You learn how to do it - learn how to ride the ETL burble all the way down. The 206 is great in this regard: Hold a cabin attitude that is just a degree or two below the horizon. As you come down into ground effect, simply raise the nose to the hover attitude (2 or 3 degrees above the horizon). Voila! The ship stops with hardly any power change at all. Very rewarding when done right.
Spot on...... Here is how I do it, it lends for a very steep approach in excess of 60 degree angle:
1. Set up for a steep approach to be 100 feet above the obstacle in front of you.... for the sake of explanation we will call this the "decision point". You would aim to arrive at the decision point in a deceleration to little to no airspeed and less than 200fpm descent and almost hover power.
2. Just as you reach the decision point, assuming you have made the approach smoothly, you will push the nose over slightly to stop the deceleration and you will feel a little drop..raise the collective a tad to stop the drop and note your pedal position, TQ and TOT.
3. From those numbers you need the following to hover IGE:
a. An extra ONE inch of left pedal
b. An extra 5% TQ
c. An extra 35 degrees TOT
4. From those numbers you need the following to hover OGE.
a. An extra one and half inch of left pedal
b. An extra 15% TQ
c. An extra 50 degrees of TOT
5. Therefore, if when you were add the extra pedal you are at the stop, or if when you add the extra TQ or TOT to what you have already and it puts you in the red....you are in a position right now to pull power gently and nose over slowly to regain airspeed and fly away. I have used these numbers in the Jetranger, the L4 and a 407 and they all work.
6. If you have the pedal, TQ and TOT available, you continue the approach by letting the aircraft gently work its way down. As you approach the ground, raise the nose slightly and you will either come to a 1 foot hover or the skids will “kiss” the ground and then raise up again as the aircraft settles onto the ground cushion.