Oh man! What have I been missing here!
Rich Lee wrote:
Few experienced helicopter pilots will advocate low speed, low level pop-ups as a realistic engine failure response...
Few...as in "none?" At low speed, trying to "pop-up" will only result in a loss of both your RRPM and what little airspeed you already had. Bad idea in a high-inertia system like a B206. Horrid idea in anything else. I can't imagine any scenario in which being at 100-150 feet with no airspeed and no rotor rpm would be preferable to just flaring and cushioning the landing with all of the available pitch. But that's just me. Because even if you do "pop-up" to 150 feet and see a good site, you're not going to be able to drive to it; you're pretty much going to fall straight down from that point.
Then, this genius CJ Eliassen remarks:
I do many things that other pilots consider unsafe because I know things they do not. For example, I hover at 15 feet in an R-22. #1, I have been taught successful hovering autos from this height, and #2, over 90 helicopters have been destroyed by dynamic rollover and none have been damaged from an engine failure in a hover.
Sir, perhaps that is because those engine failures occurred whilst the Robbo was at a
proper hover-height? If so, you'd likely never read about them...like we'll read about yours. But you go, boy! Don't let anyone tell *you* that something you do is unsafe. Fark 'em!
Hovering an R-22 at 15 feet is daft. But hey, you're the expert! Personally, if I were you, I'd work on my hovering skills so that I wouldn't have this irrational fear of dynamic rollover. Oh...umm, remind me not to send my kids up on a sightseeing flight with you, 'k?
Finally, a 19 year-old boy, "Captain" Eagle telling us that he's been out playing with himself...oh sorry, "by" himself in an R-44.
Wow. Sure got a nice bunch o' test pilots here. Glad I'm just an old-timer who just goes by the numbers and procedures in the AFM...you know, the ones derived by
real test pilots. Maybe that's how I've survived 10,000+ hours with my penis (mostly) intact.