Just thought I'd let you know: You make these videos so well that they actually recommended us to watch your videos during Primary phase at Rucker. You are literally becoming part of the Army Aviation curriculum! We can't thank you enough for your videos man.

Autorotation sounds like a word invented by the first helicopter manufatures to put insurance companies minds at ease.

I came to comment because I took the SIFT this week and scored in the high 70s. This channel was my only resource for the Aviation Information section. There wasn’t a single question on that section I couldn’t answer, it was all covered somewhere in your videos. Fantastic resource!

I'm completely new in helicopter flight. I'm studying for the SIFT test in the Army. I just started and you explanation was better than what the manual explains. Thanks. I'll be looking into your videos. Thanks again.

I think there's nothing like Auto rotations that really brings out a lot of confidence in a pilot. Knowing if something goes wrong you can safely Glide the helicopter to the ground and maintain an AirSpeed and an RPM and come close to Landing directly on the spot you choose or even Landing directly on the spot you choose I think brings a pilot's Confidence from like 20% up to like 200%. You know the saying aviate, navigate, communicate? Like first you fly it that's the most important part. Navigating is second. And the radio is certainly the last most important part. I find that doing less auto rotations makes you a perfectionist and you actually start paying a lot more attention to things like your attention gets drawn to correcting your direction too much or putting too much attention on the radio. I suppose if you're not doing that at all maybe that's a good thing. I suppose a person could perhaps not paying enough attention to where they're going and they're getting lost or actually not communicating whatsoever not paying attention to the radio at all or stating who they are talking to who they are where they are what they're doing Etc. And of course what I'm saying is totally subjective it's totally perceptive of my own self. Everyone is entirely different. I think practicing Autos non-stop just puts a person at ease about a potential engine failure. And of course you know don't over inject yourself with too much confidence because practicing auto rotation and an actual engine failure or not the same thing. To me personally though I find my attention is way more directed towards the aviating part and wanders less when I constantly practice auto rotations. It just makes me a totally different kind of competent person and when I don't practice them as much I find I get nervous and my attention wanders a lot. As though I'm always thinking about things too much. Doing the auto rotations removes a lot of that nervousness and lack of focus. You know I've heard people when they stop training when they're beyond the student phase and they're beyond the CFI phase even though they've gone through the whole flight school endeavor and have moved on to other jobs that the job actually only requires auto rotation practice training like every once in awhile it's not something you go out and do every week anymore. Wow I don't know how I feel about that. I guess it's part of the process if you do it enough times you do like 10,000 auto rotations and your confidence is really high you move on and do other things and they don't require that as much. That whole concept is so foreign to me at this point. I think I just become kind of a wreck of a pilot if I don't practice Auto rotations enough. Some instructors even treat auto rotation training as though it's like a "privilege that we might not necessarily be doing today unless you just want to have fun." I guess some students really take advantage of the adrenaline rush or something? I find a lot of those same instructors they'll get really mad when you start paying too much attention to navigating or using the radio when you're flying. 😂 see I'm probably distracting everybody who would read this by using my own perception to paint a picture. Not everybody is me. Not everybody learns the way I do. Privilege or not I think the practice of it is so important not just for the actual practice of Auto rotations practicing auto-rotating Landings to me take so much Focus off of the nervousness and lack of confidence that you have one flying when thinking that some emergency might happen that you can't handle. To be the constant practice of auto rotations removes that nervousness and I believe that nervousness causes your attention to not be put properly on certain things at a certain time. In which case you might start doing things backwards you start communicating then navigating then aviating. You start becoming too much of a perfectionist and not just doing naturally things in a certain order when needed. To me that has a domino effect as well when you become nervous like that you stop doing the things that actually help you do the navigating communicating preparing ahead of the flight which is where all that navigating and communicating should be prepared for way ahead of the flight so you focus on just the aviating when you're flying. To me the practice of normal Glide Auto rotations, minimum Glide and maximum Glide with AirSpeed in between 55 and 70 and 90 knots and RPM usually between 97% to 108% for the 70 knots normal glide profile and otherwise 90% RPM for minimum or maximum Glide and understanding your three bank accounts with two accounts pertaining to kinetic energy with the rotor RPM and forward thrust consisting of that and the last account being potential energy which is your altitude and understanding the trade off should be like just as much of your training as normal flying. So when I say that I think flying the helicopter should be like 50% out of rotations I mean 50% of your helicopter training should be engine off in the other 50% should be engine on even if Technically when you practice Autos the engine isn't actually off but you are still taking advantage of the freewheeling unit there's a decoupling in the transmission is no longer providing power to the rotor RPM from the engine as though the Sprague clutch is engaged and the induced flow is inverted and no longer is the correlator being affected by you moving the collective up and down. Yes some instructors do think that you can do too much auto rotation training. See now to me because it improves my confidence I believe it makes you less likely to over focus on navigating and communicating and not properly focusing on Aviation then navigating and communicating I feel like it removes your confidence and you become distracted you may be stop planning as well as you stop PreFlight planning as well you probably don't prepare your navigating and communicating as well with less PreFlight planning you put too much attention on the navigating and communicating and your flying unless attention on the aviating. And true to what instructors say what makes you really good at Auto rotations is a combination of how are you usually handle the collective and cyclic and pedals and how you plan your approach most of the time with your sight picture in your normal flying and when you're doing auto rotation you're just practicing maintaining AirSpeed and RPMs and using your ability to do good approaches and handle the collective and cyclic without expecting the engine to power the RPMs. Therefore the instructor seems to put more time on your normal approach and shallow approach and steep approach and hovering and quick stops Etc. Yet I just can't help but feel like auto rotation training cannot be emphasized enough and totally changes the mindset of a student the way that people think a solo changes their mindset of a student. You could easily say the same thing about a solo right. You're only repeating the same thing you do with the instructor just by yourself. Yet is considered SO ESSENTIAL. Same way I feel about autos. To me there's nothing like 5 or 10 good Autos throw in some 180°s the totally improves the confidence and coordination and removes the distracting wandering mind and give the student a boost of adrenaline wakes him up gets his mind thinking in the proper direction and gets his attention properly on just enough things at a time to where you can properly aviate and then the navigating and communicating doesn't seem so distracting. But of course like I said I'm speaking from my own perception. This is how my mind works this is how my brain benefits from these exercises. Now of course I don't understand the instructor that thinks that "too much autorotation training is just for fun and the student doesn't need a constant adrenaline Rush dumped into his mindset just whenever he's bored and he needs to focus on many other aspects of flying just besides Auto rotations." But I suppose if I understood many of the other students that want to take advantage of this maybe I'd get the instructor that says they wanted to deter from this direction. Anyway that's how I feel about that

