# Autorotation explained
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 29, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446 "2016-04-29T19:28:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/1 "2016-04-29T19:28:04Z")
Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson tweeted, ‘FYI: An airplane whose engine fails is a glider. A helicopter whose engine fails is a brick.’ A pilot in Vancouver, BC [responded by explaining autorotations](http://www.iflscience.com/physics/man-lands-helicopter-engine-settle-debate-degrasse-tyson).
The article has the video response that you can click on, which shows some of the awesome natural features we have in this part of the world, and shows how a helicopter can be landed safely in the event of a power failure.
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### Author:  [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2016, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/2 "2016-04-29T19:46:43Z")
Holy Shit. No. Holy Moly. Give me some wings. PLEASE. LOL. Love you helo guys but you do know you all are crazy. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2016, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/3 "2016-04-29T19:59:16Z")
Awesome. Thanks **Johnny**!
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2016, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/4 "2016-04-29T20:00:32Z")
> [@Cabin\_Fever](#):
>
> you do know you all are crazy. 🙂
Huh? 😕
Autorotation is a blast! It’s like having your own personal roller coaster!
Please, God, let me win the lottery so I can buy a helicopter!
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### Author:  [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2016, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/5 "2016-04-29T20:12:33Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> Huh? 😕
>
> Autorotation is a blast! It’s like having your own personal roller coaster!
>
> Please, God, let me win the lottery so I can buy a helicopter!
I can explain this fascination to others if I may. Fly up in sky. Nothing better. Hard to explain in print, best experienced first-hand.
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### Author:  [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2016, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/6 "2016-04-29T20:16:46Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> Huh? 😕
>
> Autorotation is a blast! It’s like having your own personal roller coaster!
>
> Please, God, let me win the lottery so I can buy a helicopter!
Just a memory of being shot down while a hapless passenger back in the day is all. I love flying, I just want to be PIC. There is a special talent to fly helicopters.
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### Author:  [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2016, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/7 "2016-04-29T20:26:42Z")
I should explain my “Crazy helo driver” talk to everyone.
(How does one explain this?) Military helicopter pilots …
…well they will scare the crap out of you for fun and giggles.
Just because they can. 😃
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2016, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/8 "2016-04-29T20:37:58Z")
> [@Cabin\_Fever](#):
>
> There is a special talent to fly helicopters.
Stereotypically, pilots have enormous egos – helicopter pilots doubly so. Heck, I’m surprised I can if in the cockpit for all the room my ego occupies! 😛 But in reality, helicopters aren’t that hard to fly. It’s just that the hardest thing to learn is the _first_ thing you need to learn. I won’t say they’re easier or harder to fly than airplanes, but I prefer them.
My wife was a military helicopter pilot. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2016, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/9 "2016-04-29T20:55:47Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> Stereotypically, pilots have enormous egos – helicopter pilots doubly so. Heck, I’m surprised I can if in the cockpit for all the room my ego occupies! 😛 But in reality, helicopters aren’t that hard to fly. It’s just that the hardest thing to learn is the _first_ thing you need to learn. I won’t say they’re easier or harder to fly than airplanes, but I prefer them.
>
> My wife was a military helicopter pilot. 🙂
ETA. Just wanted to add, that was a beautiful flight video over some awesome landscape. Thanks for the link.
Kudos to your wife BTW. May I ask what she flew? I am trying to buy a used Apache from a dealer of unknown repute and need an instructor. 🙂 Just kidding. My flight sim is enough. Whew.
Anyway. You may have talked me into the local flight school here. No mountains here, however there is a huge big blue lake and a Coast Guard Station next door so maybe all will be well. 😃
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [April 29, 2016, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/10 "2016-04-29T21:19:32Z")
> [@Cabin\_Fever](#):
>
> ETA. Just wanted to add, that was a beautiful flight video over some awesome landscape. Thanks for the link.
It’s stunning up here! I’m actually just 35 miles south of Vancouver, and Bellingham, WA is 25 miles away from here. I wish I could afford to fly nowadays.
> [@Cabin\_Fever](#):
>
> Kudos to your wife BTW. May I ask what she flew?
She flew UH-60 Black Hawks in Iraq during the war.
