Short instructional tip from helicopter instructor Kenny Keller advising pilots to follow Robinson factory guidance and leave the governor ON during engine start-up and shutdown. He reports many students and schools turn the governor off during startup, which Robinson warns increases overspeed risk; Keller recommends following manufacturer procedures to avoid confusion and risk.
Chapters
All right, another quick little tip here. We have people coming here from around the country to do check rides, help people finish up when they're having trouble with having examiners or aircraft down or instructors left their positions, whatever the case is. And a lot of people are coming here, probably 50% are turning the governor off during startup. Robinson does not recommend that. Robinson wants us to use the governor during the entire shut up and start down or shut down. We don't want to turn it off during our startup. And Robinson will say that you actually have more of a chance of an overspeed by turning the governor off than leaving it on. And one of our recent CFI checkrides we did, the gentleman had went to the Robinson factory just before the checkride and he said they were calling people out in the class and going, oh, so tell us why you don't use it, why you turn the governor off during your startup. And they would give their reason and they would say something to the fact of, oh, so you know, in your experience, you know better than the factory. The people that build these and design them and maintain them, you know more than us, right? That's why you do it. So a good tip is just do what the factory tells you, leave the governor on. It's actually easier. More confusion gets caused by, oh, well, we turn the governor off at our school. Well, if that's what your school does, I guess I'd question why. What is the reasoning why you choose to do something other than what the factory wants us to do?
