McMINNVILLE, Oregon — Jerry Trimble Helicopters (JTH) hosted the ninth edition of its Touchdown Autorotation Contest on Sept. 28, 2024.
An autorotation is the maneuver a helicopter pilot performs during an engine failure, simulated or actual, to safely land.
The Touchdown Autorotation Contest was open to 10 pilots, plus two alternates.
First place was awarded to Eli Vossler from Leading Edge Flight Academy in Bend, Oregon. Second and third place were JTH instructors Isaac Groves and Kolton Merritt.
Contestants included four instructors from Leading Edge Flight Academy, one came from Sweden, a lone JTH student, and the remainder were JTH instructors.
“Jerry is known in the industry for ‘full down’ autorotation training,” said JTH President Alison Row.
Rather than recover prior to landing, a “full down” is an autorotation all the way to the ground will a full stop, she explains.
“Full down” training, like spin training in fixed wing aircraft, is taught less and less.
Each contestant attempted two autorotations in a JTH Robinson R-22 with Jerry flying along as a safety pilot.
A trio of judges scored the pilots on entering the autorotation, how close they landed to a line on the taxiway, and length of ground slide.
The judges were Ron Gustafson, long-standing helicopter DPE, Joe Mollahan, airport bum and aviation safety nerd, and Pete Riedl, original VP of Engineering at Robinson Helicopter Co.
For more information: JerryTrimbleHelicopters.com
(I’m in a roll today, forgive me LOL ). As an old Army HUEY instructor (and current cfi rw/fw) my two students did three+, full touch down autos every day. If they didn’t learn in training it was a tough lesson to be learned in the field. Having said that, and with just a bit of R22 time I commend these folk for teaching and doing with that minimalist rotor inertia. Between the mast bumping/full deflection issues that is a necessary but challenging task. Don’t let ANYONE talk you out of keeping these, or at least demos, in the syllabus. If it goes the way of spin training in airplanes we’ll continue to let the untrained hurt themselves.