So is nobody gonna mention how this man managed to freehand draw a perfect arrow?

I work at a helicopter manufacturer and while I am not a pilot, these videos really help me understand a topic the seriously interests me. Thanks

Received this new video on Christmas day. Was a great present! Thanks and fly safe.

Hey Jacob, I have been studying for the SIFT and must say that your videos have really clarify a lot of my questions. Thank you!

Love all your videos, great drawings and very simple and easy to absorb and pass on to others. Thank you!

thank you very much for doing this video, i can't wait for the advanced auto session!!

I'm here to learn how to do this in Arma III

Jacob, thanks . I've learned so much from your presentations and it made me go out and learn more. Liked the lecture portion and the illustrations. Waiting for more.

Awesome videos keep it up!!

Awesome explanation...you are doing very good job and helping lots of pilots....thankyou

Awesome vid sir...thanks a lot...another grt help from u..👏

Thanks Jacob, Great short brief on Auto's.

Thank you , you explained it in just starting and that explanation makes sense

thanks for all ur videos. apppreciated

Thank you so much!!! Your videos are the best! 💙

Very well explained, nice job!! I’m currently in autorotation training lessons on the EC120B, although they are simulated with engine not being idled and without touchdown on the ground, so the ground where we touch down is meant to be at low hover height.

Thank you for posting, learning is still fun!, i see the entire blade has differ stall speeds, nice i learned just now!!!!!!!!

1.what happens to the upward flow of air while increasing collective pitch to initiate flare? 2. how main rotor blade generates lift with upward flow of air, and how pressure difference works above and below the blade here? Amazing educational videos. Nice work...

At my school, they say for our power-on autos we should start flaring at 40ft. Of course, different helicopters from what the Army uses, we use R-22s. Great video! Love your stuff for refreshers.

