but for every maneuver you intend to make. And utilize it…just because you are outside the "numbers”, it doesn't mean that it can’t do it. It comes down to you… Yes, if you give me a check ride, I’ll do it the way the manual demands, if it’s not acceptable, you’ll work with me to bring me up to speed on company procedures. If I’m unlucky enough to lose an engine (both) and it’s 6 days since you gave me recurrent training, I’ll probably go with that, if it’s fresh to mind…If it’s 11 months since I had recurrent and have changed companies anyway…I’m going to go with my ‘ace in the hole technique‘
(don’t read this to suggest I have a magic bullet, it just means my comfortable,favorite,combination of actions… Angle or airspeed… rapid flare.or progressive flare. Lateral flare if you want. Reverse, 180,360, etc are all fine in training, but when it happens for real, you just gotta get the thing on the ground any way you can that let’s you and the pax walk away…Remembering that you’re probably not current…
The machine has already shown you that it’s an undependable SOB, so it’s on it’s own now, all I care about is walking away from the incident…
Yes, we all want to put it down (if needed) in a tight spot, on rough terrain, at night, leaving it upright. I also want to win the state lottery! …
But ‘working world’ flying is a bitch at times.
You have to stay as relaxed as possible (not easy in an emergency) and just make it work. No fixed technique, just use your basic ‘ace in the hole’ technique, modified to suit the situation…Yes there will be (in hindsight) other, maybe better ways you could have handled it. (And lord knows, now we have the Internet, you’ll have plenty of people telling where you went wrong) But if you all walked away from a genuine emergency, you did good! Period!
Any idea about seeing a suitable LZ under the nose, and attempting a reverse auto, that I might not have practiced for 8 years, is something I can’t ever imagine trying…. I’d rather eat a live cat!
Never confuse a good co-ordination exercise, with a viable technique in an emergency, keep it as simple as possible.
Right now, if you’re a trainee approaching a check ride, or just passed a check ride, your going to be as comfortable with auto’s as it’s going to get for a few years, or until you have a bunch of instructor hours under your belt and are current in auto’s/emergencies…Take advantage of the role you’re in as a student, get as much emergency training as possible…
while your flying on someone else’s license. Your Instructors! You’re going to hear a lot of Professionals tell you that Auto’s are no problem. And they’re not………..
In a training environment, or when someone on board is current…
But in the real world!. They’re called emergencies for a reason…If you ever need an auto for real, don’t try to get cute with it. Keep it simple. Put it on the ground and walk away from it…If your going into hostile terrain, I wouldn’t worry too much about over speeding the rotor (within reason) use what you get to make sure you’re
Zeroed out before you let it settle…fess up to the over speed, it’s no shame…. you’re trying to save at least one person you love!
(Personally, anywhere I land without a serviceable engine would be hostile terrain, but that’s just me!) If you over speed one in training, no matter what the Instructor might say…Report it, never minimize how far the over speed went)
If you over speed one when you’re screwing around, report it. You were looking for a job when you found that one. You’ll find another!
Professionalism is a real difficult subject in helo aviation. Because it means different things depending on where you are... A guy flying IFR from private site to private site in the UK has a different professional viewpoint, to someone pouring himself into a Lama for the 16th day, on a Seismic gig in S. America…
When some-one tells you something is/isn’t professional (apart from the obvious) what he really means is that it ‘s not professional in his/her experience…
I’ve been lucky enough to fly with some real solid pilots (skills, not body mass!
- Well both sometimes) and chose to work in a field where we work the machines far harder than normal operations. (logging) As a consequence I’ve had more than my fair share of problems and all of them 2 pilot in the last few years…whenever we’ve shook a numbered piece loose or had an engine problem, the results have been fortunate in all cases. (Not the same in the single engine logging days)….
But I’m sure glad that we didn’t have video footage of the cockpit action during certain emergencies though…
Am I ashamed because we didn’t get everything correct as per the manual and in the right sequence…Nah! I’m still here to write about it…
To summarize (
Yeah! I know, I shoulda just wrote the summary)
Practice all you can while still a student. When it’s all over, you’re up there alone until the following year. Come next check-ride, if you luck out with the first auto or two, which will probably be to a power recovery, the check airman will just move on to a slope landing and a confined area or whatever… Now it’s 2 years since you had substantial training…and so it goes…
Keep grabbing every opportunity you can to practice…I hope not! But one day you might need it? Any time the instructor say’s “we’re ahead of the game, is there anything you’d like to practice” Say “Emergencies” if he say’s “which one”.......Say “all of ‘em”…
And don’t forget, the chances of an immediate engine out with no warning, in a well maintained single are
reasonably remote…Lots of other things are generally going to test you first…
And don’t worry if they’re stressful…
The only people really comfortable with autos and emergencies are those doing them on a regular basis in a training scenario, and there’s a whole world of difference between simulated and for real…
But a sound, well thought out practiced technique will keep you turning and burning just as long as you can hold that medical…That’s the story from my perspective!
Happy trails …170 ……
Ps…
If you know a friendly A & P or L.A.M.E who will let you stand around, or better yet help with some maintenance or repair. Buy him all the beers he needs, to help you get a sound knowledge of what’s actually going on with various components. Not the BS you learned in theory…. But try to build a picture of what’s happening in real time to a specific component.
If you get a red light…
You know! The 3 foot diameter red light that you’ll only ever see over water or triple canopy jungle or at night in IMC with the nearest approach 45 minutes away…
If the book say’s it’s a
land now deal, but there is nowhere to land, your probably going to feel better equipped to make a call on if it's the trees or water....
Or will that chunky piece of engineering, make it to that clear spot X miles ahead…tough call! But that’s why you’re the a/c commander ;-))
Well it was more like a buck 45,but I has some time on my hands ;-))