So, I mess up my pre-flight planning and make an approach to a OGE hover a few hundred pounds above my RFM MAUM for OGE hover at that temp and pressure. I am aiming for a 70' hover to confirm my ground position before descending vertically into a smallish LS with some obstacles around it.
As I get to 70' in a level decel and start to lose translational lift, I raise the lever and pull as much power as the engine will give me but the aircraft starts to sink - I raise the lever some more but the engine has topped out and I hear the Nr start to decay and I keep going down - I am clearly going to hit the ground but why?
Is the answer
a - I have settled with power because I don't have enough to hover OGE but tried it anyway?
or b - I have entered VRS because aerodynamics weren't on my side today?
I have ended up in an overpitching state trying to arrest the descent but I am going down with full power applied and the Nr decaying. I haven't caught up with my downwash because the RoD is fairly low and I might just be saved from a hard impact by ground effect.
On a different day, I have done my pre-flight planning perfectly and I know I have OGE hover performance plus some in hand for the wife and kids. I make my approach with a slight tailwind that I didn't notice and I end up a bit steeper on finals to my OGE hover point than I intended. I have some forward speed when I look out of the window so I accept the higher rate of descent thinking that a combination of flare effect and power will sort things out near the bottom. I feel a sink and some vibration I don't much like so I grab a handful of lever - the aircraft shakes some more and sinks a bit faster so I add more collective. Suddenly I feel as though I am falling out of the sky and the ground is coming up really fast. I am clearly going to hit the ground but why?
Is the answer
a. I have run out of power and am therefore settling with it?
or b - I have entered VRS because I didn't realise I was downwind and let the external references fool me into thinking I still had forward airspeed on? I allowed a high RoD to develop with very low airspeed and tried to recover with lever. I may or may not end up with max power applied and I might even get to the point where I get Nr decay as well but that is a symptom a long way down the list and not the cause of my problem.
There may still be some who can't tell the difference and all I can say is I don't want to go flying with you.