What scares me is the statement:
"ERGO it's probably more economical to train at low-altitude bases, get more circuits-per-hour, less real physical danger in autorotations, etc. Then when you have a chance a year down the line you can self-train when the opportunity presents itself. But BE ALERT--my good fortune was that when low-power low RPM snuck up on me, I was in a 5' hover over sagebrush, astonished to be going DOWN while pulling up on collective. So I landed. No damage. Sadder but wiser. Sea-level reflexes CAN hurt you, just as fixed-wing reflexes can (!? rolling into steep turns with a big dose of PEDAL??)."
Were you lucky? Yup. Maybe from the experiance in fw that most other newer helicopter pilots do not have. Had that happened at 30-40 feet it really could have been very interesting. How many new pilots could get out of that situation? Know how to recognize that you may not be able to fly out of it and have to do a run on landing, or take it to the ground without a hover? A better plan would have ment that sagebush would not have been in front of you. Or be over a hard surface.
Self teaching is great in most respects, but for something like that, where you do not have the power to give yourself a second chance, is to me is just asking for trouble.
Sorry for the rant, but I do a fair amount of mountain search and rescue and that area is not for a newer pilot without training.
Last edited by HeliMark; 1st June 2003 at 16:53.