This topic has been beaten to death, revived, then beaten again elsewhere, but it's one that is worth figuring out (if for no other reason that CFIs think it's a good idea to teach something like this). Nobody taught me a "power check" during my training--beyond noting my hover power on pick up and checking my POH performance data--and there's nothing about it in the RHC Maneuver Guide. I looked at all the VR threads on the topic, and the advice was muddled and inconsistent at best. One school owner made an interesting comment: an examiner started asking his students who cited these rules of thumb to point out their sources.
Anyway, I tried to assimilate all I've read about it in
this lesson plan.
What I don't understand is why your published performance data aren't good enough, especially in a training environment. With a little pre-planning, you can guesstimate your fuel, LZ elevation, and temperature before the rotors even turn, and you'll know where you can land and where you shouldn't try landing. At your LZ, you can check your actual conditions to see how far off your expected condition is from your actual. For example, if the charts say you can land at 4500 MSL, is it reasonable for a <1000 hr CFI to take a student out and try landing there? Or even 4200 MSL? Seems like a lesson on ADM and understanding (performance, weather) minimums would be better for a student pilot rather than a rule of thumb
.