As my other posts says I recently tried my first true autos.
Now I have a few questions.

1) It seemed like the heli fell forever before it started to really slow from the blades spinning. I probably started out at 300' and lost at least 1/3 before I could really notice control of the heli.
Is this normal ? or Do I need to add more negative pitch to get the blades spooling up quicker? I think they are now at -4 on the gauge.

2) If this is normal, then what the heck do you do if you have a flame out at say 60' ? Heck I know mine fell at least that much ( or seemed to ) before the blades really picked up.

How do you do a Low auto, ( 100' to 30' ) ?

The danger zone for autos is about 50 feet on down. You don't have enough altitude to spin up the blades if they have slowed at all.

Btw, negative 4 is fine for autoing. I prefer minus 9 to be available if i need it but rarely ever use it. the only time i do use that much negative pitch is if i think I'm going to overshoot and I want to lose altitude fast.

Try this on your next auto, bring the collective down first before you throw the T-hold switch. It's almost at the same time but with the collective stick movement slightly leading the T-hold switch. You be surprised how much rpm you lose between when you throw the switch and you pull the stick down. It takes time to recover from that. This will help minimize it.

if you fell a hundred feet before your blades spooled up, you must have really slowed them down before you started your descent. if you flame out or hit your throttle hold, don't hesitate--just drop your collective immediately and you shouldn't lose any head speed.