Practice autos in the R-22- trouble with the throttle

[Beatle1967]

Hello all,

 

I'm a student helo pilot with about 25 hours in the R-22. I've practiced a lot of autos and have managed to make my entry to manuever fairly consistent, I'm having trouble with the powered recovery phase. To be specific, I tend to over-speed the engine during the baby flare part of the maneuver because I just don't have a feel for how much to roll the throttle to get the governer to kick in. This results in me rolling it too far, which induces a big yaw. Question: after the auto entry, where do you hold the throttle? Fully in the detent and then hold it there, or do you move it to the detent and then relax the grip?

 

Thanks in advance!

[r22butters]

We,ve all had this problem at one point or another. Just hold the throttle against the stop (no need to go into the detent spring). In the flare, (or just as you level out, it depends on your CFI), just give the throttle a little jerk to get it to about 80%, the governor will take it from there.

 

If you want, you can practice this while you're on the ground. With the throttle at idle, simply test how much roll it takes to just get it to 80-85%.

[Pohi]

First things first, if you are overspeeding then your instructor isn't doing his/her job.

 

A good way to learn proper throttle control is to practice pickups and setsowns with the governor off. This is good for managing the sensitivity, also good for low rpm recovery.

 

Another reason my students try to overspeed is when they are rolling the throttle on, and a general lack of patience.

 

The part of the flare (before, during, after) has a lot to do with the torque.

 

And, it takes a bit for the engine to ramp up, so if a person rolls throttle on until the rpm is in the green, that person has already added too much throttle. As butters said, roll it up until the governor picks up, then wait for a second for the engine to come up to the green.

 

Good luck

[ChprPlt]

During the end part of the flare just "crack" the throttle a little. Dont worry about trying to get it up to 80%. Once you level and pull in collective the correlator will be adding throttle and your RPM's will be fine. Remember the correlator is like the gas pedal in your car the governor is like cruise control. Correlator does most of the work.

 

When i was instucting this technique worked really well. One less thing for you to worry about. Dont understand what the correlator does? Sitting on the ground put the RPMS at idle and just raise the collective not adding throttle. You will be airborn without any throttle.

 

Hope that helps

[r22butters]

...Sitting on the ground put the RPMS at idle and just raise the collective not adding throttle. You will be airborn without any throttle.

 

Funny, I never thought about that. Looks like I have something new to try the next time I go up.

[ChprPlt]

Butters it really shows you what the correlator does! Being an instructor for 3+ years I had lots of time to come up with stuff like that.

[Azhigher]

Throttle into detent and then released to a natural throttle closed position is how I used to do it.

 

Also, you can try to shoot the auto's with the gov off and get a feel for how much throttle is needed. After a while you should be able to hear the engine and know about what the RPM's are.

[CaptainDune]

During the end part of the flare just "crack" the throttle a little. Dont worry about trying to get it up to 80%. Once you level and pull in collective the correlator will be adding throttle and your RPM's will be fine. Remember the correlator is like the gas pedal in your car the governor is like cruise control. Correlator does most of the work.

 

When i was instucting this technique worked really well. One less thing for you to worry about. Dont understand what the correlator does? Sitting on the ground put the RPMS at idle and just raise the collective not adding throttle. You will be airborn without any throttle.

 

Hope that helps

 

While I agree with what you said, I feel like this will not work everywhere. For instance, flying in arizona at high altitude cracking the throttle and letting the correlator do the work will almost certainly make you kiss the ground a bit. When its 8k DA you really need to roll it into the green then pull cause you need every bit of it when you pull. Your method could also easily have a horn/light in the rejoin which could make most DPEs want to see it again at least.

 

 

OP - When I was having similar troubles with my rejoin I would start the rejoin as soon as i saw the rotor rpms start to come down during the flare (but I like to get mine to 107 or so also). It made a nice smooth transition to a hover and there was plenty of time to roll the throttle on to above 80 and help it into the green.

 

Just my 2 cents.

Edited June 28, 2011 by CaptainDune

[ChprPlt]

CaptainDune,

 

That is a good point at high DA's my method might not work well. I was instructing at 200 feet above sea level. Other then that I think its really a good method.

[Beatle1967]

Thanks guys, you have no idea how big a relief it is to have this explained. I'm going to practice 'cracking' the throttle on the ground to build muscle memory. Pretty obvious when you think about it.

[Tenacious T]

Throttle into detent and then released to a natural throttle closed position is how I used to do it.

 

That's how I learned it too. It did not come to my attention until later that SN-38 states "do not roll throttle to full idle". They want you to roll off enough for a small needle split then hold the throttle firmly to override the governor. I do it this way now in the R44 and all you have to do is release the throttle and raise collective to get the needles to marry. Their intent is to not have the engine quit but it also decreases the chances of over speeding.