Again Jacob-outstanding job in making the complicated simple. Looking forward to future lessons!

Thanks Jacob, Cant wait for the advanced lesson on Auto's, really helpful!

This is such a good one.

thanks alot man , your videos are helpfull.

Thank you! Clear as a daylight

AH-64 was very to autorotate because of tail wheel, and a lot of rotor inertia. Good presentations sir👨‍✈️

Very informative. I invite helicopter pilots to fly in a gyroplane as flights are in an autorotative state a all times. Flares to landing without power on short final are quite easy to perform and are a fun way to land. (Comparing Apples to Oranges) but getting on the deck safely is what it's all about.

Do you alter the blade pitch during autorotation so that it spins to wind blowing up through it instead of down? Do you flip the blade pitch back coming in to landing to generate lift and cushion the landing? I realised the flare is important because there might not be enough kinetic energy left in the rotors to halt descent without stalling the blade. This is similar to the landing of the space shuttle - the upward point at the end allows the craft to "swoop" in instead of plummeting into the ground at 120 mph down 360 mph horizontal.

Thanks for this. Learning about autorotation because of Kobe RIP Legend.

In my readings I see that the DRIVEN REGION does produce some lift but this lift however is offset by drag due to the Total Aerodynamic Force(TAF or Resultant Lift on Airfoil) being behind the axis of rotation. In an auto, the DRIVING REGION's TAF is in front of the axis of rotation producing a continual accelerating force that supplies thrust and accelerates rotor rpm. Collective Feathering changes the size of the DRIVING REGION which changes the rotor rpm . In an auto, a pilot needs to adjust collective to keep the rpm within limits otherwise he stalls out or the blades fatally cone upwards. Lift is no longer a significant force in an auto..using the continual inward airflow to keep those rotors spinning so you can glide safely to the ground is the main idea of an Autorotation.

Good vídeo 👍🏾🚁

If the wind is traveling through the rotor disc in the opposite direction during an auto, why do the blades still spin CCW as in normal flight?

thanks for this. I've never flown a helicopter, only RC heli's. The one thing I wanted to confirm is that when you say :"lower the collective" you're actually reversing the relative pitch of the rotors to what would be negative pitch, and then at the last moment using that rotor momentum to generate lift by changing back to positive pitch. Do I have that right? And if so - is there any sort of "feel" or "lockout" in the collective handle to prevent using negative pitch while under power (say, on the ground or close to it?)

What are the effects of change of all up weight and change of Rotor rpm?

Thank u so much!

What about the kinetic energy stored in the rotors, doesn't that play a part, doesn't the rotor speed decay during flare/landing?

Thank you, you explain it clearly. i came here because those misinformation short video that says autorotation can keep the helicopter on the air, giving the pilot time to look for save landing

Hi, you say when the engine fails, lower the collective to the "Autorotation" position, then you describ it as "The Driven Region". . . So how does decenting through the air, drive the rotor in the same correct direction, without the change of air flow direction also causing the blade rotation direction to reverse. ?

Great! Thank you

To understand auto rotation I just imagine holding a small fan in my hand ( the one kids are using on the beach). If theres no wind, then you need to run with it to make it turn. That is the equivalent of lowering the nose and gaining speed to create a relative wind in a way. Obviously the very first thing is to lower the collective and by doing so you change completely the angle of attack of the blades . This angle of attack changes allow the flow from the bottom now ( the relative wind you have now created) to allow the blades to keep turning. If you don’t do that, the blades will stop turning because not changing the angle of attack of the blade will stall the blades immediately.... then you will drop like a stone. When you descent, keeping the blade turning at a certain speed will store energy that will need to be dissipated in the flare and landing. But you will have one chance and one chance only! i guess the lighter the blades, the less time time you will have as there is less energy stored in the blades. The heavier ( and the more) the blades are I guess the blades will have more momentum, so you will have more time to dissipate the energy stored? Is that correct?

