scotsman

Yep you're probably right. At Bankstown a choppers south puts you mid field overhead at 500 feet to join the heli circuit which will potentially cause a problem if someone is zoom climbing or the like. We do look for conflicts but you might find that neither the heli pilots or ATC are expecting a steep climb. I suppose that there isn't really a reason that regardless of aircraft type you can do a standard climb departure.

I remember my first solo aerobatic flight...was a bunch of self doubt before pulling into that first loop. Must have done my HASELL checks three times before manning up!

Enjoyed the honesty about the times where you doubted yourself....I think that we have all been there and probably will go there again from time to time if we are honest. All the effort is definitely worth it

Any chance of some pics of the latest design and build Bex?

As you say the 44 will have hydraulics in an engine failure as I understand that it is driven by the main rotor gearbox as opposed to directly from the engine. I have only just started doing a conversion to the Bell 47G and apparently in an engine failure in that type you lose hydraulics too as it it driven by the engine. Knowing how much of a handful it can be to land a heli with the hydraulics off I'm not sure how good my chances would be trying to do it in an auto with the hydraulics off!

Helicopter flying, like most types of flying but overtly so, is a risk management trade off process (like flying within the HV curve to a confined area landing whilst attempting to limit the chance of vortex ring state occurring). The chance of blade failure when cresting the red line is very small and the benefits of extra energy in the touch down on what will likely not be a great auto surface. In a 44 this might not be necessary but in a 22 I would definitely bank the additional RRPM as this will translate to survivability. If you were to read on a variety of sites like pprune or just chatting to some heli instructors you would see that rotor overspeeds do happen and whilst some cause no damage others require maintenance, however you do not hear about minor incursions over the red line equating to blade failure and therefore the better of the two risks to accept. Extra RRPM is likely to provide better cushioning from spinal injuries as it provides addition energy at one of the critical points of the auto to reduce vertical impact forces. In training we have all pulled off really nice top of the green autos to the deck but in a real world engine failure with the associated stressors your performance is not likely to be as finessed as with an instructor beside you over a nice pad or piece of runway on a lovely day into wind to full down auto into. I believe that most pilots in a real life auto will write off the heli so practically speaking for the lower hours types like myself it is about reducing impact forces and thus increasing survivability. In short serious spinal injuries with the opportunity to burn at the crash site in a 22 or a blade overspeed under 110% which would not result in blade failure. Out of interest do you/did you fly helis Chocolate?

We practice autos in the green rotor RPM section but practically in a real auto you will likely slightly exceed the green band to store more energy in the blade for the final yank on the collective which gives you more options. If I remember correctly a small rotor overspeed only requires a visual inspection post event whereas over 110% I think that it is a strip down.

I stand corrected but on the R22 you have 1.2. Seconds to drop the collective to enter the auto before catastrophic blade stall (ie. where the rotor RPM is unrecoverable) whereas the R44 is around 4 seconds if I recall correctly. To Jaba's point the 44 has good blade inertia comparatively to other types.

Don't worry about it and enjoy the journey. The longer it takes and the harder it is the sweeter it will be when you achieve your licence.

Great job from the pilot. Can't have been a great feeling to have your kid and grandkid in the heli with you when it happened. Very hard to judge the right auto flare height when you don't know the height of the scrub.

Hello Peter/fellow heli type, rightly or wrongly there is quite a lot of noise around the rotorway product and although it seems to have got better there is quite a lot of negative commentary. I went through the same process that you were going through to potentially buy and build a kit helicopter as I would love to own my own at some point but gave up as the risk appeared too high. Some of the single seater Helis have a much better reputation but I fly a lot to share the experience and although it would be fun the limited range of the one seaters is also a problem. Here is some of the content that I was referring to that put me off: Rotorway Corner - PPRuNe Forums

Sounds like a plan as knowing my luck I would bump something expensive! What is it they say about a forced landing.....try and hit the softest and cheapest think you can find.

Interesting one Geoff, I just assumed that you were bound to the T&Cs by the virtue of hiring it but I'm no lawyer. What sort of rate do you guys pay for non ownership liability insurance? Just trying to get a gauge for how bad the damage will be.

Thanks bud for the translation. I was searching on the wrong terms and wondering why I couldn't find it offered here! Sent them an email just now. Hope that it is not horribly expensive.

Evening all, for those of you that hire and fly from a school or the like the insurance is usually included in the private hire and fly rate but there is normally an excess (usually a pretty significant amount) that you would be liable for in the event of an accident where, for example, the aircraft is totalled (and assuming you are not totalled as well). Is there an insurance broker in Oz that offers a product for the hirer to insure the excess? Back in darkest Africa for a pretty reasonable fee you could insure the excess and give yourself the comfort that you wouldn't have to sell the wife and kids if you pranged it. Any advice would be appreciated (except - don't crash in the first place! ) Cheers James