The R22 as a Training Helicopter
Introduction
There are always seem to be two factions when it comes to discussing the R22 and particularly when it comes to looking at training there are those who love the R22 and those who loathe it. The R22 lovers often seem to try and defend everything about it even when perhaps like most things it has its limitations.
My personal opinion before I get started is that I think its a great personal helicopter, its reliable (from a maintenance point of view), economical from a fuel burn point of view (as far as helicopters go), quick enough to be of use (just) and its fun to fly. I do however believe it to be a 2nd rate training aircraft, its too twitchy, it has too many gotchas for inexperienced pilots and god forbid you have an engine failure, you are probably going to have a bad day regardless of how well you can perform the autorotation exercise.
The Issues
As a result of it just meeting the certification requirements the pilot intervention time in the event of an engine failure is just too short for most people who when happily flying around minding their own business are not expecting the failure.
Thankfully engine failures are rare probably due to the pilot derating of the engine. A lot of pilots and instructors seem to be unaware of the overspeed limits for Lycoming engines and as a result the odd minor excursion of the ERPM needle goes unreported, soon afterwards a magneto failure or other such engine power reducing event occurs, usually with some other poor sole in the pilots seat at the time.
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Carb Ice incidents are unfortunately monotonously regular and R22s are destroyed on a regular basis as a result of suspected carb ice.
I am constantly told by pilots thats when operating at high power that icing is unlikely to form in the Carburettor and this statement in its own right does seem to be true. However when operating at reduced power, for instance when using a derated engine which would be operating at high power to produce say 160hp is not working as hard to produce say 131hp when it is installed in an R22 and the throttle butterfly will not be fully open at Sea Level on a close to ISA day. This can lead to a false sense of security in inexperienced pilots as the anecdotal evidence of their instructors is passed down to them.
A good belt and braces check is before the first start of the day compare the Outside Air Temperature gauge reading with the Carburettor Air Temperature gauge, they should be the same, if they are not one may be defective. There is of course nothing to stop the gauge becoming defective in flight, so knowledge fo how likely Carb Icing is that day in that location is always valuable as is the occasional use of the Carburettor Heat Control whether the gauge says its needed or not.
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With constant practice instructors usually become very proficient at handling the R22 in autorotation, but Self Fly Hire pilots and some owners don't get enough exposure to the auto characteristics of the R22 particularly post licence issue and the skill erodes.
The Robinson flight manual cautions against throttle chops, probably with good reason, the rotor RPM decays very quickly, does it mean its impossible to do, no it doesn't, when I learnt to fly helicopters every autorotation was initiated with a throttle chop, but the aircraft is very unforgiving and you only need to get it wrong once to cause damage or injury.
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As a result of far too many Engine off landing accidents during training we are now in a position were student pilots are shown Engine Offs to the ground but do not practice them as part of the UK JAA PPL(H) course. The thinking behind this is logical in one respect in that it saves R22s being destroyed during practice EOLS by students or instructors who get behind the aircraft or each other, what it does create however is a situation were until a type rating or CPL skills test you don't have to complete an engine off to the ground on your own.
How does the soon to be instructor then get the skill required to go off on his own (not with his FIC instructor sat next to him) and do engine offs without supervision ? Answer he doesn't and the skill level in the instructor base gets eroded again. This didn't seem to be a major problem until the R22 came on the scene (thats not to say it didn't exist).
Whilst there are several helicopters out there with teetering heads they at least had some inertia, and didn't flex in the middle when persuaded to. As a result of the R22s own peculiar rotor design it does seem to have a nasty habit of chopping off its own tail in the event of an engine problem when the rotor RPM decays, at which point your skill level really does become immaterial and you just become an interested passenger whose life is probably about to end in a myriad of light and sound.
There is at least one recorded incident of an R22 with high RRPM suffering a main rotor divergence incident, with audio evidence from an on board tape recorder.
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As a lot of pilots know, the derated engine gives us a get of jail free card if we get ourselves into a situation we wish we hadn't and need some more power. This seems to give some pilots the feeling that they can just bust the limits when they feel like and as a result particularly in summer R22s get used for training flights without a great deal of planning from a performance point of view and the Manifold Pressure Limits are constantly being busted.
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