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Operation of Robinson Helicopters continued

Asked by: 3684 views Flight Instructor, Helicopter

Continued:

Thanks Kris for your info!

My thought (or “idea”) is that pilots are leaning the mixture to save gas, fly along into different conditions, forget to enrich and it gets quiet. Obviously without enough time/ altitude/ hands to get it restarted. I am astounded by the number of investigations that put the engine on a test stand (some even left in the wreck!) that are started and run to standards. I am a staunch defender of the pilot but I have to start wondering what the common denominator is. Why do R22/44 engines quit for no apparent reason?

(47Gs/269/300/F28s and B2Bs do too!)

As for my question on the appropriate hover height, if you’re hovering at an “appropriate hover height you won’t hit the ground. You don’t hit the ground, you can’t get dynamic rollover. Second most popular “probable cause” is “Failure to maintain rotor RPM”. Maintaining engine and rotor RPM is essential hence my question about the governor.

Why aren’t pilots maintaining a hover height to prevent hitting the ground/obstacles thus causing dynamic rollover?

 

Doing touchdown autos (or any run-on landing) in the grass/dirt reduces wear on the skids (which I am sure is the primary reason) but it exposes the landing to hitting a “clump of dirt”, unseen ruts, gopher holes and whatever else that’s gonna’ flip it over.

So for the “run on” landings, how “fast” and “far” is considered acceptable?

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1 Answers



  1. Will on Oct 02, 2012

    Don’t lean the mixture on your R22. When your engine quits, you want both hands on the controls. Given the 5 seconds you have before hitting the ground. Why would you not want your full attention on your parachute, aka the main rotors?
    Though if you were always operating at 5000ft, then maybe it is possible.

    Stick to 3 to 5 feet hover height. R22’s have notorious lateral weight and balance issues. Inexperience soloing pilots catch the skids on stuff, including bumps on the poorly keep taxiways that fix-wingers avoid. A bad pick up and over control will put you into the roll-over regime.

    I can stop an R22 with about 20 ft run on a planed full-down autorotation. My for-reals autorotation was closer to 40 ft. But any distance that you can walk out off alive is good!

    Run-on landings of less then 60 ft is reasonable on taxiways. Any longer, you not at ETL when you touch down. But it depends on terrain. Avoid doing them on grooved runways!

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