Helicopter Rotor Wash on Takeoff

[Adam]

Thought I'd share a little video of a recent takeoff I had.   Just another day, just another routine takeoff roll.  Notice the helicopter on the taxiway, he turns and his rotor wash / engine exhaust wash create a nice wake turbulence over the active runway.  As I lift off - I'm pushed hard to the left.   Moral to the story?  Perhaps I should have noticed and waited.  Anaheim PD and FD operate constantly out of their bases at Fullerton - Helicopter traffic is virtually a reality on every flight.  First time I had this happen, thought I'd share for learning experience.

 

 

[Runtoeat]

Adam, always good to have reports like these.  We can get complacent when flying in our home airports and start to assume all takeoffs will be SOP.  I didn't hear you report to the tower about the rotor wash upset.  You reacted and handled this well due to your experience.  May not be so with a student pilot?  If this situation occurs frequently at your airport, perhaps ATC might start to advise light planes taking off to be aware of possible rotor wash, should a heli be hovering near the active.  Similar to ATC advising of jet wake turbulence which they often do at my airport.

[John Vance]

At my home airport in NC, we often have V-22 Ospreys practicing landings and hovering over the runway.  I have no idea how far the rotor blast extends, but these are big machines, and I'm reluctant to land or take off if they're sitting anywhere on the field with props turning. It's a small uncontrolled field with no taxiways. They're fun to watch, though. 

[CT4ME]

Wow... 'hit you like a big gust from the right.  Lesson learned.  thanx

[Cluemeister]

Adam,

Do you know what your reaction was?  I couldn't see your instinctive inputs in the video.  Did you apply rudder or aileron?  Do you think you applied the right inputs?

[Adam]

10 hours ago, Runtoeat said:

Adam, always good to have reports like these.  We can get complacent when flying in our home airports and start to assume all takeoffs will be SOP.  I didn't hear you report to the tower about the rotor wash upset.  You reacted and handled this well due to your experience.  May not be so with a student pilot?  If this situation occurs frequently at your airport, perhaps ATC might start to advise light planes taking off to be aware of possible rotor wash, should a heli be hovering near the active.  Similar to ATC advising of jet wake turbulence which they often do at my airport.

To be honest, It took a few minutes to realize what happened (I was wondering what else I may have done) and only later when I was able to study the video did I absolutely conclude it was the helicopter.  We had a takeoff accident not too long ago here.  Similar, veer left only the individual crashed, and was unhurt (thankfully).  I think I'll share my video with the guys in the tower (now that you mention it).  There is a Remos on the field that does flight instruction so student pilots are frequent. 

[Adam]

4 hours ago, Cluemeister said:

Adam,

Do you know what your reaction was?  I couldn't see your instinctive inputs in the video.  Did you apply rudder or aileron?  Do you think you applied the right inputs?

If you look at the bottom of the top frame you can see the top of my tan wood stick.  On liftoff I was pushed left, so I countered right with the stick.  On the bottom frame you can see the nose wheel and at liftoff I applied right rudder.  Totally instinctive, I didn't have time to think, (right or wrong) I just did.

 

[coppercity]

Thanks for sharing Adam.

[rtk]

Wow - agreed with CopperCity - thank you for sharing, Adam!

I fly out of KFUL as well, and frequently in the Remos you mention.  (There are actually two Remos aircraft at the flight school.)  Usually the tower is pretty good about warning of turbulence as helicopters take off (which is frequent at KFUL since the CHP, television news helicopters and a few other helicopters are based there.)  Between the helicopters and the winds from the hangars, it can be a handful taking off or landing at KFUL.

[Andy]

One of the most unstable air masses I've flown through on approach was generated by a  Marine CH-47 Chinook doing touch and go's at our airport.  All you can do is fly it out and, frankly, I was so "all over the place" in airflow that felt very odd and didn't make sense.  The wake turbulence guidance the FAA publishes is concerned with a helicopter in a hover that can disturb the air up to three rotor diameters away and to stay above their flight path (just like avoiding the big heavies).  (You can see more in AC 90-23G.) I was doing a intro ride in my CTSW with a prospective student and was happy to full stop it and get a Coke until the Chinook left...

[Roger Lee]

 

[Ed Cesnalis]

Thanks for posting that Roger, fascinating!

[Ed Cesnalis]

This guy parks by my hangar and I get to mix it up with heavier twin main rotor jobs from Pickle Meadows. 

Roger's video goes a long way in reminding me to give these heavies a wide berth.

[Tom Baker]

Years ago I saw a Breezy literally get blown out of the air while in the landing round out by a twin rotor helicopter at Oshkosh. The helicopter was military, and made an unannounced low pass down runway 18.