So, what do you think?
 

Stumbled across this old video and thought they were bat**** crazy,...!?

https://youtu.be/jH03stFao4k

Ok, I'll bite...

Some greatly executed autos...

What exactly is it you are squeaking and trying to cause a drama about???

The juice just isn't worth the squeeze to train stuff like that. You'll ball up more machines in training than will be saved in real life.

In the early 70s we used to do zero-speed autos in Hueys, but we kept zero all the way down, not diving like in the video.

Aim point is between your toes in the chin bubble, go through the normal flare height, and when your @rse takes a bite out of the seat cushion, you pull the collective. Amazingly effective. To make judging the "pull" height easier, one instructor suggested drilling a hole under the collective and poking a broom handle through. When the machine gets down to broomstick height, it automatically pushes the collective up! Simples! Tccchhkk!

Just did these Monday:

We fly in inhospitable places where often times the only place to go in the event of engine failure is real close, hence we teach what I call "hang time". This is where you bleed off speed in an auto and descend vertically then nose forward to get speed for the flare then touch down. The auto has a very steep profile.

Here are 3 videos in the Huey showing the evolution of autos with a new guy to the Huey.

Start with straight ins:


Then move on to a 180 auto:

You Tube

Then transition to a 180 with zero speed for the turn:

You Tube

Hmm, no quams about practicing zero speed autos in an R22 from 100'? I wish you were my insurance adjuster!

What a difference between UK and USA, over here we always go to the grass not the hard !

That is not a zero speed autorotation in that video.
Get your facts right.
It's an autorotation that is initiated from what seems to be a high hover at 100 feet.

He dives down, gains speed, and carries out a normal autorotation.

A zero speed autorotation is something completely different.

Hueyracer - :ok:

Gordy - the only problem with bringing the speed back so far is that to subsequently achieve a sensible flare speed, you are accelerating towards the ground and increasing your RoD - probably fine in a Huey since you have so much energy in the head but it might not be suitable for a robbie. EOLs are the sport of kings though:ok:

far less chance of screwing the pooch and flipping it on asphalt.

:ok:

..........

Nothing wrong with my facts. That is a zero speed auto.

,...and its not just me who is calling it that, but the super awesome pilot who made the video as well.

The thread starter's video states at the beginning that it is a "partial engine failure" therefore no problem........................

Agreed. Zero airspeed is exactly that.
As others have said...not a good idea to go to grass, especially low timers...there is an article written by Shawn Coyle on this after visiting a "well known" flight school and I showed him many aircraft remains that had come into trouble doing touchdowns to grass.....
Indeedy...have not flown a robbie in over 20 years....these are advanced autos, not for that airframe.
You make me laugh....

I know,...

because a zero speed auto doesn't mean you start from zero speed........a zero speed auto could mean you have zero IAS all the way to touch down (ie vertical) relying on just the collective pull at the bottom or that you reduce speed to zero for the actual touchdown using the normal flare technique - neither of which occur in the video.

However, after many years of EOLs to grass by UK Mil training (and that is many thousands of EOLs) and only one (to my knowledge) problem caused by the surface, I think the grass is a pretty good option - maybe you just have the wrong sort of grass in the US:)

Crab, as a Brit living and traveling between both countries one of the first things I couldn’t get my head around was the grass in the US, you have Bermuda grass, zoysia and fescue. I’m sure some varieties are probably more suitable than others for a helicopter landing! As opposed to what we have in the UK called grass.

And The Cousins call it "Sod" anyway, so it must be bad.

I’ve often thought “Sod it” after one of my landings...

ISTR that in my day RAF rules said that a zero speed auto should be converted to a VF EOL at 300’ agl. I know we used to carry out constant attitude EOLs to the ground at 40kts, which was about the minimum speed that the ASI needle showed any movement, finished off by use of collective only. I think that in many hells, true zero speed to the ground would result in a rather higher ROD with fewer options and more potential for things going wrong. Maybe Teeteringhead can remember?