Instructional video by Kenny Keller explaining how to perform 180° autorotations in a Bell JetRanger. Covers initial setup (altitude, torque, airspeed), techniques for managing downwind drift and the 90° turn back to the intended landing point, and a strict four-step final-approach sequence (flare, pitch via collective, level, cushion) with concrete altitude/speed cues.
Questions this video answers
1,000 ft or 500 ft above ground; about 120–130 mph in cruise prior to entry.
About 75–80% torque (speaker also mentions 80% in narration).
Reduce to about 60 mph (with option to extend glide up to 80 mph if needed).
Begin the flare at 50–70 ft above the ground.
Apply the pitch/collective pull at about 10–15 ft above the ground; level at ~5 ft and cushion to land.
Chapters
Now, let's talk next about a 180 auto rotation and how we can manipulate the aircraft on a 180 auto rotation. Using this diagram, we'll take off. Let's keep ourselves close in on a 180 auto rotation. Again, let's say your instructor wants you to go to the number 3x. And we've got the same conditions we had on the straight end. We're at a thousand feet or 500ft above the ground. 80% torque and about 120 to 130 miles per hour. It's not again, important where we chop that throttle. We can chop that throttle at any place on downwind that's going to give us a chance to get to that spot of touchdown. A lot of times we've been told that you must chop that throttle adjacent to your point of intended landing, but not always. Does that engine quit adjacent to a parking lot or adjacent to that sandbar and a creek bed? Also, we've been taught in the past that every Autorotation for a 180 must be a beautiful 180 turn. Something like this. And that looks nice. But if you have a strong wind out of this direction and you allow the wind to blow you too far downwind, then you don't have a chance to get back to that point of intended landing. You end up short and you can't make it in, and that can be disastrous to you. So what is important that you don't let yourself get too far away from the point of intended landing. So what we want to do is chop that throttle any place in this area and then bring the aircraft just a little ways downwind from the spot of intended landing. And then we make a 90 degree turn. Right here will be a 90 degree turn. At this point we should also be. Our airspeed should be coming back to 60 miles per hour. Now, at this point, you take a look and see where you're at in respect to the point of touchdown. If you're high, you see you're going to overshoot it. Then we can continue on in this direction or we can even extend a little bit more downwind. Then when you have the right sight picture, the proper sight picture, you can turn into that spot at any time and go for the point of intended landing. If you make that 90 degree turn right here and you feel like you're going to be short, you're not going to have a chance to make it. You turn into it and you go for it. Fly the aircraft, manipulate the aircraft around that corner. Know exactly what your airspeed is, know exactly what your rotor RPM is. Most 180 turns, you will have to carry just a little bit of collective as you make that turn, because in the turn the rotor RPM is going to go up just a little bit. So you may have to carry a little collective. If you get the sensation in a turn of an aircraft falling through on you, it's probably because you have a high rotor rpm. So check your rotor RPM if you ever get a low rotor RPM when you're doing any kind of an auto rotation, you go to hear the audio and you're going to see the light come on on the low rotor RPM segment. So you should always know where your rotor RPM is, always know what your airspeed is. Now, one of the fallacies that most pilots get caught in in doing a 180 odd rotation is getting so involved in the cockpit that they forget exactly where they're at in relationship to the point of touchdown. They spend about 80% of their time looking in the cockpit, looking at the airspeed, looking at the rotor RPM, and they spend about 20% of the time looking at the spot of intended landing. But they should have it the other way around. You need to spend about 80% of your concentration, 80% of your time looking at the spot of intended landing, and about 20% of your time looking in the cockpit, looking at your rotor attack, looking at your airspeed.
1200Ft, 120 miles an hour. Torque setting again, 75 to 80%. And at 180 degree position away from the landing point, enter the autorotation. Checking the airspeed tram and adjusting the attitude for distance back to our point of landing here, the low audio into there as we try to adjust the glide back to our intended point of landing. A little short due to the wind velocity. Now we're back into rotor RPM in the green flares accomplished collective at 10 to 15ft above the ground, 3 to 5ft above the ground. We'll level the aircraft, try to cushion it on for a smooth landing.
Now, once we get down to the point of intended landing, we want to talk to you about the last 50 to 70ft of your approach on your auto rotation. This is very, very. When you get to about 50 to 70ft, you want to start your flare. And then at about 10 to 15ft we want to bring in a little pitch with your collective. And then at about 5ft we're going to level the aircraft and then we're going to cushion on with our collective. So the last four steps in an Auto rotation are flare, collective, pitch level, and then cushion on with your collective. At 50 to 70ft, you're going to start your flare. At 10 to 15ft, you're going to have your pitch pull with your collective. We're going to level the aircraft and cushion the aircraft onto the ground. This 50 to 70ft will never change. You always start your flare at 50 to 70ft. If you're see you're going to overshoot a spot or your point of touchdown, you just start your flare at 50 to 70ft, you will put more flare into it. If you're going to undershoot the point of intended landing, you put less flare into it. But there are no exceptions to this rule. You always start your flare at 50 to 70ft. One of the fallacies we see pilots perform is that when they reach that 50 to 70ft, they start their flare. As soon as they reach the apex of their flare, they will start their pitch pull, which may be close to 50ft. Well, that's too high. They start their pitch at 50ft and the aircraft's falling through and they're bringing that collective up all the time. They're going to run out of RPM quite high. So don't allow yourself to start pulling that collective for your pitch pull until you get down to 10 to 15ft. If you go on a slow cadence from the time that you hit 50 to 70ft, a slow cadence of saying flare, pitch, level, cushion, you have a good chance of really putting that aircraft down on the ground without any bounce or just as smooth as you possibly can. So remember these last four steps. Say it out loud to yourself as you come through each area of the flare and the pitch level, the cushion, that is the very basic straight and auto rotation, the 180 autorotation. And keep in mind in review that on a straight and auto rotation, we always go to 60 miles per hour first. And then if we need to extend our glide, we can go up to 80. If we see we're going to overshoot a spot, we can manipulate the aircraft. Same with the 180 auto rotation. The most important thing is airspeed control, making your 90 degree turn. Just determine then what you have to do to go to your spot. If you have to increase your glide or stretch it just a little bit, and then the last 50 to 70ft of your auto rotation, the flare, the pitch, the level and the cushion.
