Kenny Keller explains why helicopter pilots must practice go-arounds instead of pushing through bad approaches. He walks through the three-step procedure: add power, gain airspeed, make a radio call. In 22 years of checkrides, Keller has failed only three applicants, one for continuing a dangerously steep descent when he should have aborted.
Questions this video answers
June 30, 2023.
Offers end July 5 at midnight.
44% ("44"/R44 themed).
574-767-1797.
Three failures in 22 years of doing checkrides.
Chapters
Live to fly another day. Helicopterground.com all right, we're back for another video for our series of videos for our July 4th, 2023 specials. And what I'm going to talk about today is the go around. I don't think we teach it enough at times. I don't think enough pilots are willing to do the go around. You really need to have this in your toolbox and be using go arounds frequently because what happens, everybody's macho. They want to prove they can do it and they'll set up a sloppy approach and then they fly it all the way down because they're too macho to go around. And we're going to do one here in just a minute. We're going to come around and I'm going to mess up an approach for 18 and we'll do a go around and make sure you. We cover the elements with you. Not a lot to it, but for a simple maneuver, it needs to be done more. More of you need to be doing it. And you know who you are when you're guilty of flying a sloppy approach. So for the July 4th sale, what? Oh, I was like putting my hand up. Like, I was sloppy with it. You were sloppy with it. I was sloppy with my approaches. Alrighty then. Okay, moving on. July 4th special, a whole bunch of cool stuff. You're getting all this special gear with the yearlies. And then for the pro pilot, whole bunch of gear comes with the pro pilot. And we're going to add three zooms with me on anything you want to talk about for your career. You need some help with aerodynamics or you want prep for a checkride? We've just done. We've done three final approach courses in the last less than two months since the helicopter showed up. Two guys from Florida, our one that we just finished yesterday came from New Mexico in two weeks. We have a guy coming from Maine. And we have one spot left for the end of July right now. So July 4th specials all end July 5th at midnight. We'll put all the links down below the video so you can go check out the specials. 44%. 44%. July 4th, R44. My favorite 442s in the hangar. So we like the number four. Four you came up with with that yesterday. We were like, July 4th, let's do July. Let's do 7-4-44. And you go, yeah, R44. 44 off. Hell yeah. Oh, yeah. And we got a special if you needed 5 hours to get your sign off to BPIC and you want to look, go somewhere, just get it done. Two and a half day course we have 4, 600 value on sale, 39.95 or 3999 or 39.97. You got to book it by July 5th and we want you to use those in the next two months. All right, so let's talk about the go around. People don't do it enough. Instructors sometimes are guilty of not teaching it enough. So let's say I'm doing a normal approach and I'm all sudden I'm going to get it kind of high here. I want to do a normal. Do I turn it into a steep. Oh, but I can save it. So then what's the typical. Oh, all right, well I got to dump a bunch of collective now and get down to my angle. And then. Okay, I'm getting down to my angle and I got a bunch of descent going. And then. Oh dang it, now I'm too low. So now I gotta pull some collective back in and then I'm screwing up the speed and then let's say I get too steep. Ah man, didn't get that angle right. Now I'm gonna, oh, I want to, I want to get back on that angle. So I'm steep, but I'm gonna start dumping it. Well what happens then? You start getting a high rate of descent and pretty soon you're in that range where you shouldn't be. So what do you do? You go around. Here's what you do. You just pull power, get some air speed and you make a simple radio call. Warsaw traffic helicopter 181Mike Bravo going around for 18 Warsaw and you fly away. You go around and you set it up again. And I know I had a student one time where I got a little axed on teaching go arounds and he got into selling of power and almost killed himself and almost busted my helicopter up, hit the ground, got in vortex ring state sling of power. He did a downwind approach, he screwed it up, which I don't teach downwinds. He, that was another story. Why he chose to change the pattern. He should have never done that. But anyway, lost my train of thought. Oh, he should have went around. He wouldn't have, you know, got into that bad situation. He went around, fixed the pattern, turned around, went the other way. So many times people put themselves in positions where they fly a sloppy approach. They set it up. And now officially, 22 years of doing checkrides, I've had three people fail. That's it. 22 years, three failures. And guess where the one failure was on CFI. Female applicant. She was super on the ground. She does such a great job in the classroom stuff. She was amazing in the classroom helicopter. She was okay, you know, about the average. And we discussed this at length. I'm like. During the check ride, if Jeff's. If. If you set up an approach and it's sloppy, just go around. It's a checkride maneuver. The examiner's gonna go, oh, all right. You went around. Good choice versus flying a sloppy approach. He could check, go around off the list for the maneuvers, right? So she comes around, or she's coming in to do a steep approach for the examiner on her CFI check, right? She sets it up kind of sloppy, and she goes, oh, man, this is a little steep. What does she do? She starts flying it down. And if she starts flying it down, she goes, oh, this is too steep. But what'd she do? She kept flying it down. She got down to the very end, and she's saying, it's too steep. It's too steep. All the way down to a hover. And the examiner says, okay, we're gonna have to go in and sit down your instructor. We're gonna have to have a little talk, right? He said, a little steep, right? She goes, yeah. And he goes, and, you know, it's too steep. And she said, yeah. And he goes, you did it anyway. And she goes, yep. He goes, let's go inside. So they came in, we all sat down together, and of course, the examiner says, you know, anytime you're. You know, it's. I've been preaching this in our videos for 12, 13 years. If you set it up sloppy, just go around. And she failed the CFI checkride because she flew a steep approach. It was too steep. She said it was too steep. And she continued on. He said, I can't allow you to pass if you know it's too steep. You tell me it's too steep. I can't pass you on that. And, you know. Now on checkrides, in the old days, examiners could let you try to get. But examiners are now bound to have you execute the maneuver correctly the first time around. And if you don't, they have. Their hands are tied. They have to fail you on that maneuver, and you can then continue on, try to accomplish some other maneuvers, or sometimes you'll just go in. But, you know, I've done a ton of check rides in 22 years. That's one of three. And it was, you know, she came back, we did the additional training, and she retested and got through it, and everything was fine. And she was. Like I said, she was not. No disrespect, she was great. She was. Especially in the classroom. But she just made a simple mistake, blew in the approach. Too steep. He said it was. She said it was too steep. She did it anyway. All right, we'll be back tomorrow. Links are down below for the July 4th sale. All kinds of goodies. 44% off. And the text. Put the number down there. You can text or call Heather 574-767-1797, with any questions you may have. So we'll see in the next video. Peace. Out. Live to fly another day. Helicopterground. Com.
