Interesting hillberg, those books; I think they miss a bit of detail.
#1 Yep RPM is life no question.
Another one is knowing your winds even when you are sound asleep in bed. Getting down quickly and arresting the ROD into wind is far easier than doing it downwind. Even 2 to 3 knots is significant. No such thing as Light and Variable when your world is around the tree tops, I am sorry, but that was a planted clue.
Another clue was 'moderate' timber, reads “enough room to get the hull down straight and let the blades chew their way down”. Trunks up to five inches are OK even in a R22.
Conduct the auto to the ground, the collective control will be useless after the first decent strike but the blades will be absorbing energy like you wouldn’t believe and slowing everything down. The cross tubes may bend but you should be able to undo and step out, been there seen that.
I do not believe that to pull pitch and run out of RPM at the 25’ tree tops is a good idea, we have seen a couple of deaths from overpitching here lately, from about that height. You need that energy of RPM to use against the timber to slow down ROD.
Firstly as you say get that lever down pronto, at the same time point the cyclic directly at the spot you have already subconsciously been aware of. That sub conscious awareness as much into wind as possible, must be demonstrated prior to a low level and mustering sign off.
Get the cyclic back just before you go through the canopy. If it is into wind its forward airspeed will stop on a dime.
Forget the garbage about the low G danger to the head; the aircraft is only descending at the rate of one G. It is not in a low G push over manoeuvre, don’t forget that.
#2 There was a couple of clues here too. Notice how I changed the order of controls in the question and also a 1200 hour ego machine will not stop a machine descending at least one foot or more if it is a sudden and complete power loss like a free wheel slip.
So from anything under four foot skid height there will be no, y'll hear, NO REAR CYCLIC until the aircraft is cleared away from the ground to a safe T/R clearance height.
It is simple, a quick jerk on the collective, then start with your cyclic as you put the lever back down and then control RPM with the lever as you would in a quick stop.
Zoom it a bit if you like, maybe jump over an obstacle or some such, whatever you fancy, even a 180 can be accomplished with most types from twenty feet or so and a high cruise speed, to get back into wind. A G5 will do it from 65-70 knots in the width of an airstrip.
The thing is, in both instances the people that are usually going to be good at mustering are often a bit flamboyant, sometimes will take risks and can be counted on to forget, sometimes defy, instructions regardless in their early years. So, one solution to reduce risk is to teach the survival technique basics at an age when they usually remember the basics. Just like a young pup.
cheers tet
Last edited by topendtorque; 28th Oct 2011 at 11:04.