A helicopter instructor teaches hovering autorotation, a maneuver where you cut power and catch the descent with rotor momentum. The key is timing: throttle roll-off and right pedal happen together, then pause one second before pulling up. Keep the nose straight and lower the collective when you touch down.
Questions this video answers
50 to 75 ft
"One, two, three, enter" (sometimes using "one one thousand" to time the pause)
Roll off the throttle and add right pedal simultaneously (then pull collective after a brief pause)
So 1, 2, 3, enter. One, pause.
Oh, there we go. And then right. Look how nice that goes. So the key to this maneuver is absolutely 100% timing and a good setup. If you set the hoverado up nice, probably gonna be nice. If you set it up sloppy, you don't feel good about it. The Internet is probably gonna come out sloppy. That's just the way it works. Remember, it's all about timing. So now what I want to do, get stabilize lever going. So I want to focus outside. I'm going to say 50 to 75ft. I'm actually looking at the house out there. Might be 300 yards, I don't know, but I'm looking out of the house, way out ahead of me. Reposition your hand on the throttle. Just means you're moving your wrist outward more than you would normally. Because when we roll throttle off, we wanted a nice, smooth, fluid movement, and you have to do it simultaneous. Throttle off, right pedal. And you got to do it smooth and simultaneous, or else the maneuver will be screwed up on the cyclic. When I enter, I go a little bit forward and a little bit to the right to get ready with the maneuver. I want to start looking outside at 75ft. Stabilize, hover going. Then I'm going to count it off. One, two, three, enter. So here we go.
In one, two, three, enter.
Throttle off, right pedal. I paused, I pulled. Now my collective back down. People will do that, and then they keep the collective up there, and then the helicopter starts shaking. Once you make ground contact, collective back down. Let's see. On this one, I'll try to focus.
More on the pause.
I'm even going to count one one thousand, and then pull.
So one, two, three, enter. One, pause.
Oh, there we go. And then right. Look how nice that goes. Okay. It wasn't the prettiest auto ever, but I paused. But when you do this for the private pilot, you want to make sure you keep that nose pretty straight. So very important to stay on top of those pedals and keep that nose straight. No rearward movement, no sideways movement. You want to come straight down, or even a little bit of forward movement wouldn't be bad. So here we go. Remember, simultaneously roll off the throttle and add the right pedal. I pause for about one, one, try to do a smooth pull, and then collective back down. So here we go.
In 1, 2, 3, enter. Oh, I like that one.
Let's do one more. I probably can't beat that last one. I doubt this one looks as good. That last one was nice. I don't know how it looked on the outside, but it sure felt good on the inside. So here we go. Reposition my hand on the throttle and count.
One, two, three, enter.
Throttle off, right pedal pause. Little bit of a pull onto the ground. Kept the nose straight. Pretty darn nice, that one was. Not as good as the last one, but still pretty good. The key is, don't go sideways, don't go backwards, and don't let the nose turn too far left or right. You want to keep that nose forward. If you can do that, you stay on top of those pedals. The uncommon mistakes. People roll the throttle up and pull a whole bunch or they slam the collective off the floor, and that doesn't work either. We're gonna do one more.
One, two, three, enter.
Throttle upright, pedal, pause, pull, collective back down, pedals back to neutral, and there you go. I think it'll be good. You know what? What the hell, let's do one more.
One, two, three, enter. Oh, yeah.
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