> [@Cabin\_Fever](#):
>
> Anyway. You may have talked me into the local flight school here.
It’s a lot of fun. Sunny day, doors off, flying low… And then there are the autorotations. When you lower your collective and get into the glide it’s like being on rails. Rails you can turn whenever you want. Another fun thing is the ‘quick stop’. That simulates a power or tail rotor failure on take-off. You’re moving forward, in the take-off profile, and then lower your collective, adjust your pedals, and pull back on your cyclic. In practice you recover into a hover. In a real emergency, you make an autorotation landing at the end. Quick stops are like riding a boogie board on a nice wave.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/11 "2016-04-30T21:22:21Z")
Thanks, **Johnny L.A.!**
I had only a vague idea that such a thing was possible. Now, I more-or-less understand how it works.
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### Author:  [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/12 "2016-04-30T22:53:16Z")
> [@Cabin\_Fever](#):
>
> Holy Shit. No. Holy Moly. Give me some wings. PLEASE. LOL. Love you helo guys but you do know you all are crazy. 🙂
Helicopters do have wings, they just rotate instead of being fixed.
Back when I was flying Hueys in the Army(80-85) we did all our autorotations to the ground. Was talking to a CW3 the other day and he informed me they now do them all with a power recovery. Nowhere near as fun or in my opinion the same for training purposes.
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### Author:  [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/13 "2016-04-30T23:04:57Z")
Very interesting film. But there is one misconception.
Helicopters do not fly. They beat the air into submission.
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### Author:  [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/14 "2016-04-30T23:13:44Z")
I went out to the local airport today (KLDM). I got to talk to a few fixed-wing pilots.
Had a good time, but learned not many helicopters swing by here other than Medivac and the Coast Guard. Advice was to go to Grand Rapids MI and check around there which I may do.
Also stopped by our local hospital to schmooze with my favorite nurse 😉 and a Medical chopper landed while I was there. I wanted to say “Hello” to the pilot, but deferred as he was filling out paperwork and the nature of his arrival.
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### Author:  [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/15 "2016-04-30T23:28:54Z")
> [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](#):
>
> Very interesting film. But there is one misconception.
>
> Helicopters do not fly. They beat the air into submission.
See, that is the thing. I have great respect towards a pilot than can guide a 10 ton beast gently to the ground. With no power.
Heading down to KGGR tomorrow with a friend. Already booked a flight. Crap.
Haven’t been in a helo since … 1972.
I am bringing a fresh pair of underwear, wish me luck.
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### Author:  [@Cabin\_Fever\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cabin_Fever_1)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/16 "2016-04-30T23:33:13Z")
> [@rsat3acr](#):
>
> Helicopters do have wings, they just rotate instead of being fixed.
>
> Back when I was flying Hueys in the Army(80-85) we did all our autorotations to the ground. Was talking to a CW3 the other day and he informed me they now do them all with a power recovery. Nowhere near as fun or in my opinion the same for training purposes.
See? I know you were all crazy. 😃
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [April 30, 2016, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/17 "2016-04-30T23:38:50Z")
> [@Cabin\_Fever](#):
>
> Heading down to KGGR tomorrow with a friend. Already booked a flight… wish me luck.
Have fun!
And be sure to ask the pilot to do an autorotation and some quick stops.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2016, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/18 "2016-05-01T00:38:12Z")
> [@rsat3acr](#):
>
> Back when I was flying Hueys in the Army(80-85) we did all our autorotations to the ground. Was talking to a CW3 the other day and he informed me they now do them all with a power recovery. Nowhere near as fun or in my opinion the same for training purposes.
Sometimes here you can see the test pilots doing full run-on autorotations. So cool to see a heli autorotate and then go sliding across the ground. Looks like the heli is sliding into second base.
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2016, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/19 "2016-05-01T00:59:02Z")
Auto-rotation is pretty venerable. They were using autogyros fairly early in in WWII, before they were using helicopters.
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### Author:  [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)
#### Post date: [May 1, 2016, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/autorotation-explained/753446/20 "2016-05-01T01:00:02Z")
Used to love it at night with all the sparks flying down the runway