YouTube instructional vlog (Day #297: Coffee With Kenny) by Kenny Keller offering helicopter auto-rotation tips focused on entering and maintaining the correct airspeed during autorotation practice. Main practical recommendation: for an R44, enter slightly above the target/glide speed (about 72–75 kt) then set and hold 70 kt for the descent using a small aft cyclic and appropriate pedal/collective inputs; avoid ‘chasing’ RPM by making premature corrections. The video references a demonstration clip and links to a free maneuver guide (PDF) derived from the Helicopter Flying Handbook.
Questions this video answers
70 kt (enter around 72–75 kt, then set and hold 70 kt).
August 1, 2023.
Chapters
In 1, 2, 3. Enter Down Collective right pedal, aft cyclic.
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Day 297 Coffee with Kenny. Hey, we just wanted to give you a few auto rotation tips over the next few days. I've been doing a ton of them with all the check rides we've done just this summer, 2023 for our final approach courses. First tip I want to give you my 22 years of teaching is nailing that speed at the beginning of the auto and entering. For example, in the R44, we like using 70. So I enter around 72, 73, 75, something like that. Do that small aft cyclic pull and then really work on nailing that 70 all the way down. We have a clip. We just went out and shot this a little bit ago, so here's a clip to see what it looks like.
So prior to entry, you want to be just above your glide speed. I want to use 70. So I'm entering just above 70.
Here we go.
In 1, 2, 3. Enter Down Collective right pedal, aft cyclic. Now I want to go aft and set that speed right at 70. And if I get the speed of 70, then I just work on holding that there. The auto rotation will be nice all the way down. If you start screwing that up, then pretty soon you're chasing the RPM and the trim and everything else. Nail that speed and you can just sit here and do nothing. I haven't moved the collective. Getting a hair slow. A little more cyclic for it. Just to keep that 70 holding, holding treetop. Start at gentle as I come in. And making it bigger, make it bigger, make it bigger. And roll into power. And there we go.
So I'm telling you, really work on a nice entry zero, a descent and trim. Little bit above your target speed or your glide speed, whatever you're going to use, enter a little bit faster than that and do what we call set to speed. So you down collective right pedal aft cyclic to set your speed, and then just hold it in the clip we just showed you. I didn't even raise any collective. All I did was entered it, set that speed right at 70, held it, and I did nothing all the way down. That's the key. And I've seen it time and time again, and I've seen it this summer. If you enter too fast, too slow, and then you start trying to fix that, you start monkeying with it, and then you start monkeying with the collective. Because as you speed, change the speed, and you go back and forth, the cyclic nose is doing this. Then in turn, it starts changing the rpm. So then you start monkeying with the collective. So work on setting that speed. Enter a little bit faster than your than your glide speed. Aft cyclic pull to set the speed. Just glide all the way down to your flare. So stay tuned for some more of these. We got some more tips I want to bring up and talk about things that I've been seeing in the last three months. We've done four checkrides. We got two more coming up in August. So things that are fresh on my mind that I'm seeing people struggle with. Same kind of stuff I've been seeing people struggle with for 22 years. But just little tips, little hints of things that I see. So important is to nail that speed. So we're going to put link down below for a maneuver guide. Go down, check that out. It's free. Free PDF. You can just view it. You can even download it and print it off if you need. But it was taken from the Helicopter Flying Handbook and it was made by our operations manager, Brian Rutledge. So go down below. Subscribe to the channel. Click like on the video. Subscribe so you can catch the next day. 298Peace Out.