Hi, can you please tell me which and from where from should i buy the study materials for becoming a commercial helicopter pilot. It’s my dream. I did hard work for 5 years to follow my dream. Please tell me the books for all 7 subjects. Thank you very much

nice vid, just finished reading chickenhalk, now i understand what was meant by the term autorotation, thanks

Hey, i am no expert and was here only out of curiousity but i have a question. So while ascending the air flow is downward, so if the helicopter is descending and the air flow is reversed wouldnt the rotors spin counter opposite to before ?

Hi man, really liking your videoes. Ive got a quiz from my instructor for my next theory lesson: "WHY does your rate of descent decrease with increasing airspeed?" I know the fact that forward flight is more ideal for an autorotation of numerous reasons, and also know that if your airspeed gets to high, your ROD will start to increase again? What and why is happening here? It probably has something to do with the last part you mentioned, about the changes in the rotorsystem transitioning into forward flight, but I cant seem to make the connection. Is it ETL, hitting Vy or??? Thanks

Hey there! great video but I have a question about entering an autorotation state with 0 rotor speed? Is this trickier to do to overcome the inertia and drag of the blades? Any insight on this would be great!

Is flying in autorotation the same as flying an autogiro?

If your engine quits how does the rotor turn and keep any rpms. When my car engine fails my wheels stop turning, if I could control the rpms of the wheels then my engine didn't quit. What am I missing here? Do you define "engine failure" differently?

I just have a question... Is a heli in autorotation technically losing altitude faster than a heli in free fall? Or how does it work? Cuz this autorotation looks like some big propeller blowing air upwards therefore increasing descent..

Hey man when are we getting more videos!?! They help so much!

Ok this is cool.. thanks

thanks bro

Pitch management is key 👍😎

I'm having a hard time finding one bit of info (I'm getting lost in the bulk of information) -- after initially lowering the collective when entering autorotation, WHEN and by HOW MUCH is the collective raised or lowered during the steady state descent? How does the pilot determine this? Or is collective kept in the full down position until near landing?

Great video about autorotation. Jacob, is it possible to make a simplified video about airspace? There are alot of components dealing with this topic but I thought I would reach out to see if you could break it down in your easy-to-understand way. Im sure there are a few folks, beyond myself, who are trying to have a better understanding of airspace.

I have a question plz if anyone can answer... What should we do when we need to increase or decrease autorotation in helecopter chut down on the ground ?? Sorry for my english

So is an autorotation principally the act of taking stored energy in the rotor blades and by increasing the collective, turning it into kinetic energy by increasing the rotor blade pitch?

So the blades have to spin the opposite direction?

During Entry and Descent, would the helicopter be in a nose down attitude?

How can you have different regions of drive or driven on the same blade? Unless it's front /back regions along its length

Do the three regions only occur during an autorotation or also in regular flight? And if they do still occur during regular flight, are they swap around on the blade radius because you have downward airflow instead of an upward airflow?

But if engine fails and top blade spins because of free fall of Helicopter then what powering the tail rotors to counteract the counter spin of helicopter relative to spinning top blades ( according to Newton's third law in circular motion ) ?

Its clear that the main blades are rotating because of the upward flow of air during autorotation..... and my doubt is how we can rotate tail rotor, and from where the tail rotor getting power to rotate during autorotation?

But if the engine fails isn't the rear rotor also stopped? So how does one counteract the momentum of the main rotors or is their momentum negligible at this point?

Great video/in what condition would you recommend autorotation? Engine total failure, partial loss of RPM? what are the conditions that have to be met to autorotate (speed, altitude etc.) great video, thanks!

Cool

Awesome explanations Jake.. you also could have shown or explained how energy change influences in performing an autororation. I.E from high potential energy to kinetic energies of the out of speed of the helicopter and the speed of the rotors... you also forgot to mention that as the inflow air from below is called THE RATE OF DESCENT FLOW. Other than that man im really getting he best outta these videos quick review. im foing my ppl in SA just finished the principles of flight in was just digging dip and here you were. Any way i want to be a pilot bt really scared of heights. any advice?

it's unclear for me, as if the airflow is reversed through the blades due to descent, the airstream momentum acting on the blades tends to reverse the rotation of the rotor as well (or at least to decrease the RPM) but not to increase the RPM... unless a negative blade pitch is applied; not sure if its possible, though I'm not a professional.Would you like to clarify?

sir in autorotation what is the significance of rod and the heptr with high all up weight induces more rod than the lighter one if yes then why please answer

Is the Pitch up during the flare proper at each hélicoptère ?

