Kenny Keller demonstrates correct use of the rotor engagement lever on an Enstrom F-28F helicopter. He emphasizes gentle, precise handling rather than "manhandling" the lever and walks through engaging and disengaging steps: confirm disengaged (V part touching floor), raise lever a few inches to lock, raise slowly while at 1500 engine RPM until engine RPM drops to 1200, hold and let rotor RPM build to 100, then fully engage (lever pulled fully back until whole lever touches floor). To disengage, raise to top, pull forward until it pops, then gently return to floor (V touching floor). He recommends practicing off-aircraft/engine to gain familiarity.
Chapters
Now, right here, what I want to show you is the NSTROM rotor engagement lever in the Nstrum F28F. And the point I want to make here is I get big, strong, brute men in here that want to manhandle this thing, and they make it really difficult to engage. So if you remember a few little tips, basically, when your first check is to make sure that the rotor is disengaged, this V part will be touching the floor. So when you get ready to engage the rotor system, of course, you're using the checklist. You come up just a few inches until you fill a spot where it can lock in. You can see it happens real easy. If you're manhandling it, it doesn't want to go. You got to do it nice and gentle. Once you get it in there, basically the process is we start raising this nice and slow. We'll be at 1500 on our engine RPM and we'll start raising it nice and slow until we bring the engine RPM down to 1200. Then once we're at 1200, we just hold it in place, let the rotor RPM build up to 100. Once we're there, we go ahead and fully engage the rotor system. So you got to pull it all the way back right here. You got to give it kind of a good pull. But the next trick is, once you have it there, guys still want to manhandle it. If you just pull it up real nice and gentle, it pops up out of its lock, goes back down to the floor. Now that it's engaged, the whole part of the lever will be touching the floor. That means you're engaged. So if you're ever any question about the light, is it working? Is it not working? That's how you can tell. So then to disengage it again, don't manhandle it. Just do it nice and gentle. Bring it up to the top, work it down till it clicks in, and then push it forward. Be ready for a pop like that. Comes down and catches there. Then you gently pull it out, let it back down. The V's touching the floor. So again, I've seen it a million times. Guys struggle with this thing because they get too rough with it. You just gotta know how to use it, be familiar with it, and mess around with it. When you're. Before you go, actually go out to fly for the day. So instead of having the stress of going through the checklist and the engine's running and your instructor's watching, you, just bring it up nice and gentle, click it in bring it up till you get the rotor open where you want, engage it, take it back to the floor, then when you're done, back up all the way to the top, pop it forward, back down to the floor, and there you go.
