Episode 344: Are YOU Struggling with setting up Helicopter Approaches?

Are you struggling setting up approaches and flying your approaches between normal, steep and shallow from beginner to commercial cfi, getting ready for a checkride? A lot of people struggle with setting up their approaches and understanding sight picture. And you wouldn't think that's the case, but I'm bringing this to you after 16 checkrides I've done in the last year with people coming from around the country for commercial and cfi. And, and you'd be surprised at people that show up and still go, you know, I'm still struggling with how to set up an approach and what's really a normal or a steep. And that's not the fault of people, that's the fault of the instructors, not helping them come up with a standardization like figure out what is an approach and what does it look like. So we're going to use the standard old handy dandy plotter that many of you probably don't even own. But here's what we did. Okay, so what I did, we got some lightly drawn lines on here. This is your ground level and we had a line here. So we could use this and we could make our 5 degree, our 10 degree and our 15 degree and draw these out so that you can see them. So let's talk about that first simple little tool to actually figure 5 degrees, 10 degrees, 15 degrees. OK? So that's how we know this is pretty darn close to what we're talking about on 5, 10 or 15. So if you're struggling with approaches, you need to nail the normal first. Okay, so I'm going to repeat this over and over. Shallow is 5, normal is 10, and a steep is 15. If you nail the normal first, then you know, you can judge later how to do a shallow and how to do a steep. And we've got another diagram to show you in the cockpit and we're going to talk about it a little bit more down here on the bottom of the page. So checkride question, private commercial examiner can ask you what's 5 or what's a normal? It's 10, what's a shallow? It's 5, what's a steep? 15. So if you look at this, a person can go visualize this, right? You have your helicopter up here. Here's where you are, here's where you're going to end up. This is a Runway, here's the ground. Just take an overview and look at that. You can sit in the aircraft or be flying and approaching and you can kind of judge, right? Like, let's go to the extreme there's people out here being taught, like, they'll come here from wherever and I'll go, show me a steep approach, and they'll come in here at like 45 degrees. And I use the plotter again to draw this. That's 45 degrees. There are people that are legitimately coming here, and somebody has taught them to fly a steep approach at 45 degrees. If somebody is teaching you that, I'm going to be nice. You've been taught wrong. If there's some reason that you got to try to get in a spot at 45 degrees, you're coming in way too damn steep. Okay? Helicopter Flying Handbook. This is standard equip training in the U.S. shallow 5, normal 10, steep, 15. Know those numbers. And again, you can visualize this, right? What is 5, what is 10, what is 15? Learn the normal first. Then you can build on what's it look like for a shallow, what's it look like for a steep? So textbook, 300 AGL, across the board. Student pilot, professional pilot. This is what we do. Set it up at 300 AGL before you intercept your approach angle. So imagine you're out here tooling along. You've come around downwind base, and you're on final. You're established at 300. You got a nice setup. 08 ascent, you're in trim speeds there. You got everything you want. Let's talk about a normal first. We have a spot right here hitting that green line for your normal. So you're coming along at 300 AGL, you're going to intercept your normal approach at 10 degrees and fly it down. And in a minute we're going to go to an interior drawing and expand more on this. So once you know what a normal looks like and you get that, you feel good about it, your instructors agreed with you, or you really believe you're on a 10 degree. You fly that down, look for a landmark on the ground. A lot of times, maybe there's a farmhouse, maybe there's a river, maybe there's a fence. This is for, like, your traffic pattern you're learning at the airport, where you're practicing this stuff all the time. Once you establish 10 degrees for normal, look for a landmark down there. And then, you know, if I'm at 300 AGL, I'm over that tree line down there. I am set to follow that angle all the way down. So what you're going to do for a shallow approach is you're going to still be at 300 AGL, but you're going to start A little sooner and fly that 5 degree down. If you're going to fly a steep approach in again, you're at 300 AGL coming along. Good setup, Everything nice and neat. When you intercept that 15 degree angle, then you start flying that down to your touchdown spot. So learn the normal first, understand fully because everything we do starts with a normal takeoff on a normal landing. Once you have that established and you know what that looks like, then you can build on that to go. Okay, I know I'm going to enter a little sooner for a shallow. I'm going to enter a little bit later to start that steep. But I'm still going to enter at 300 AGL. So here we go. And you're going to love our images. I drew them so you can't. Don't blame Lindsey. So here's. We're going to use the R44 for an example, setting up the sight picture in the aircraft. Once you've established what we just talked about, let's actually go back for a second. When you kind of figure out what your 10 degree is and you know where it's at at 300 AGL, then you're going to be able to establish where is the numbers. This is going to be your landing spot. The number's 2, 7 on the Runway. Okay, so for this example, we're going to use 2.7. So depending on the aircraft you're in and the setup, this can be different for whoever you are anywhere in the world. In any given aircraft, we're going to use this pretty yellow R44. And what worked out for one person makes this pretty easy to explain. Now, it might not work for the next person who's taller, shorter, but the person that this worked out for in the R44, when they were at 300 AGL on a 10 degree angle to fly into the numbers 2, 7. The numbers 2, 7 are parallel with right where the strings attach on the windshield. So that's normal, normal 5 degrees. So when you're coming along, when you see the numbers right there down on the Runway, even