I don't think Reasoner is/was actually a helicopter pilot, but he pretty
much got it right about the attitude of a helicopter when it's off the
ground. Airplanes WANT to fly, helicopters don't.
Auto-rotation isn't so much a glide as a way to brake the fall just a
tiny bit right before you hit the ground. Scary as shit if you happen to
be sitting in the back.
From: Steven Desjardins
Can't a helicopter autorotate down if the engine fails?
On Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 1:42 PM, John Sessoms <[email protected]> wrote:
From: "Daniel J. Matyola"
I took a course in aeronautics. ?I understand how fixed wing aircraft
fly, but helicopters are still a mystery to me.
The thing is, helicopters are different from planes. An airplane by it's
nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual
events or by a deliberately incompetent pilot, it will fly. A helicopter
does not want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces
and controls working in opposition to each other, and if there is any
disturbance in this delicate balance the helicopter stops flying;
immediately and disastrously. There is no such thing as a gliding
helicopter.
This is why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an
airplane pilot, and why in generality, airplane pilots are open,
clear-eyed, buoyant extroverts and helicopter pilots are brooding
introspective anticipators of trouble. They know if something bad has
not happened it is about to.
? Harry Reasoner, 1971.
Helicopters don't fly....they beat the air into submission
- Anon
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