Army Helos to Civilian Fixed Wing Transition

[mhcasey]

Figured I'd ask the experts first, and maybe move the finer points into CFI Corner or Technical Talk. I've got a new Private Add-on student that is a blackhawk pilot. On our first few flights, I was surprised to find that pulling the power made her extremely nervous. Later I realized that well, when the rotor stops on the helos (or gets really slow), you're going to be in for a rough day. Once I demonstrated a few glides and threw in the "remember, the rotor is just a rotating wing," she felt a lot better.

Any other tips on easing the transition for her?

[MFT1Air]

I find that once helo pilots have experienced a few recover from unusual attitudes or power on stalls, they get an increased level of confidence and comfort with fixed wings.

I flew quite a lot in the military as a pax and door gunner back in the day, so I can empathize some with what helo pilots experience. It's a much different visual "presentation" with a helo vice fixed wing, but once you've done it a couple of times, it feels much better.

[Blackhawk]

I'm not sure why it would bother her. When the engine stops in a helicopter, you auto rotate. Or in her case being a Blackhawk pilot, you adjust to single engine airspeed.
The only maneuver that may be a problem is steep turns. For some time the Army was not teaching them in flight school; it made things interesting when I then had to teach combat maneuvers to pilots prior to deployments. We had to start with steep turns.
During landings just tell her to land the airplane as if she were doing a roll-on landing. Very similar pitch attitude in the flair as a 172.

[MFT1Air]

Perhaps she likens it to losing a tail rotor or something. Good question.

[88MPH]

Pull the mixture on her. Then something as subtle as the redux of power wont seem so bad