Max Perf TO (?a.k.a. Obstacle Clearance, in f/w)
Aha, great exchange, this subject one of my pet peeves with US flight instruction.
In my checkered past as trainee/flight review victim (17 yrs) I've had the joy of flying with about 20 CFI's--each of whom seemed to subscribe to a different but absolutely required inalterable Max Perf TO profile. Towering, or full-power-near-horizontal-departure-from-hover, or lightonskids & full-power to ETL then pitch up (different pitch different instructors), or circle very tightly (35 deg bank) within the clearing, or . . . or else some perversion of those which I ended up mimicing without understanding, since the presiding instructor did not speak English well enough to understand my efforts to clarify.
I thought to find revelation of truth in published instructional manuals. No, chaos again.
So the opinions appearing on this thread have been valuable! Thanks.
My solution has been to make a thoughtful effort to analyze each technique for the time-duration of exposure to death by engine failure (of course, missing the obstacle also). What we need for teaching safety is MUCH more performance data in the AFM--for instance, whereas best angle of climb speed in f/w is always called out, in helis that I've seen there's no mention. (Notably R22 and training texts in general.)
Absent factory data, would it not be appropriate, folks, to have the student learn and perform two or three of the profiles described above, with the CFI OPERATING THE STOPWATCH from when student calls Fatal Exposure (20' & 20 k?) to when he calls Autorotation Possible (60k clearing obstacle?)?
And then same exercise when you're at maximum normal training altitude doing pinnacle/confined training?
The student (and the CFI!) then have some absolute (perhaps inaccurate, but better than nothing) appreciation of comparative MaxPerf methodologies. AND useful training in test pilot methods for learning the limitations of a new-to-the-pilot ship.
Taken another way, is it productive to go beyond philosophical arguments (example: this post here) about angels on the head of a pin, and instead gather some Real Numerical Facts about comparative performance of one helicopter, one crew flying different profiles? (One pin w/two angels . . .)
Forgive me, I keep forgetting that reality is sometimes unfashionable (viz. Matrix Reloaded).
Dave
ps: And in case you don't survive, leave us a note specifying which profile you plan to practice . . . if you DO survive, post the useful numeric results here.