Hey Pete and Paul!
Over these years of heli-izing, I have had
around 12 forced engine out autos.
The first one with the ZXX occured on the
next day, as a newbee, when I had just the prior night
reset the low end atv to give me -3 degrees! (was Zero!)
I was havin so much fun hoverin tail in at 75 feet
I forgot to watch the fuel tank! The eng lean'd out
and died! I pulled the collective back to the stop,
watched her fall (Thankfully - tail in!) as I managed the
cyclic. She got 10 feet from terra firma and I slammed
the COL all the way up! It stopped at 3 feet altitude
bled the head and dropped on her skids, on the asphalt
runway, breaking the tail fin!
Bare in mind that I was new and had just read Ray H.
book on everything including the chapter on auto's!
Have had lots of them since those days!
My suggestion for a beginner is this:
Avoid auto practice on the 30 if you can. (But engine out
autos can be done with the following technique.)
Use the 600mm 50 size and up machines to practice
Thold conditions!!!!
Once one has the technique down pat, the 30 becomes
easy, but one must remember the energy management
on the 30 is quite critical.
So - Take your 50 to 200 feet, point her into the wind
and Thold her! Immediately lower the coll to that fine
-3 or -5 you have already set up in thold condition!
Manage the cyclic as she comes down with a tad bit
of down ele (fwd cyc) to get an 85º or less down line.
As she approaches Terra firma slowly up the Collective
timing your slow down to give you 2 foot of altitude at
hovering stick position (5 - 6º pos pitch!) She'll stop
the drop. Flare with Back Cyclic as she bleeds off the head
speed. She's gonna drop that last two feet and you have 6 degrees left to carefully set her on the skids.
(+11 - +12) :stupid:
No worries Mate!
The key, as with all heli flyin, is good COLL/CYC management!
Byron, Omaha