Originally Posted by
Shawn Coyle
Going for airspeed isn't always the answer. A very good article some time ago by Pete Gilles showed that pushing forward and getting airspeed will result in loss of rotor RPM, and hence control, etc. He had at least two examples where the pilots instinctively pushed forward (because that's what they'd been taught), and both rolled over following a very hard landing with very low rotor RPM.
Thanks for that Shawn Coyle, any chance of getting a reference to source the article? thanks in advance. Never too late to pick up new tricks.
There is no doubt that if one attempts to get airspeed without first the collective down then that will mean lots of lost RPM, if that was to be interpreted from the article you quote????
i guess I have always advocated as follows- if you have to hover just above the trees, well make it as low as you can and always with any likely spots immediately in front of you. i.e. looking down through your feet.
This comes from lots of practice in making touchdowns softer as a result of just a tad of airspeed, i.e. translation if possible. this can be experimented with during hovering autos by introducing a bit of forward cyclic. One note of caution - do not introduce too much forward cyclic, unless you want a blood nose.
The difference when doing hover autos from as high as you feel comfortable in a vertical hovering auto should be quite noticeable.
Of course if you are climbing vertically out of a small hole when things go silent, then its straight back down, no question.
cheers tet