Episode 444: Seconds from Disaster - Why Right Pedal Matters

When we roll off the throttle for the sprag clutch check, we add right pedal. And we do this every time. When we roll that throttle off, we're taking the torque away, but the tail rotor is still doing its job, pushing against the tail boom. And we're going to show you in a video in just a second how the tail boom can come swinging around. So as you'll see in this video, Hauser's with a student student rolls the throttle off, doesn't add the right pedal on a slick surface, and that tail boom comes around, almost hits the fuel pump. So you can see how that could be a complete disaster. So it's a very simple thing to do. In this series of videos, we're doing 30 checkrides over the last 30 months. A big majority of the people that have come here to fly do not add the right pedal when they roll the throttle off. And many of them or most of them have said, nobody's ever told me that.

Tell us below, why do you think that is? We had a discussion about that this morning before hitting recording the camera. Because when you get your license, it doesn't matter. Get your license in Florida or South Dakota or Maine, you're becoming a helicopter pilot and you're going to fly in different areas of the country. So I get it. If you're in the southern states, maybe they don't teach that so much. But up here, this is just part of our normal course of training. And this is a question on even, let's say a private pilot checkride examiner may say something like, well, when you do your sprag clutch check, is there anything specific we do? The answer is add right pedal. Why? Because if you don't and you're on a slick surface, the helicopter can actually spin around on you. So we showed you the video. Hauser and my good friend Dr. Nick that had the instrument that we used in videos for five or six or seven years that we absolutely loved. When Nick went home, when he just got the helicopter, takes it home, landing his new helicopter, it is first time landing on his hangar. He lands. It's a little bit slick. It was in the Cleveland area. Rolls the throttle off, tailboom swung around and he said was inches from hitting the hangar. So this is something that if you don't do this, it's very simple. And if you just add it to that muscle memory of every time you do that sprag clutch check, when you roll off throttle, you add right pedal. So give us your thoughts down below. Why is this not being taught? I'm really curious. It doesn't seem to come up in a lot of conversations. Haven't seen anybody else talk about in a video. Why do you suppose that is? I'm really curious why this isn't more standardly taught and why so many people are coming here and have never seen that. So subscribe to the channel. We got another 15 or 16 videos to go at least and we'll see you next video. Peace out.

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