Heres a new one for the books and possibly stir things up a little. I once
had to do an auto from about 500 ft AGL but with a power recovery. When
doing my warm-up I noticed the rotors spool up a little more than normal but
didn't think to much of it at the time. Once all the temps were in the green
I set out and departed and all seemed normal. Once at altitude I notice that
my EGT's would sky rocket as soon as I reduced the throttle for cruise, did
I mention I was in a Mini 500. The mini has two sets of carburater jets, one
for cruise, and one for higher power settings. So my only option I could see
at the time was to keep climbing or go faster, both using the higher power
setting, or auto back to my departure point. I did a quick circuit back so
as to auto into wind and then cut the throttle to idle and entered the auto.
At the bottom of the auto I did a power recovery at about 10 ft agl and set
it down uneventfully, changed the jets to richer ones and set off again with
no problems. Just goes to show that I should have noticed that with the
rotors spooling up at idle (slightly higher engine RPM do to the leaner
jets) I should have looked into what was the cause. I should also mention
that this was the only engine problem I had in appox. 300 hrs of flying the
Mini.
Kirt

"Stuart & Kathryn Fields" wrote in message
.. .
At first, I only read these with interest and then I remembered that I did
have the engine quit one day and I successfully set it down. I had about
12
hrs total helo time and was in the process of hovering off some test time
on
my Baby Belle. The mixture at idle was a little rich so I tweaked the
mixture back until the engine ran smooth while I warmed it up. When it
was
ready, I lifted off into a hover and the engine quit. Too lean a mixture
for full power. I had never practiced a hovering auto in my ship yet but
I
guess the reflex action was correct. Thanks to "Ol Shy & Bashful"'s
posting, I now can say I have had an auto to the ground. This one was so
quick I didn't have time to get scared.
--
Stuart Fields


"Toad-Man" wrote in message
1...
"Ol Shy & Bashful" wrote in
ups.com:

It's getting pretty boring here. So, who has done an actual emergency
autorotation and what was the outcome?
As previously posted, I've done at least five with various failures
and
all to successful conclusions. Geeez guys....it's Christmas! Can't we
say something or do something to brighten up the spirit of the season?
I have a phyxed wing student who just did a terrible landing recovery
this week and jammed the nose wheel up into the cowling doing about
30K
of damage to a C172SP. Curled the prop and all. Talk about a dampener
to the Xmas spirit?
So, what have you done lately? Anything to brighten up the day?
Ol Shy & Bashful


So far I've only had one engine failure (piston) - it happened on the
ground during the run up! Best engine out procedure I ever handled

The school here has had a few though. Pistons like to quit during
practice autos just to check you really had a good place to go when you
chopped the throttle. They've all ended up OK....

However, a few autos to the ground (engine still working), that haven't
been so successful - definitely seems that practicing for autos is more
dangerous than the real thing...

Merry Christmas guys. Fly safe.

toad.