Kenny Keller argues pilots must perform a hover pre-takeoff check on every flight. He explains why: it exposes the engine and systems to load, gives accurate power and torque readings, and catches sputters or gauge problems before you climb. He recounts an EMS crash caused by skipped checks.
Kenny Keller (Helicopter Line Ground School).
April 8, 2019.
Do you use a good hover pre takeoff check every single time? Do you know why you want to do one every single takeoff? I'm Kenny Keller, creator helicopter line ground school. Welcome to Day 93 Coffee with Kenny. So maybe you're accustomed to taking off on a Runway. Let's say this is a Runway in a nice big open field and maybe you're not that concerned about the engine quitting. I can think of a bunch of airports where here's the Runway and then here's what happens with the slope of the ground after you take off. So you got to think about pinnacles, rooftop heliports. There's all kinds of scenarios of what bad things can happen during a takeoff. The reason you want a good hover pre takeoff check every time before you take off is you want to give that engine any other systems of the helicopter. You want to give them time under a load to see what the temperatures and pressures are going to do. You want to see if it's going to want to cough, sputter, puke if one of your needles or gauges is going to start acting goofy. You want to check everything from a hover. A pre lift off check is, is great. But you also need to hover pre takeoff check because when you're on the ground, you're not putting a load on that aircraft. You want to be up into a hover so you can see how that aircraft is going to act for the day. What is it going to do? Sure, if you're on a nice smooth Runway and you have an engine failure or some kind of problem, that's nice and level, you're going to slide that thing right onto the ground. What about the other scenario? And I can think of two airports that I've been at where this is the case. You know, here's the Runway at the end of the Runway, man, the ground takes off just like that. Would you want to be here and have an engine failure back here? Wouldn't be quite as big of a deal. But what's gonna happen if you're up here? Or again, your rooftop helipad scenario. Let's say this is the rooftop of a tall building and here you are, you're getting ready to take off, you're in ground effect. You have an opportunity to check all your systems and make sure everything's good to go. You want to notice the problem right here or right here? I can remember one scenario for a helicopter EMS company I worked for the helicopter crash because the pilot missed something on the pre takeoff checks. And as soon as he got here, he didn't have enough power and he started to settle and they crashed. The scenarios are endless. You must do a hover pre takeoff check every single time before you take off. So if you get in the habit of doing a hover pre takeoff check every single time, you will always do it. Maybe you're just starting out as a student or a private and you're going to be commercial later and you're going to go on the commercial environment. You want to be trained to do a hover pre takeoff check every single time before you take off. One more time, look at the long Runway scenario. You're taking off and using a good profile, engine quits, boom. You can survive that. You can walk away without putting a scratch on the aircraft. You know, I can put it to you best. I work for the same EMS company I just mentioned, and somewhere along the way they put out a memo to everyone and they said, guys, we're hearing there's a lot of you that aren't doing hover pre takeoff checks. And they said, you guys, as professional pilots need a hover pre takeoff check every, every single takeoff. And if we catch you not doing one, you're no longer going to work for us. My examiner of 20 years says there's a lot of instructors that aren't teaching hover pre takeoff checks. And he said, that's a really, really bad thing. That's really a problem. This is inspired by our add on guy. No offense, but when we start flying, I said, do you have a, you know, do you verbalize a hover pre takeoff check? And he said, well, I do one, but I don't have a fancy way of, like I say it how I do. Warning caution lights are out, gauges in the gre. And I said, you know what, it doesn't matter what you say or how you say it, but I said, start getting in the habit of verbalizing this hover pre takeoff check. That way when you're in the aircraft with the examiner, you're just going to do it. So if you do the check every single time, you verbalize it, whatever terminology you want to use, I don't care. You know, it doesn't matter. I start at the top of the panel and just work my way down. As long as you have something where you're checking the basic elements of all the instrumentation, making sure everything's in the green, make sure everything's good to go, make sure the aircraft's not going to sputter, puke, stall, shake, shimmy, act goofy, you're going to notice it when it's in a hover. You know, use an example, the instrument that I fly. This is how we know how much power to be pulling for the day. If we're going to need to lean or richen, we can set back down, adjust. But we can only tell when we're in a hover how much power we're going to be pulling for the day. You need to know that for no matter what aircraft you're flying, how much manifold pressure, how much torque, if you're in a turbine aircraft, whatever the case is, you need to know how much available power you're going to have for the day. So in a hover you can do that. And while you're doing that hover pre take off check, you can be checking all of your systems. So please give your comments down below. Let us know. Do you do them every time? Do you only do them part of the time? You should be doing them every time. What have you learned? What have you seen? Thanks for joining us on day 93. Please like and subscribe to the channel. Put your comments down below and we'll see you in day 94. Remember, have a pre takeoff check every single time. Nice.
