Kenny Keller explains why you need a small aft cyclic input when entering autorotation in an R44 at high speed. Without it, the nose drops, rotor RPM decays, and you lose speed control. Enter autorotation around 62-65 KIAS to stabilize RPM.
Questions this video answers
May 7, 2019.
Down collective, right pedal, and aft cyclic (simultaneous).
Around 62–65 KIAS (he mentions entering about 62, 63, 65).
"Top 10 Checkride Tips", co-authored with Taz Christman.
R44 (emergency procedures videos in the R44 course).
Chapters
Hey, welcome to day 122. Got a question from a ground school member that just came in, and this was Brian, who's one of our ground school members. He was in day 82 with us. And his question is. Hey, Kenny. Going through emergency procedures videos in the R44 course. You mentioned in part one of the video about a pilot who lost control of his aircraft by not putting in aft cyclic upon entry into an auto rotation from a high speed. Why is this important? Should it be done before lowering the collective? What happens to the aircraft as a result? Okay, anytime you start a maneuver like an auto rotation or you start your descent and your approach, it's simultaneous down collective, right pedal, aft cyclic in a counterclockwise system. Okay, so this question he's referring to is an accident I'm familiar with, and it was an EMS company actually, that this accident happened in. And I know that they actually put some of the blame back on the company for not training their pilots to add aft cyclic at high speeds. So I remember it vividly. And anytime you enter auto rotation, you need just that small aft cyclic push. Okay. So you enter it, and again, simultaneous as you're lowering the collective, a little bit of aft cyclic. We do that in training when we're training to a standard. You know, people always say, well, but in the real world. Well, you should train also in the real world. So we train to a standard when we're going out and doing checkride prep, we have to train to a standard. Yes, you should go out with your instructor, practice some engine failures at cruise speed at what you will really be flying at. In scenarios that could be real world, but we have to have a standard for training. So what happens to the helicopter if you don't put that aft cyclic in when the engine failure happens or the auto rotation happens, if you don't give just a small aft cyclic pull, the nose drops and the RPM starts to decrease. Okay, so if you're just doing a practice auto rotation, you enter it, you don't add the aft, then your nose goes down, RPM drops, and you start monkeying with controls, and then you'll monkey all the way down. You'll be seesawing with a cyclic back and forth, back and forth. Very common in an auto rotation practice. You know, you don't put the aft in, nose goes low, RPM goes down, and then pretty soon you're chasing the airspeed all the way down during a practice auto rotation. I'm telling you, if you nail the speed, everything will come out nice. And what I Teach, if we're going to use let's say 60 for the auto rotation glide, I teach to enter about 62, 63, 65, somewhere in there. So when you enter, you go down collective right pedal gentle aft cyclic to what I say set your speed that keeps the RPM nose doesn't drop and you can work on a nice glide all the way down. So that answers that question. That is why you want aft cyclic in training. In training for auto rotations in the real world, if it happens to you, you need a little small aft cyclic pool. Not a big one, but aft cyclic. So I'm going to get rolling because day number two of our first week here, Heather's on her way in. Oh, my God, we got so much stuff to do, but we've made amazing progress. Tuesday of last week, we were our past Airport till 2am Hauling stuff over here. And in one week we're set up. Our Internet got put on yesterday. Our network is up. Heather's done an amazing job organizing stuff. Oh my God. So we're set up now. We're going to do some more additions. We're going to mess with some lightings and I got those studio walls. I'm going to go look at this week and get the Hogs Wall of Fame back up. So many cool things happening. This is so exciting. I'm so flipping grateful. It's amazing. Do me a favor and give me a thumbs up on the video and comment down below. The video from yesterday, nobody commented. Not even one first coffee with Kenny in 121 days that nobody commented. Kind of a bummer. So do me a favor and give me some comments today. I mentioned yesterday Taz and I are working on a date for a book signing in Las Vegas. And we chose Las Vegas because it's cheap to get to from almost anywhere. Everybody needs a good reason to go to Vegas, right? So stay tuned for an announcement on what date we're going to be doing that in Las Vegas. We'll make sure and let you all know in plenty of time. So if you want to get a cheap ticket and come visit with us for a book signing, it's top 10 checkride tips. Amazon number one best seller. Taz Christman Co authored it with me. 2018 flight instructor of the year, super friend, super pilot, amazing man, and all around just nice guy. So that's going to be fun. Doing a book signing with Taz in Vegas. That is going to be an absolute blast. So like and subscribe. When you subscribe, click that bell so you'll be notified of our daily video. Each day you get about a half an hour notice of when the video is going to go live. And there's Heather over there being quiet in the background. Hey. All right, we're going to wrap this dude up so we can see you tomorrow in day 123. Don't forget to, like, subscribe. Click the bell, and we will see you tomorrow. Hell, yeah. No, I just sense somebody looking. I sensed someone looking over my shoulder, and I. I peeked that way, and I thought, what's. There's something moving over there. I didn't even hear you come.
