UK AAIB(H) July 2008
 

Report into the SA365 rig tailstrike - here.

R22 contacts soft ground during flare recovery off PFL - here.

R22 student hover goes wrong, instructor can't catch it - here.

Steve

I saw the school involved in the third one has stopped hover practice/instruction on trial flights. Anyone else not do this ?

From my own (albeit limited) point if view, if I have time at the end of a TIF then I'll try to fit it in - but it depends on the student and the timings. If it does happen I give a very limited amount of rope before intervening, but that may be a reflection on my experience.

R22 T/l
 

There is not much room for error on the R22 when giving instruction which is why I will not fly one anymore. The 300 is a far superior trainer and allows a lot more flexibility.

Plenty of experienced R22 instructors have bent them while demonstrating manoeuvres.

I've got limited R22 instruction time - moved to a 300 when it became overly apparent that a 16st instructor plus student leaves about 5 minutes fuel :)

I have in the past done hundreds of trial lessons in the R22, and always gave them 5 minutes at the end to do hovering and always gave them a go with the cyclic in the hover unless it was apparent there was no point.

as long as you are careful and the student is properly briefed I think it is perfectly safe and reasonable to do so, and to ban hovering on air experience flights seems an over reaction to me.

regards

CF

CHC 365 rig tailstrike discussed at length here:
http://www.pprune.org/forums/rotorhe...-mar-08-a.html

I enjoyed doing trial flights in the 300, I'd give them just cyclic first, then just pedals, then cyclic and pedals then maybe 50% of the time I'd feel happy about giving them all of the controls. Maybe 10-20% of my 100 or so demo flights could hover straight away. It seems a bit crazy to not let people experience a hover in a demo flight, that's the main point of helicopters surely? It's up to the CFI to keep it safe (i.e one hand close to the collective!)

I did my XC nav ex in G-OHSL....(second report).....Such a shame...was a good machine:suspect:

From a personal point of view - i could experience the hover and the agility of the Helicopter just by sitting next to the pilot.

He gave me a great insight into how the contols work and what the helicopter can do without me handling the controls.

I did take control of the cyclic in straight and level flight.

Personally it was fine for me and i went straight back the next week to start my PPL

I was spectacularly rubbish during my trial lesson. I was given the three controls separately in a hover and death was at our elbow. But I got the buzz clear enough. And today I'm 45-thousand quid poorer.

hooloovoo

I guess its down to expectation then.

I was more than happy with my experience and it spurned me to get my PPL.

I guess its up to the indiviual school to ensure customer satisfaction and more importantly their safety.