A new emergency procedure, in Year 70 of widespread helicopter flying… a technique for getting out of vortex ring state with a powered bank instead of by reducing power and lowering the noise: “Flying Through the Vortex” (Rotor & Wing, September 1, 2015) by Tim Tucker, reporting on a technique developed by Claude Vuichard, a Swiss pilot.
6 thoughts on “Bank your way out of the vortex ring state”
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Non pilot that I am – I expected some Economics topic with a cryptic title.
Divorced as I am – I expected some legal advice about separation with a sardonic title.
Pilot (of non-rotorcraft) that I am, I also assumed this was about some impending economic disaster, not aviation.
Pilot (rotorcraft including) I found this article amazing!
Have you tried it on R44?
In hindsight, it seems perfectly intuitive that slipping sideways would take you out of a downdraft but somehow no one figured this out until Mr. Vuichard. I suppose the inherently fragile nature of helicopter dynamics does not encourage experimentation. Apologies if I have not used the right terminology.
I wonder how this might be used when flying the V22. I seem to recall that at least one a/c was lost due to ring vortex.