Power Recovery Autorotation: But Don’t Touch The Throttle? By Randy Rowles
Part 135 operators are given much flexibility to develop an FAA- approved training program specific to each operator. Although there are national norms related to the amount of training time an operator may spend on ground or flight training modules, the modules themselves are well defined. Where the flexibility exists is in the standard of the maneuvers flown, with the FAA Practical Test Standards (PTS) often used as a minimum. In cases where an operator desires a different outcome for a maneuver in a more restrictive manner, it may be included in that specific operator’s FAA-approved training program.
A growing trend being accepted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is conducting power recovery autorotation without reducing the throttle in the helicopter. The thought is simply to conduct an autorotative profile by lowering the collective and demonstrating the ability to reach an intended point of landing simply by a collective reduction. Additionally, the ability to prevent the rotor rpm from increasing beyond power-on limits is considered rotor rpm control and meets the intended standard. In my opinion, this practice is dangerous and gives the pilot a false sense of security about the autorotative characteristics of a particular aircraft.
To protect FAA inspectors during flight evaluations, the FAA has altered its definition of a power recovery autorotation by allowing its own staff to use these procedures. This is occurring not in the shadows, but captured within the textual descriptions of the autorotation in the operators maneuver description section of the FAA-approved training program.
Randy Rowles has been an FAA pilot examiner for 20 years for all helicopter certificates and ratings. He holds an FAA Gold Seal Flight Instructor Certificate, NAFI Master Flight Instructor designation, and was the 2013 recipient of the HAI Flight Instructor of the Year Award. Rowles is currently the owner of the Helicopter Institute. He can be reached at
randyrowlesdpe@gmail.com
If you have any comments or questions, please let me know at
randyrowlesdpe@gmail.com
80 July/Aug 2022
I first observed this method of conducting an autorotation being defined as a power recovery during an offsite Part 135 A031 Contract Training event. I initially assumed the manual was written incorrectly and the description was missed during the manual approval process. I was quite surprised when the operator defended this practice as the preferred method to avoid rotor overspeed, and the operator’s FAA inspector or Principal Operations Inspector (POI) agreed.
I previously wrote about this growing trend of altering maneuvers being done mostly by the FAA, to sterilize the procedure and minimize potential risk and liability to the FAA. However, this accepted procedure to change the method of conducting certain maneuvers, especially high-profile maneuvers where proficiency is critical to survival, could in fact make a maneuver more dangerous when the actual emergency or procedure is executed.
The same FAA inspectors who have approved these altered methods of conducting a power recovery autorotation will not allow this method to be used by certificate-seeking applicants when being checked by designated pilot examiners (DPE). When asked why that is, the FAA inspector responded that a DPE should be more proficient so the conventional method should be utilized.
Openly altering or modifying maneuvers to satisfy the inability of an FAA inspector to function in their capacity of evaluation is simply dangerous. Additionally, this method of evaluation is doing just the opposite. During these altered maneuvers, the focus now becomes “don’t break the aircraft” and not the applicant’s proficiency in arresting low rotor rpm situations, etc.
This practice needs to stop. When this was brought up to the FAA, verbal comments reflected agreement and intent to remedy. That was months ago. Today, even more operators are moving away from standardized methods of conducting flight maneuvers without reflecting on the potential negative impact these alterations may have on safety. Additionally, many operators have moved away from conducting in-aircraft autorotations altogether, conducting such maneuvers only in simulation.
More than half of the pilots I fly with during annual insurance training who receive minimal in-aircraft autorotation training fail to properly lower the collective when the throttle is reduced on their initial unexpected autorotation in training. Remember, it’s your action or lack of action to the emergency that decides your future. Train for action!
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