Controlability
Up front disclaimer: I am not a pilot. I'm just here to learn.
Please pardon my ignorance but our much beloved media are making a lot of the fact that the hero pilot "steered the stricken aircraft to an empty part of the car park".
Now, without taking anything way from Sato Matsumi's feat in getting the thing on the ground in only two main pieces, my understanding was that, unlike Sully and his Airbus, an unpowered helicopter has the glide characteristics of a tin can with a small parachute and that you only have limited control over your vertical speed as you autorotate downwards.
Particularly given they ware landing and therefore, I assume, had little forward momentum, how much real manouverability would likely have been available to the pilot at that point?
Last edited by justawanab; 11th Jun 2009 at 10:21.
Reason: spuling