Transcript of a helicopter (R-44) startup and preflight checklist walkthrough. The speaker (instructor) runs through engine gauges, magneto checks, carb heat, hydraulic checks, governor/throttle management, RPM alerts, and a two-step pickup and hover check. Final brief commentary emphasizes the pilot decision to 'No Go' when conditions warrant.
Questions this video answers
Didn’t drop more than 7% in two seconds (both right and left magneto checks).
"We're at 30 degrees today at sea level"; use 24.4 as maximum continuous and 26 as maximum takeoff power.
97%
Chapters
All right, engine gauges are in the green. Go to 75%. Perfect. 75%. We're gonna test our magnetos. Starting with the right one, we're gonna count one, two. One million, two million. Back to both. Didn't drop more than 7% in two seconds. We recovered back to 75%. 75. There we go. Left Magneto. One million, two million back one tick. Back to both. Didn't drop more than 7% in two seconds. Best. Our carb heat. It will probably see a little bit more of an increase or decrease than yesterday. There we go. A couple of degrees up. Perfect. Gonna put it down and leave it unlocked so our assist can do its job. Gonna go up to 75%. Then we're gonna close the throttle. And we see a split on the needles. Let it come down to idle. Our doors are not here, so we don't need them. The ones in the back are latched and unlocked. We're going to read our maximum continuous chart tells that we're at 30 degrees today at sea level, and we're going to use 24.4 as our maximum continuous and 26 as our maximum takeoff power. If we need to. Take our frictions off. Perfect. Brake should come off. We're going to take it back to 70 to 75. 70%. Sorry. Your first hydraulic check. Turn it off. We have a dead zone, and then we feel resistance on the lateral side and on the forward side of things and the feedback then restoring it. We don't feel any feedback or any abnormal movements. We're gonna take it up to 100%, passing through 80, rolling on our throttle. The governor will take over, and it will take us all up to 100%. We don't want our hand out of the throttle Just to make sure that the governor takes us to the right place that doesn't run over. Flutchlight is on. We don't want it more than 10 seconds on. We're going to do our second hydraulic check. So we're going to introduce a little bit of aft cyclic until we feel that vibration. We're going to push forward backwards and forwards to feel if we have any resistance on the movement. And last but not least, we are going to raise our collective just a tiny bit about an inch, and then we're going to close our throttle. And at 97%, we'll get our low RPM horn. And then we lower our collective and let the governor take it back up to 100% pressures and temperatures are in the green. We have no warning lights. Our RPMs are top of the green. We're clear on the left. We're clear on the right as well. Complete the checklist now we're gonna do a two step pickup, as always, and then we're gonna move over to the grass just to make sure that everything's okay. Then knock up our knock out our items. Concern. Very slow, slowly, methodically smooth. We're gonna raise our collective to start producing lift up to the point where our skids start feeling light. Like just now. Gonna start feeling the balance of our helicopter. Started feeling. We start to feel it. There we go.
When you feel the pressure to fly, but know the right decision is to stay on the ground. Hit the hogs. No Go and live to fly another day. Helicopterground.com.