with where those strings attach, boom, you're now on a normal approach. Remember, collective controls the angle, cyclic controls the speed. So you want to keep that same angle all the way down to your numbers. So in turn, think about this. You're coming in. If you're going to fly a steep, you're going to want it to the number. You're going to want the numbers to be about right here, maybe where the strings go to when they're moving out. To the side, this far down, the numbers 2, 7, about there would be your steep approach angle. So you're going to enter that a little bit later. Here's your normal. As you get, you keep saying it's your 300 AGL, you fly a little farther, boom, there you're at your steep. Now you fly that down and then same thing as you're approaching the Runway at your 300 AGL, when the numbers are lined up with, you know, an equidistant space above where the compass attaches. Say I'm going just above where the compass attaches for my shallow approach. You're going to see the numbers out here, something that looks like that. So again, this could be different for any person. An instrument used to have, it worked with the compass. Where the center of the compass was a normal, the bottom of the compass was a steep, and the top of the compass was a shallow. So you got to go out there and figure out for your aircraft the way you sit in it and figure out your surroundings. So let's just, you know, it seems pretty basic and I've been doing videos now for over 12 years and I've taught this a lot, but it's always in the helicopter talking, talking, telling you, trying to show you in an aircraft. And we spent half a day trying to figure out how we could do this and just make this like the coolest thing ever. And I thought, you know what, let's just draw it. We're not going for the most expert drawing everywhere, but this is what you need to know. If you're struggling with approaches, sit down and think about it. Again, I'm going to recap. A normal is 10, a shallow is 5, a steep is 15. Once you establish that normal, there's this thing in aviation we call common sense. Like, think about it and what makes sense, right? You know, an airplane flies a 3 degree a lot of times, right, for their approaches. So they're clear down here. 10 for normal, 5 degrees for shallow, 15 for steep. If you're coming in at 45, you've been taught to come in way too damn steep. Don't do that. Not smart, stupid. Actually on the verge of selling with power. So then remember, and here's the part that people don't get. They try to come around and roll out on final, right on an approach setting. Well, then it means you're changing every time you come out on base to final. If you're trying to roll out right on your approach angle, how hard is that to change that base and final Every time that you roll out here for a shallow, or you roll out here for a normal, or you roll out here for a steep, that's just. Why work that hard? Why work so hard to do that? Start all approaches at 300 AGL. Bigger out, the normal one. Focus on that, learn that normal, then you can adjust. I'm still using 300 AGL, but I'm entering a little sooner. To fly that 5 degrees down, or I'm waiting a little later to fly down that 15. And let's flip over here one more time. I'm telling you, if you're struggling, this is how you do it. So again, for this example, we're in an R44. We're at 300 AGL, trying to pick our angle down to the Runway. Let's use this, for example. You see 2, 7. It's coming, it's coming, it's coming. When it gets to about there, there's your shallow. Start flying that angle down. Let's repeat for normal. Here comes your numbers. They're down the Runway. You're watching them. You're watching them. Your 300 AGL, they get about right there. There's your normal. Follow that angle all the way down. Same thing for steep.300 AGL. Good setup every time. Everything the same altitude, the same air speed, the same in trim, rpm fixed. Have everything fixed. Because a nice approach is a good setup. So you just keep waiting, and you wait and you wait. And when that number gets to about there, there's your steep. So find in your aircraft. In this example, it's where the strings attach. Maybe it's the compass, maybe it's the center, the top and the bottom. Whatever you can use. Hell, there's people that use a bug on the windshield or a chip on the windshield. I've seen people. I'll look for a marker. I don't see anything close. I've seen people actually take a marker and mark on the window glass. I don't recommend you do that unless you're the people that own the aircraft you're using. If they allow it, hell, go out there and put an eraser mark. Once you've kind of got that sight picture down so that you can go out and consistently fly these approaches, know 300 AGLs, where you should be starting. If you can find a landmark to go along with that. Once you nail down that sight picture, you can fly these consistently at any airport, anywhere around the world. Here's the other thing. Somebody goes, well, they always want to go to the airport where they're getting ready to take their checkride. I'm like, you know what? You're taking a rating for a minimum private pilot or commercial or cfi. You should know how to go to any airport in the world and fly one of these approaches. You shouldn't have to go practice at your checkride airport if you have it down in your head what the angle looks like. If you've got it set in the aircraft where you know and you use 300 AGL, you can go to any airport in the world and fly a normal in a steep or a shallow, and you can do it consecutively. So leave us some feedback below. We'll probably do this again in maybe a different form or fashion, but I thought, you know what? Let's do down and dirty. And for anybody struggling because we just had a Hogs member today that said, man, I'm struggling with the steep. I just can't figure out how it looks. And I go, you know what? Lately we've had so many people say this that, man, I'm struggling with my approaches. I'm struggling with setting them out. My camera girl's over there yawning. I'm so boring. All right, I better wrap it up since she's falling asleep over there, like. And subscribe. Peace out. Like, subscribe. Nobody cares. Don't subscribe. Don't like, don't, don't comment. Nah, Peace out. When you feel the pressure to fly, but know the right decision is to stay on the ground, hit the Hogs. No go. And live to fly another day. Helicopterground.com.