Kenny Keller explains why sudden throttle chops during helicopter auto-rotation training can cause engine failure and death. He recommends a smooth throttle roll-off, letting the engine warm up 15 minutes before flight, and practicing over clear ground with clear communication between instructor and student.
About 15 minutes.
Surprise. Throttle chops can be deadly or can be fatal. It could cause you an actual engine failure if you chop throttle. A lot of us were taught back in the beginning, I started in the late 90s, there was a lot of people still doing the almighty throttle chop, knocking that thing off really fast. What they've learned over time is by doing more of a smooth roll off, the engine will decrease in RPM and is less likely to quit running. So. So I'll show you that again with the camera. That's right on the center collective there. Here's what we were taught in the beginning snap, where you just roll that thing right off. So now the common thinking is a nice smooth roll off to roll the throttle off doing a practice auto rotation. Most of us have seen about this in the real world where someone was out practicing an auto rotation and whap. They rack the throttle off, engine dies, and you go into it for real auto rotation, which if you're over an open area and you're trained for it, put possibly you can walk away from it. But what if, what if the auto just doesn't come out right? The area that you thought was clear is surrounded by wires on a couple sides. You just don't really know. So again, I know the thinking has changed over the years, but you'll still hear some people using the terminology throttle chop. And I'm sure there's still some old school guys out there still wrapping that thing off. So again, this just goes along with the common thinking now better just nice, smoothly roll it off versus chop. We know for a fact if you read many accident reports, a lot of accidents that happen in helicopters come during training events with instructor and students. So it is important for the student to understand what's going along with the instructor. And instructors shouldn't just take a brand new student out, start going out, start doing autos first thing of the day, right? Let the engine warm up a good 15 minutes or so before you start doing autos. And then as far as students and instructors, this is a conversation that should go on, take place on the ground first so the student instructor understand what's going on. And then you're going to introduce a student to this. With time, you're going going to understand what a student can and cannot handle and what they're going to do. If you just go into these things hard, you never know what a person is going to do. They might lock up on the controls, they might nervously push the wrong pedal, they might go up collective instead of down collective. There's a Number of things that can happen if people aren't prepared and the communication is not good between the instructor and the student. So to really be safe in these autations, make sure there's good communication with the instructor and the student. Make sure you do some ground, make sure the engine's warmed up for the day. And when you're practicing these, always make sure you're over an area where you could effectively take it all the way to the ground. If the engine did die, even with a smooth roll off, it could happen then as well. I know I've heard some horse stories and a lot of you probably have too of instructors rolling throttles off, chopping throttles on, people not announcing them. There's just so many things that can go wrong and a training environment needs to stay protected, train the person the right way to enter, auto rotation, how to effectively enter. And they're going to do that in the real world if it ever happens. So remember, no throttle chops, not snap. When it's time, however you do it. 1, 2, 3, enter, enter, 1, 2, 3. Whatever you do, when it's time to roll the throttle off, nice and smooth, all the way off. So I'm Kenny Keller, creator, Helicopter Run, ground School, Amazon Best Seller, Helicopter Checkride and top 10 checkride tips. This one I did alone. This one I did with 2018 inst. Instructor of the Year Dan Taz Christman. Both great books. We have a whole bunch of these. There's a link down below. We just ship them to you for shipping and handling. You can also go below for a free PDF chapter one of our private pilot study guide. You can also go down below to link helicopterground.com Take our training for 24 hour test flight. Private commercial CFI instrument. You can take any one of those courses for 24 hour test flight. We're really proud of our training, we're really proud of the test flight and we're proud of our 100% money back 30 day, no hassle guarantee. And we do stand behind that 100%.
