In the Bristow of old we
never carried out touchdown autorotations on high skid gear equipped B206's (AB206's). We never carried them out to a paved surface although I do remember doing them out in the desert in Dubai on hard sand.
We would swap skids to train - not negotiable. Maybe they had learned from hard experience.
With the low skid gear the rotor mast is vertical when the skids are parallel with the ground, so if you are at almost zero ground speed at the correct height - all should be well.
If you have a slightly higher forward speed at touchdown then the lower CofG helps to save the day. Maybe the Academy should look to the past - easy to say that now, of course! UG
