This content was created by Kenny Keller. This content was uploaded by Kenny Keller. This is a YouTube video titled "Uncovering the Secrets of the ZERO Airspeed Autorotation Maneuver" created on November 30, 2022. It features a discussion among multiple speakers about the zero airspeed autorotation maneuver, a helicopter technique not commonly taught in standard training. The conversation includes practical insights and a demonstration of the maneuver, emphasizing the importance of learning from experienced instructors.
Chapters
But the zero airspeed auto, not something we teach on a normal basis. It's not in the practical test standards that will soon be the airman certification standards. If a person is hovering out of ground effect at say 500ft and you're doing photo work and the engine quits, you're going to have to transition to forward flight or airspeed or sideways or backwards or something, get some airspeed and then perform your auto.
I had never really been shown this.
Until, you know, I was with another instructor. There you go, you learn, you know, you learn from other instructors.
You know, he's like, let's do a zero airspeed.
I'm like, what are you talking about? Out of ground effect hover into auto, then into, you know, power recovery. I'm like, are you serious?
What are you talking about? So, yeah, the thing with the zero.
Airspeed in the G2 and I'm not going to talk about other aircraft, I'm just going to talk about this particular G2.
If you're in an out of ground.
Effect, however, with no airspeed and you have to enter an auto, the main.
Thing is we want to get speed, we want to get forward airspeed.
The spot that I'm shooting for is directly right off the nose. Like, I can't even see the spot because of how the aircraft is pictured there. People might say, well, if you're following at 1500ft straight down, aren't you going to get into vortex ring state? Well, no, you're not.
And why is that?
It's because we have no power applied. What's one of the things you got to have 20 to 100% available power. Right. We're going to be down to zero. So here we go in 3, 2, 1.
There's the drop. Now we're watching rotor RPM. We're at 1500ft. Descent rate right now. There's 1800. I got my spot in view. RPM looks good. We're coming straight down. We're holding. We're holding. There's 500ft AGL. I think I'll start pushing forward. Build a little airspeed. Building airspeed right there. There we come. Here comes my treetop level. Start my flare.
Flare's gonna get a little bit more aggressive.
Throttle's coming back in. As you can see, we're about, what, 30ft from our original skid marks, that we're 20, 30ft.
Yep.
This is a non event. It really is.
Yeah. You get, you catch that breath kind of right there as you start that fall. Kind of that roller coaster motion when you drop over that first hill but after that the aircraft stabilizes.
I mean you saw that. I think we hit 1800 foot descent rate. When you first start off the RPM is going to drop but that comes.
Back and we stabilized.
I think we were in the green there and then it got a little bit faster as we pushed that forward airspeed and then we as I came back on this cyclic and loaded the rotors.
But because it's not something we talk about a lot, not something we do in the normal course of training. Maybe we should.
It's just another trick, another tool in the toolbox that if you need to hit that spot that's right there, I.
Would say do it with a CFI who's comfortable teaching it. Go down below for our helicopter maneuver guide. Free PDF is down below. Subscribe the channel, click the bell. You can come back tomorrow and see what we're gonna talk about next.
