Need advice on intentional water landing techniques
 

Dear all,

I have a few customers who wish to learn about landing a helicopter on water intentionally.The trainer helicopter to be used is an R22 Mariner.

I have access to completely still water on a small size lake but eventually the goal is to safely land on a big river when the wind is up to 12-15 knots.

I have landed on still water myself before but i never thought about how i did it (apart from the obvious things like gentle control inputs and keeping the nose against the waives,no pedal turns or allowing the nose to yaw on water,etc) however, this time i have to teach it,therefore i`d love to hear from somebody who has more experience in the mentioned operation or has had formal training.

Thank you folks in advance,

Barney

Don't use the rotorbrake on shutdown. Watch out on start up
Until tail rotor has full authority

r

Go to a school thats does float landings courses for Robbies

It is very easy to get into a world of hurt landing in a current / xwind situation.
If current is going one way and wind another bad things can happen.
I have never flown a Robinson but have flown 206 / 206L / AS 355 on floats with lots of actual water landings on lakes and rivers as well as fixed wing flying on floats.

I would be very careful about learning, much less teaching, float operations if you do not get some expert flight instruction.

Lot of helicopters have flipped in rivers and lakes and what is , perhaps, just an embarrassing accident on land can easily become a multi fatality accident in water. You are now inverted, strapped in and in murky, perhaps very cold, perhaps turbulent if in a river, water.
Even a "glassy" water landing on a small lake can easily go pear-shaped.

I am not saying that float ops are dangerous - they just need expert instruction.

A Robbie on floats......landing safely.....now there is a conundrum!

Thanks for the replies so far.
Do you guys know of a flight school in Texas where i could do this?If possible with full down autorotation to water too?The only company that i was able to find that advertises such a training is based in Mallorca.I`m at the Bell Training Academy in Texas for another month therefore if i can find a school not too far from here ,i`ll probably do it.

I think you'd better off doing this training in a R44 especially in a non still water, be careful. The R44 has much better autorotation performance and it is easier to do in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_anQ8cFeFLA

Feel free to email me at [email protected] if you want some info about landing on water.

Cheers Jonny

I was about to suggest a course or advice from sloane mallorca but they beat me to oit!!! Out of interest does a mariner have the guts to lift clear of the meniscus two up with reasonable fuel?? And what about carb icing while on the water?

Having done tons of float ops in good old wood bladed Bell 47s and 206s, albeit over 20 years ago, my advice would be to be VERY low groundspeed on touchdown. We used to do lots of full on autos in the 47s and jetrangers to water, and if you have too much speed on, there's a chance of the nose of the floats digging in and trust me, that's bad. Same goes for any sideward drift, although the water is generally more forgiving than terra firma. Cross currents are to be avoided, my buddy got very wet when he rolled a 206 trying to put her down cross current in a river in Northern Quebec in the 80's. I picked him up. Don't even think of trying to land on glassy water, unless you are right beside the shore for visual reference. This goes for water bucketing too! Stay close to shore. Be aware (and I'm seeing this visual trick now hoisting over open water) of getting into your downwash, with the water spray recirculating through the rotors you could get the feeling of climbing and if you react and reduce collective you'll get wet.

I would recommend getting some water ops time with another experienced fellow, taking it very, very slowly, prior to teaching students.

You may be able to get some instruction from the Bristow Academy in New Iberia.