Kenny Keller explains a safety rule for helicopter approaches: keep airspeed at 30 knots minimum until your descent rate drops below 300 feet per minute. This prevents "sailing with power," a dangerous condition that happens when descent, power use, and low airspeed combine.
30 knots (minimum).
300 ft per minute (descent rate).
Approximately 16 to 24 knots.
20% to 100% of available power.
Today I want to cover the general safe rule for flying your helicopter approach. And this is a general rule.
It's not anything in a reg anywhere.
And it's kind of conservative, but that's okay. In order to keep yourself out of sailing with power, always keep minimum of 30 on your airspeed until your rate of descent is below 300ft per minute. If you follow this, you will not get into selling with power. It just plain won't happen. If you have all three of these flight situations together, this can cause you to get into selling with power. Take away any one of those three and you're not in it. So let's break these three down just a little bit. Rate of descent 300ft per minute or greater. If you are at 300 higher on your VSI as you're flying your approach, that's number one using 20 to 100% of available power. Meaning you are using power you're not in auto rotation. You are using available power. Airspeed less than ETL. Effective translational lift. Remember that ETL occurs somewhere between 16 to 24 knots, so if you're at 30 or above, again you're not in that zone. So there is a little bit of fudge factor figured in there, but that's to keep you safe. So remember, if you always keep 30 on your airspeed until your rate of ascent is below 300ft per minute, you will not get into sailing with power.
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