Kenny Keller and Chris Hauser explain helicopter safety by flying like failure is coming. They train pilots to constantly plan emergency landings, know the wind, and practice sudden engine-failure drills so hesitation doesn't kill them.
Instructor rolls the throttle off to simulate an engine failure during training.
43 minutes
Foreign. Welcome to HOGS Daily Flight Brief. This one is going to be fly like it's going to fail. And what immediately comes to my mind.
Is.
Back when I was training somewhere around the commercial area, I was flying with another guy. We were doing our ratings together, flying with the same instructor and taking check rides together and stuff. And we were over downtown Chicago one day and he said, you know, I fly like the engine's just not, not going to quit. And it kind of struck me as funny because the one instructor we were flying with, my main instructor, was like every day, all the time. Where are you going to go? Where would you go right now if the engine quits? And he'd wait 10 seconds and then go, now where are you going to go if the engine's going to quit? And like right now you're looking okay. Right now I'm going to go over there and seconds from now that's going to change and then five seconds. You know, it's always evolving and changing the whole time you're flying. And because one instructor beat that in my head immediately. And to give this guy credit, I know he had a different instructor for his original training. So we weren't training with this same guy for both of our, you know, so we know what our instructors teach us, right? And I just that over downtown Chicago and a little R22 with two of us. And for somebody to say, well, I pretty much like the engine's not going to fail when I'm going, oh my God, there are places to go, but they're not, they're not many. So a person should always be thinking, where am I going to go if the engine's going to quit? And hopefully whoever you're flying with has beat that into your head. And I say beat into your head. I mean, you got other things to do while flying. There's a lot to do managing the cockpit and you got a lot going on, but it should be on your mind. Where am I going to go if this thing quits? I try to always think about it and not get too cocky and like, ah, you know, I'm good. Would you like to add to that? Chris Hauser Chopper Guy 53 I I agree with you.
I that's one thing I do tell my students all the time, that they, as a helicopter pilot, you need to know two things. One, where the wind's coming from and two, where are you going to go when that engine quits? Yep, you always got to know those two things. That's just how it is. Because of our the way that we fly, you know, we're low and the things that we're doing, a lot of times we're low, we're over the middle of the city doing, you know, even like ems, making approaches into a hospital in downtown of Chicago or whatever, you know, you better have an escape plan that's just a good pilot. I think that's just, just how it is. You need to know if that engine quits, where you're going to go. You also want to know where that wind is. So you get into that wind. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, really, I don't. I think you pretty much summed it up. If I lost the engine, you know, maybe I want to fly over here a little bit. You know, I don't like using highways or roads to land on, you know, but maybe, you know, most highways have some type of, you know, tree line along there that I. Sure, I would take the tree line or whatever, you know, whatever I'm trying to say here. Just always be ready, you know, if that engine quits where you're going to go. And I do, you know, and I stress that on my students and as we train, you know, toward the end when they're getting ready for their checkride, I'll just roll the throttle off. I'll just roll it off. And now we just had an engine failure. What do you. Where are we going? You know, and you'd be surprised, you know, because most. And we're going to talk about that later, but you'd be surprised. When you do something unexpectedly, people kind of, well, they choke. You know, there's not that natural reaction.
Bleep that out. Yep.
But, you know, all of a sudden, you know, when you're training, they expect it, but when they're not expecting it, it actually takes the brain a few extra seconds to figure out, oh, I just lost my engine. What am I going to do? And by that time, you've just lost 200ft of altitude. Yes. And, you know, so, yeah, I, you know, always have a place to go in a helicopter for sure. Because we're, I mean, that's just, that's the nature of how we fly. We're lower to the ground, we don't have that glide distance. So just always be ready.
One thing that popped up to my mind is, you know, you can be flying a rickety old helicopter that maybe isn't even being maintained the best and be just fine. You could be flying a brand new helicopter that could have a failure just because it's brand new. Doesn't mean it's not going to fail. You just don't know. Any aircraft at any time could fail. Regardless. It just could happen. All right?
And. And I, you know, we take for granted that we're training in Indiana. So we're. I mean, we've got lots and lots of open fields. It is nice, but, you know, you got to be, you know, when you're ready for that downtown area or, you know.
Yes.
Chicago's got the Chicago converter port. That's right in the middle of the city where we can land. Indianapolis has the downtown heliport right in the middle of the city where we can land.
Yep.
So those are the times where you want to take extra precautions of. Okay, if the engine quits, where am I going? Because you don't have a lot of options. I mean, your best option might be that parking lot that's full of cars. Well, you know, it is what it is.
Always changing.
Yep.
Never know. And you're right. I did a lot of flying and training as an instructor in Chicago and Cleveland. And then you come back here to Indiana and go, oh, my God, look at all these beautiful open fields. It's. It is a relief when you have lots of places to go.
Yep.
Easy to get laxed. All right, so the next video coming up, we're gonna talk about stored energy. Go down below to grab a free PDF of our helicopter maneuver guide. It's all free. Do us a favor, subscribe the channel, Click the bell to be notified in the next video, and we'll see you then. Peace out.
Nice.
Okay, we'll keep rolling. 43 minutes.
