Until my current job I've never left the helo without someone at the controls, then again when I flew for the Marines we always had two pilots so someone was always at the controls when the engines were on.

Now that I'm flying civilian I leave the helo at flight idle and exit the aircraft almost every flight because my job requires me to get out to collect samples. It does have friction locks on the cyclic and a lock on the collective. Most of the time I'm only out of the helo for a couple of minutes and usually within 100 ft of it.

Cleared Hot said:
OK, terminology, Bloggs: By flight idle, do you mean 100% RRPM but lever on the floor, or idle RRPM? Because if you mean 100% you got rocks in your hot head.

I say again ClearedHot28; exiting whilst at 'flight idle' rather than 'ground idle' is dumber than Dog shiit it's an accident waiting to happen (& it will)

Ok terminology guys, by flight idle I meant throttle all the way back, closed, at the minimum, ground idle, etc. Not every helo has the same terminology as another. The last helo I flew for the Marines had a twist grip and the following terms were used. Full open meant you rotate the twist grip all the way until you have 100% Nr and the governor would take over. Flight idle meant you twist the other way until it won't let you twist anymore and you are the minimum Nr you can while the engine is running. Closed meant you push the idle release button and twist a little further than flight idle and the engine would shut off.

I never would leave the helo with Nr at 100%, no kidding that's dumb vertical freedom and I never said I did that. I still use a lot of the terminology I used in the Marines, but you might want to ask me what I meant before assuming I do something dumber than dog shiiit.

Hey ClearedHot28......You got me on terminology; certainly all the ships I've flown (22 types) That flight, means (for) flight, ground means, no can fly due lack of Nr Glad that's cleared up that You wouldn't exit at 100%Nr (flight on the throttle) They sure use some confusing & contradictory terms

Assumption....the Mother of All

I'm with VR on this one.

Ground idle vs flight idle seem pretty logical to me and I have never heard any military people calling it "ground idle" while at 100% RRPM.

In the past the terms "engine idle/flight idle" were used in Bell products interchangeably.

If you take the 407, as an example, they refer to the initial detent as Idle, 100% (under Fadec) as Fly and full throttle (under fadec failure) as Max.

The initial Jetbanger detent was described as "flight idle".

in French products it's 'flight' (to fly) or, 'idle'. No extra words added like, ground? confuszion.....+

Not exactly USFS Standards....but example of leaving an aircraft running.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_a0...&feature=share

And one of the comments to the video posted is R.I.P. Peter....

Pete died from a wire strike, nothing to do with getting out of the helicopter.

It was 2 years and 1 day ago. A picture of the wreck of his helicopter is used in the Aviation New Zealand wire awareness program that is trying to educate the public about the danger that wires pose to aircraft pilots.

Pete would have been in and out of his helicopter, with it at idle, thousands of times in his career, and never had a problem with it, along with 99% of commercial pilots in New Zealand that do it safely on a daily basis.

The 1% that don't would be HNZ pilots, due to customer requirements (OGP ops), and probably a few of the guys that fly the VIP type missions.

And if you watch a bit of the vid, you will see that he did most of the important things correctly, the weather was good, the aircraft was on solid ground, it wasn't leaning backwards so it didn't fall on its arse when he got out, the tail was away from people, or over an edge, he wound the engine back to ground idle, then he got out. In a couple of the clips you can hear him winding the engine back up to flight once he has got in.

Not one of those 'most', and maybe not even important and I'm sure we'll be told the reason for it ... my fave part of the vid is him taking off, under slinging the bucket, with the bold red word FRONT facing the camera as he flies away

Remember, it's the southern hemisphere.

Cool thanks wkid, I guess that would also explain why he is sitting in the wrong seat

Exactly. If you check around the 1min mark you can also see that the MR is turning clockwise. Everything is a bit messy on the bottom side of the earth because the southern hemisphere turns the other way than the northern hemisphere. But since it affects everything, the effects cancel each other out. It's fascinating but simple physics, really.
I'm not so good with numbers but I think AnFi can prove this mathematically.

SS

Surprised you hadn't noticed he was wearing a helmet with chin strap undone !

Hughesy, what makes you think that I hadn't?

That and possibly some of the other 'things' SuperF alludes to, glad to see you're beginning to take notice though, well done

It was pretty much the first thing I noticed - 'chocolate tea pots' and 'bulls with mammary glands' came to mind!

212 man
Is the correct terminology not a chocolate fireguard ?