A short instructional YouTube video by Kenny Keller giving a helicopter training tip about throttle (collective) friction and RPM management. Keller relays advice learned from an experienced instrument mechanic: many pilots roll throttle friction off, but Enstrom helicopters are designed to operate with the friction engaged to help stabilize RPM. He demonstrates checking the friction during preflight and recommends setting the throttle friction roughly three-quarters of the way on (varies slightly by aircraft).
Questions this video answers
About three-quarters (3/4) of the way on.
January 7, 2016.
Chapters
Alright, now I want to give you a tip on the collective friction. I can tell you over the years, students always roll the throttle friction back off. And I always roll it back on because many years ago, flying, one of the first jobs I had worked all the time with this instrument mechanic who's known for being sent all over the world to work on instruments by Instrument Helicopter Corporation. And he's an awesome mechanic. And early on he taught me. He said one day he goes, tell your students to quit rolling the stupid throttle frict. He said, you have all these guys that keep having all this trouble with RPM and you guys are having all these engine problems. He goes, the problem is they keep rolling the friction off. Every time it comes down here, that friction is off. And he said, these aircraft are designed to operate with that friction on. And I can tell you from experience, the times I've had a student who was having trouble struggling with rpm, I say, well, hey, let's check the friction. Is it on, is it off? And that's always loose. So when the friction's off, that throttle can just move around. The RPM can go up and down. When you have that friction on there, that helps you maintain the rpm. So let's just take a look at it real. So when you're doing preflight, check this thing, this direction is all the way off, throttle is loosey, goosey, moves all over the place. So if you crank it on, you can go all the way. That's too tight. There's all the way. That's probably too tight. So from the throttle or the friction off to on, I go generally about 3/4 of the way, about 3/4 of the way on. Depending on the aircraft you're flying, it could vary a little, little bit. But in general, out of all these instruments I've flown over the years, around three quarters of the friction is about what it takes.
