Kenny Keller demonstrates autorotation practice after engine failure, comparing a standard 180-degree turn to two 90-degree turns with a mid-point assessment. The helicopter slows to 45 knots during recovery at 1700 feet altitude.
February 9, 2021.
About 1,700 ft ("about 1700 or so").
About 45 knots ("down to about 45 or so").
About a mile or two from the airport.
Little bit fast. All right, warning caution lights are off, gauges are in the green. Got plenty of fuel. Landing light is on. All right, let's see what happens. 3, 2, 1. There's the enter. Get that turn going.
All right, thanks for coming back for the Hogs daily flag brief videos. Today we're gonna do 180 autos and we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna do the 290s at least. We're gonna try them. I told Chris about the video I wanted to shoot, but, but we didn't go at length into this, so I don't know how he really feels about it. He might think, he may not even like the idea, I don't know. But I'm going to ask him to do it anyway because I'm sure that 10 years ago when we were doing your training, I'm sure we talked about this and that we've done this. And my thinking is you can do a 180 in a nice full swooping turn, but sometimes breaking it into two 90 degree turns can make you a nice auto. And some people like it, some people don't. It's just an alternative method for doing auto rotation. And I like it because you can enter your auto rotation, turn 90 degrees, roll out and then make a decision. Okay, I'm going to hold it, I'm going to hold it, I'm going to hold it and then my second 90 degree turn to judge and make it to my spot. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But it's a, it's a method that I was shown helped me a lot. And since we didn't discuss it prior to. What do you think about the idea of the two 90s, Chris?
I think they both had their time and place.
I agree.
It's all about where you need to go and how fast you need to get that turn in. If you have the altitude and you've got the time, if you need to level out after a 90 degree turn or so, then do it. But I've also been in situations with training where the student sets us up to our really close, you know, to where we're going and the only way that we are going to make that is by doing a complete 180 all at one time. Sure. You know, but if you're far enough away and you're high enough, you got the altitude. Yeah. I suggest, you know, making your turn, level out, check, you know, scan your gauges, figure out what you need to do and then do that turn again. I think I think both, depending on the situation. Yep.
I think it's. Again, it's an alternative method and I've, I've showed it to someone who maybe was struggling with the 180 full turn and they liked it and I've shown people. And then they try it and they're like, ah, I don't like this. And we just go back to the standard full 180 turn. So it's just an option. If it works for you, great. If it doesn't, are we gonna go back and try one?
Yeah.
Okay.
I was just kind of extending the upwind here, our departure here, because once you make that turn and have that tailwind, you're gonna, you're gonna rapidly and close in on your, on your turn here. So I always suggest, especially to the students when they're working on this, I always suggest that, hey, when you're getting ready to do the 180, extend your upwind, extend your departure. So that way when you make that turn on downwind, you're already set up. You're already at the altitude that the examiner wants you to be. You're already at that air speed that you're supposed to be at. And then all you got to worry about is when the, when the examiner decides to make you enter the auto, that's all you got to do. So that's what we did here. So we got about a mile or two from the airport. So I'm at my altitude, I'm a little bit farther away from the Runway to try this 90, 90 turn, then level out, then another 90 degree. But again, as soon as we make that turn, that wind's going to be coming out of the northwest. So as soon as we make that turn, it's really going to push us. So we'll just see what happens. It might be, it might turn into a complete 180. I don't know. We'll just see what happens.
We'll see how it goes. I love what you said about taking your T to get set up extra time on the 180 real quick. That instructor that helped me after, the guy that almost killed me, that was the problem. He was rushing it and I was trying to tell him, hey, slow down, take a little more time, get set up. And then he just, bam, he popped it on me. I still take responsibility for the auto going bad, but I should have put my foot down with him and said, no, don't do it yet, go back out. I want you to get some more time because I'm trying to Explain that to him. He rushes it, and we have a bad auto.
Yeah, yeah, that's. I mean, we've talked about this before. That's the difference between training and your test in the real world is, you know, and when you take your checkride. I tell my students all the time, take your time. Have a good setup, you know.
Eight miles west.
Practice VOR approach. Goshen traffic copter three Sierra Sales on a right down one two, seven.
Goshen.
But we all know, just as right now, like I'm thinking, I know that winds are out of the northwest. If this engine should go right now, I'm making a left turn, and I'm going to that field that's right to our left. Sure. So. All right, so here we are 80, and we're about 1700 or so. We'll see what happens here. I'm. I'm a little weary right now. Leery about making it to the Runway doing 290s, but we'll see how good we'll get. That tailwind pushing us awesome at this altitude, A little bit fast. All right, warning caution lights are off. Gauges are in the green. Got plenty of fuel. Landing light is on. All right, let's see what happens. 3, 2, 1. There's the enter. Get that turn going. Get my scan going. Get it trim here. Al's okay. There's our 90. A little air speed here. Get myself in trim. So we're going to do all right here, I think.
Awesome.
All right, coming around for my next 90. Still got my scan going. Watching my RPM because remember, the RPM is going to build in the turn. There it is. Here comes treetop level, flare going, throttle on as the aircraft starts to settle. I have to be honest, that went a hell of a lot better than what I thought it was going to.
Awesome. I thought it was nice.
Yeah, it turned out pretty good. I was a little slow. I got down to about 45 or so, but in this aircraft, we can get a little slow. But I don't like to see that. I like to keep the speed as good as possible. I was out of trim a little bit, so that could have helped us to float a little bit better. Other than that, I got to be honest with you, that turned out better than what I thought. Okay, you need to edit that. We're trying to be politically correct.
Okay. Always do a bleep.
Okay. Yeah, do that so you don't have to, you know. Jesus.
That was good, Chris. I really like that, and I hope it gives you the idea that this is just an option. It's alternative method. It's something you can try. A lot of people have liked it, some don't like it so much. But anything you can have in your toolbox, you know, and you.
And not just, you know, interrupt. You see there. There's a prime example of if we would have done a 180, the full thing, we would have been out there in that field.
Right.
We were trying to make the Runway.
Sure.
So there's a. There's exactly why you might want to do 90 degree turn, level off, and then do another. Sure.
Definitely a place for it.
Hang on. I got a guy coming.
Okay, go. Traffic Copter 3 Charel just departed 27. Right. Traffic.
And we'll side step for the inbound on nine. Thank you. 95. All right.
I can't help but think back.
