How not to take off in your Robinson!!

[aa777888]

Originally Posted by Bell_ringer

Can piston engines develop sufficient torque to make rpm transitions (usually spinning up not down) tricky?
would think a normally aspirated engine would have all the torque of a wet noodle thrown at a wall.

There's plenty of torque in an R22 or R44. Under normal circumstances not so much that one has to take special precautions. But on low traction surfaces there's enough to cause issues. On ice there's enough so that if you let the governor automatically take over (which occurs at 80% engine RPM) the governor will open the throttle fast enough from there to very quickly spin you 90 to 180 degrees if you leave the pedals at neutral. In an R44 I've even had it spin me 10 degrees or so on a slippery ramp (hot day, melty pavement, probably some oil on the ramp surface, too). I've also had the opposite: skids stuck in soft tarmac crack-sealant on a hot day. One skid stuck in crack-sealant is a dynamic rollover waiting to happen. Ice and snow op's I've had formal training on. Tricky asphalt was never trained and I've had to learn that on my own, thankfully without any serious issues.

[Arnie Madsen]

Originally Posted by kansarasc

All the humor aside, can someone please elaborate on takeoff technique and hazards from slippery surface like ice? I do not remember reading this in Helo Flying handbook. But one of my instructor mentioned one time to me.

I have a small amount of experience from my training days (1979-1980) on a clear patch of smooth ice on a frozen pond .... make sure throttle is at low idle during startup or the clutch will engage and fuselage will do several 360's in an instant .... think of ice skates .... steel on ice is very slippery.

Getting rotor up to speed takes more time than on water because floats are a bit draggy

[gulliBell]

All well and good those techniques for operating on slippery surfaces but none of those are applicable in this instance. The helicopter was obviously at flight RRPM and pointing straight until he's fallen backwards off the dolly and ended up in the river. The TR impacted the water before he knew what was going on and from there the outcome was inevitable.

[chopjock]

Originally Posted by Mutley1013

To be fair, I don’t it is how to take off in any helicopter.

You think this is how to take off in any helicopter? LOL

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I think Mutley's tongue in cheek comment went over your head chopjock.