Helicopters for glider pilots

Yes, the R-22 is certainly "twitchy." But I've been told that if one
can fly that, there's no helicopter that they won't be able to
handle. Or maybe one should learn on something "easier" and then be
basically barred from flying the most common helo in the world. Maybe
it's like taildraggers. If you learn from scratch in one, it's no big
deal. By the time you can fly the airplane and land it, you can
handle that or probably most any taildragger. But if you learn in a
tri-gear airplane, you're basically barred from more than half of the
Sport Pilot capable airplanes.

My first flight with Chris Townsend was an introductory flight
lesson. It had flight instruction in it, but there was also a lot of
demonstration aspects to it, like confined area landing and takeoff,
and one-skid landings to drop off a passenger. When it came time to
demonstrate an autorotation, and he had me close the throttle at about
800 feet, I was nervous, as I've watched many of those from the ground
in everything from R-22s to UH-1s. He brought that little helo to a
full stop on the ground without ever touching the throttle, and made
it seem easy. I asked him, "If I were to learn to fly this helo from
you all the way to my license, would I be allowed to do autos to
touchdown?" He replied: "I'm sure not going to even solo you in this
until you can do autos to touchdown time after time." I have no doubt
he would have been able to teach that, even though I don't think
there's a single operator in the US which does touchdown autos in
R-22s.

Ed