Kenny Keller explains the air cushion effect that forms 6 to 8 inches above the ground during helicopter landings. You need a slight collective push to descend through it, and jerky control inputs will make the helicopter wobble.
Hello, everybody. Kenny with Fort Wayne helicopters, with another basic flight training tip, something that I've been surprised that a lot of guys don't know or have never been shown. Something one of the old timers taught me a long time ago is you have an air cushion somewhere around 6 or 8 or 10 inches from skid height down to the ground. And what I did in this video, for demonstration purposes only, I take my hand off of the collective. And basically, if you. The reason I did that was for demonstration purposes. If you're coming down nice and slow, you have a nice speed going. If you don't do anything, the helicopter will get right down to that cushion, and then it'll come back up. And then it'll go back down, It'll come back up. That's what I'm demonstrating. When I take my hand off. Again, I'm pointing out I just did this one time for demo purposes only. Normally we never take our hand off the collective. And the point I want to make is when you get down to 6 or 8 to 10 inches, it takes a small push to get the helicopter to go on down to the ground. If you're coming down nice and smooth, nice and smooth, nice and smooth, you get there. That's why guys start doing this wobble. They get down there and they think the ground should be there, and then they start messing with the controls, doing the stir in the pot, and that's when you get the helicopter going all over the place. So remember, if you're coming down with a nice smooth hover, nice and slow, you'll get an air cushion. If you come down quick, you'll push right through it and you won't have to push any more down. So that's the thing. If you're coming down fast, you'll go right through that air cushion. So again, as you're coming down nice and slow, just remember, somewhere around 6 to 8 to 10 inches skid height, you're going to get that air cushion. And it takes just a slight push on the collective to get it on down. Another one of those use the force loop type situations where you're not even really moving it. It's more like you're willing it to move to make it go nice and smooth on down to the ground. So, as always, thanks for tuning in. If you like this, please click the like button and we'll see you on the next one. Thanks.
