Autorotations and Quick stops

[seneca2e]

Been reading Shawn Coyle's "Little Book of Autorotations". In it he strongly advocates a collective check after the flare to level the helicopter. He said he had landed one without touching the cyclic to prove it to a naysayer. Well that sounded pretty darn good so I tried it. I'm here to tell you it works GREAT! I could level the Brantly with the collective check alone after the flare on a quickstop or auto without any or with almost no cyclic at all!! It feels so much more controlled. You need most of your collective for the cushion in a full touchdown auto but the small amount of collective check it takes to level the Brantly or most other helicopters(which have a forward cg of the main rotor mast which is most of them) does not use that up to any extent. I conclude Shawn Coyle is exactly right and the technique is a huge improvement in doing the leveling off from both quickstop and autorotation flares.

[Ron Spiker]

I've been waiting for almost a year for that book to come out in print. It's been available only for the Kindle for quite a while. I'll have to get it to read also. He's certainly an expert on helicopters. Thanks

[Brad Bowles]

Just started reading the book last night. Very good thanks for the post!

[9121u]

HI guys not to sound stupid here but.. what is meant by saying collective check never heard of that one.. can someone explain that one

[seneca2e]

Tom,
It is simply giving it a little up collective(lots of instructors will say "check" "check" and that's what they're trying to get you to do. It is extremely effective on leveling the helicopter "level platform" prior to giving it the cushion collective to let it touch down at a slow vertical descent. The first little bit of up collective(collective check) levels you and then when you start to settle you use the collective for the "second" time to cushion the touchdown.

[9121u]

ED thanks for the heads up info I thought thats what it meant that was a very good topic thanks again ...one can always learn from others...

[bryancobb]

The Army's term during training, for "collective check" is "INITIAL PITCH."

There's INITIAL PITCH, and then CUSHIONING PITCH.