Actual Autos

Besides the autorotations done in and for training pruposes, how many
of you have had to do an unplanned auto as in engine failure,
mechanical failure, or other in flight difficulties?
I've had at least five over the past 40 years just while doing aerial
application in Bell and Hiller helicopters.
Just a curious question for a Sunday morning.....
Rocky

Well, just to keep a discussion going (other than Bellford
instruments) I have not had an actual engine failure, but a very good
friend of mine had two engine failures within his first 200 hours of
helicopter flying. One engine failure happened one day after his
commercial helicopter check ride. He was very practiced at autos and
this engine failure happened at 1,000 feet over a large dry lake with
15 knots of wind on the nose. Prefect condidtions and a perfect
auto! Interestingly enough this auto was near carson city and the
occupant of the nearest house had just sold his MD 500 and had a
trailer could transport a MD500 (the type of machine my frend was
flying)! Within 45 minutes of the auto the ship was loaded on to a
trailer and heading back to the shop.

His other engine failure was after start and while he was rolling the
throttle up to 100% the engine came apart.

On Apr 22, 8:24 am, Ol Shy & Bashful wrote:
Besides the autorotations done in and for training pruposes, how many
of you have had to do an unplanned auto as in engine failure,
mechanical failure, or other in flight difficulties?
I've had at least five over the past 40 years just while doing aerial
application in Bell and Hiller helicopters.
Just a curious question for a Sunday morning.....
Rocky

Well, I'm not a rated pilot so I've not done any emergency autorotations
myself but someone once told a story on this newsgroup that's always stuck
in my head because I got such a kick out of reading it at the time. This
comes from a LONG time ago but basically, this person was sitting in the
local airport office, chewing the fat with the receptionist. They were
listening to the unicom frequency in the backgroud. There was a helicopter
student flying around the local area on his first unsupervised solo flight.
He was heading back to the airport after about an hour and keyed up the
radio to anounce his approach to the local traffic pattern. The
transmission went something like this.

"Such & such airport, this is helicopter N1234C inbound from the south,
lan..... OH ****, rpm, rpm, rpm, rpm, rpm, flare, flare, flare, level,
level, cushion, cushion, cushion............OH MY GOD, I DID IT!!!

The guy never released the push to talk switch when the engine burped and
they got to listen to him talk himself through the ensuing autorotation. He
landed in a clearing just off the airport property and didn't put a scratch
in the bird. Airport personnel went out and picked him up, made
arrangements to have the aircraft transported and the student pilot bought
the first round of beers at the pub afterwards. I don't remember the
original poster commenting on why the engine quit but I always have to grin
when I remember that one.

FWIW!
Fly Safe,
Steve R.
"Ol Shy & Bashful" wrote in message
oups.com...
Besides the autorotations done in and for training pruposes, how many
of you have had to do an unplanned auto as in engine failure,
mechanical failure, or other in flight difficulties?
I've had at least five over the past 40 years just while doing aerial
application in Bell and Hiller helicopters.
Just a curious question for a Sunday morning.....
Rocky

Can't add much to this one, but I did once have a hovering auto. I had been
Ok'd for solo hover and I was warming up my Baby Belle and the idle mixture
was bit rich so I leaned the thing out a bit so it would run smoother.
Forgetting about the mixture, I encreased power and lifted off into a hover
and the engine quit. Non event except it taught me to check mixture full
rich prior to pulling pitch. With only 300+hours I'm glad that I haven't
had a real one yet.

--
Stuart Fields
Experimental Helo magazine
P. O. Box 1585
Inyokern, CA 93527
(760) 377-4478 ph
(760) 408-9747 publication cell
"Steve R" wrote in message
...
Well, I'm not a rated pilot so I've not done any emergency autorotations
myself but someone once told a story on this newsgroup that's always stuck
in my head because I got such a kick out of reading it at the time. This
comes from a LONG time ago but basically, this person was sitting in the
local airport office, chewing the fat with the receptionist. They were
listening to the unicom frequency in the backgroud. There was a
helicopter student flying around the local area on his first unsupervised
solo flight. He was heading back to the airport after about an hour and
keyed up the radio to anounce his approach to the local traffic pattern.
The transmission went something like this.

"Such & such airport, this is helicopter N1234C inbound from the south,
lan..... OH ****, rpm, rpm, rpm, rpm, rpm, flare, flare, flare, level,
level, cushion, cushion, cushion............OH MY GOD, I DID IT!!!

The guy never released the push to talk switch when the engine burped and
they got to listen to him talk himself through the ensuing autorotation.
He landed in a clearing just off the airport property and didn't put a
scratch in the bird. Airport personnel went out and picked him up, made
arrangements to have the aircraft transported and the student pilot bought
the first round of beers at the pub afterwards. I don't remember the
original poster commenting on why the engine quit but I always have to
grin when I remember that one.

FWIW!
Fly Safe,
Steve R.
"Ol Shy & Bashful" wrote in message
oups.com...
Besides the autorotations done in and for training pruposes, how many
of you have had to do an unplanned auto as in engine failure,
mechanical failure, or other in flight difficulties?
I've had at least five over the past 40 years just while doing aerial
application in Bell and Hiller helicopters.
Just a curious question for a Sunday morning.....
Rocky