Helicopter Approaches: Landing to a Full Stop
Kenny Keller walks through a helicopter landing from approach to full stop, starting at 300 feet AGL with a stabilized descent and steady deceleration from 72 knots down to 10 knots. He covers the setup, angle control with collective, and speed management with cyclic on a 10-degree approach.
Questions this video answers
300 AGL
Approximately 72–73 KIAS (he mentions "I like 70" and specifically "72 or 73").
About a 10° approach angle.
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A suggested question from Paul G. Paul G. Would like you to explain landings to a full stop landing to a full stop. I can do that. Key to a nice approach and we're going to say normal landing. He said normal landing to a full stop. Okay? Here's the key to every single approach, every single hover auto, every single straight in auto, every quick stop, every maneuver you're ever going to do. The key is a good setup. So I'm going to use what I would do in the R44. Going to start an approach at 300 AGL, because that's textbook, that's what they tell us. Start your approach at 300 AGL. Before I get to my point that intersects with my landing point, I'm going to be zero, I'm going to be zero rated ascent. I want to be at 300 AGL. I don't want to be climbing, I don't want to be descending, I don't want to be fixing my speed. I want to get all this ready so that, let's say here's where I have to enter my normal 10 degree approach angle down to the numbers. I'm going to be 300 ago, zero rate descent. I like 70. For the, to start the approach, I'm going to be at 72 or 73 because when I get to the point that I'm going to start flying that down, I'm going to go a little bit of aft cyclic, a little bit of down collective, a little bit of right pedal to initiate that approach. And if you don't pull that little bit of aft cyclic, the nose does this. So that starts the game of playing with the rpm, playing, screwing with the collective, screwing with the cyclic. And that's why people do this all the way down to the ground. So the whole key is you get that nice setup 300 AGL, have your airspeed you want, and then you start flying that approach down to your spot. You want to remember, collective controls the angle, cyclic controls the speed. It should always look like you're approaching those numbers at the same speed. So if we start at 70, then we're going to go to 65 and then we're going to go to 60, then 50, then 40, then 30, then 20 and then 10. And we're going to be down at our spot, we want to come in nice and slow, control an angle with the collective, cyclic with the speed. It's somebody recently said it's the never ending approach. And I went, I like that, I'm going to steal that. It's the Never ending approach because it feels like it's taking freaking forever and ever and ever to get down there. And I remember I watched a sporty's video way back, way back. I remember. So you want to fly helicopters. I watched the copy from, you know, 30 years ago and they're like, oh, you keep 60 until you get 50ft above the ground. You should be at 50, 40ft, 40, 30ft, 30, 20ft, 10ft. I'm like, who in the hell can do that? That's ridiculous. You start slowing this thing down at the very beginning. You gradually slow it down the whole time. You want to keep the helicopter nice and level. The high velocity diagram does not apply. People, people go, oh, but you're in the height velocity diagram. Height velocity diagram is built for takeoffs, it's not built for approaches. There in a nutshell, there's my normal approach. That was kind of quick, but you know, a normal approach, there's a little, little bit of art to it. I, anybody comes here, we go out to fly. Just, hey, go show me, let's just show me a normal approach. And they're like, that's it. Like, yeah, just show me a normal take off a normal approach. Because that sets the tone for how they're going to fly. And I, and I make that evaluation pretty quick. And some of the key people that I've been lucky to fly with, I've got to fly with some really, really good people who had really good reputations and I looked up to and when they said, just show me your normal take off your normal landing, and then I did it and they go, that's exactly how I would teach it. Don't change a thing. And lucky, that was early in my career and I had good people that said, people are going to tell you how you're doing that wrong. But this is how we want it done. Don't let any, don't listen to anybody and just keep doing what you're doing. So that's the key to a nice normal approach. Easier said than done, but there is an art form to it. And the key is setting it up nice. Setting it up. If you set it up nice, it's going to be nice. If you set it up sloppy, it's going to be sloppy. And our clone is located@askhogs.com you can go below and click on the link to go check it out. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you can ask training related questions. Flight and ground. 14 years of my contents loaded in this thing. Blogs, podcasts, videos, paid Content, free content. There's over 6 million words piped into my clone. It's amazing. Go down below. Ask Hogs.com the clone is free to everyone and the clone is also inside of our HOG site on every video, every page. So you can be in viewing videos. And you can always ask the clone a question while you're at it so you can get an immediate answer first. Right here is free free PDF private pilot 101 helicopter training blueprint. That's why we created this and let me cover what's in the first chapter. Since you ask and you're at the beginning. That's why we created this. The first chapter are questions that we've. We took like the top 10 questions that we get all the time. Like is learning how to fly a helicopter difficult? How long will it take to become a private pilot? How much will it cost to become a private pilot? What is the best approach to selecting a flight school? What are the key differences between helicopters and fixed wing aircraft? How many tests will I have to take? How many hours for solo on the license? Kenny's recommended training supplies so this is absolutely 100% free. You can go down below, there's a link down below. 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