So I have a question. U lose engine. As the chopper falls you start auto rotation. Pls explain why the whole helicopter doesn't rotate uncontrollably? I ask because I thought what stopped a chopper from spinning uncontrollably was the tail rotor contering the rotation that would be caused by main rotor alone. If you are falling in autorotation without engine power I suppose the tail rotor wont turn. Or just the turning of main rotor is linked to synchronize with tail rotor regarless of it being powered by en engine or just the wind caused by free fall of gravity?I hope that made sense. Also I understand this varies but +/- what is minimum altitude to pull this off safely? Thanx in advance for any answers

It was a good video bro But can you please ellobrate that during Autorotation : 1. Which part of advancing blade produces lift and which part is stalled region 2. Which part of re-treating blade produces lift and wihich part is stalled region Note: Main rotar is rotating Clockwise

Normally AOA = increase in foward airspeed? But in autorotation = decrease in foward airspeed?

Thank you chief! wish we get cross each other. I was a 15r now i am in flight school.

has the advanced auto video been posted yet?

is it actually possible, to autorotate-land the apache with 0 forward speed?

Just nitpicking here. During autorotation, the lifting regent (C) also contributes to the force that keeps the rotor spinning. The same force generated by the wings of a glider pushes it forward.

Thanks for sharing. During autoratation, since the tail rotor is also power off, how to prevent or minimum the helicopter from spinning?

If a household fan is blowing against a breeze and the power goes out, the breeze will blow the blades of the fan in the opposite direction. Why don't the blades on the helicopter do the same thing?

Clear as mud to me

How helicopter turns left to right or right to left?

Song?

Sir can you tell me what is termination again? Plz. ( 5:00 )

If the rotor is connected to the engine and the engine dies why doesn't the rotor stop?

I read that the pilot, who was flying the helicopter that crashed and killed country music star, Troy Gentry, attempted this maneuver, and it seems it did not work. There are many articles that say the crash was the result of "pilot error", though it seems the autorotation maneuver is a common one, that can be used in case of engine failure - or as in this case - the pilot purposely shuts down the engine. Shouldn't the upward airflow have actually made the rotors speed-up? I'm trying to understand what exactly was the "pilot error" here. Thanks

How can the Russian k-52 Alligator rotate?

Your videos always start out with Army helicopters. Are you an Army aviator?

After how much later of engine failure should a pilot enter into autorotation and on what factors does it depend ? Can this duration be be different for same helicopter at different conditions ?

i still dont understand the aerodynamic force that causes the blades to gain rpm, it have thought an upwards flow would make the blades loose rpm and want to spin backwards

ya, but show us the blade angles

I think a way to ilustrate autorotation is to study another flying machine, the autogyro plane / gyrocopter. It flyies without power to main rotor.

How nice of physics to allow for a chance to survive a heli engine failure 😅

Autos to touchdown? YES or NO? I am now inclined to prefer the European practice.

The question is, what is auto rotation. Please define.

Every time I see someone with a board explaining mostly they don't know that much. The number of blades + the weight of the helicopter play also a big role ; kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ZpuPiqmnzZ-tg58.html. Besides there are a lot of "specialists" of autorotation landing but they put some power back on last moment "but it doesn't do anything" in real life is to avoid helicopter damage. So in real life there is not emergency help from the engine. I isn't that easy ,

Here after Miami helo crash into the ocean

When you say at 4:45 => "... We have the Descent Phase, where we're CROSS CHECKING ALL OF OUR INSTRUMENTATION to make sure we are in a steady state autorotation prior to the ground..." With the "engine out," what are "ALL OF THE INSTRUMENTATION" that we should be cross checking? And from what instruments are we cross checking from? ... and back to? What if you realize that you have been taught to cross check all of your instrumentation and you suddenly realize that there wasn't time for all that this time? ... and you should have had a plan that works every time - even when there is no time - to check all of the instrumentation, like you were told to do by Mr 10-minute Helicopter Guy with the black wedding ring? When there is no time: you need to always be at minimum autorotation altitude and airspeed and then at engine out: drop the pitch handle and fly down and flare out with the dead stick. Works every time. No need for your "IFR!"