AS350 B3e course · Emergencies
How emergencies work
Fly first, then diagnose, then follow the book
The essentials
This part of the course teaches recognition, the reasons behind procedures and the traps — not the procedures themselves, which are in your RFM and nowhere else.
The order is always the same: fly the aircraft (rotor rpm, attitude, airspeed), identify the problem with a second indication, then act — from memory for the few immediate actions, from the checklist for the rest.
Then decide how soon to land, using the RFM's phrases.
Rotor rpm first
In a helicopter almost every emergency comes back to the rotor. Low rotor rpm loses lift and control and may not be recoverable; high rotor rpm over-stresses the rotor and drive.
That's why the first glance in any surprise is at the rotor rpm, and why the first hand movement in an engine problem is usually the collective.
Source 1
How the aircraft tells you
The warning system speaks in three voices:
- the horn — rotor rpm out of range; the one that can't wait
- a red light with the gong — a warning that needs action now
- an amber light — a caution: something is degraded
The aircraft speaks too: a yaw you didn't ask for, a change in engine noise, a new vibration, a smell. Often one of these comes before any light, and it is just as much a warning.
Memory items and the checklist
A few emergencies need action within seconds — before there's time to read anything. Those immediate actions are learned by heart and practised.
Everything else is done with the checklist, deliberately, once the aircraft is under control. Doing a reference procedure from memory is how steps get skipped.
Startle
An unexpected warning can startle: a few seconds in which thinking is slow and the urge to act is strong. The FAA handbook notes that accident investigations found pilots facing a real power failure in cruise did not make the needed control inputs in time, and warns that in a twin, shutting down the wrong engine could be disastrous.
The defence is rehearsal: knowing what each warning looks and sounds like, and what your hands will do first.
Confirm, but don't dawdle
A light is a sensor's opinion. Before an action you can't undo — shutting down an engine, isolating a system — look for a second indication: a gauge, a noise, the aircraft's behaviour.
Confirming is one glance on the way to the procedure, not a debate. And the immediate actions that protect rotor rpm don't wait for confirmation: lowering the collective is safe for an engine failure and for a governor failing low alike.
How urgent: the RFM's phrases
Emergency procedures usually end with how soon to land. A common scale — wording varies by manufacturer — runs from land immediately (the aircraft may not stay flying) through land as soon as possible (the nearest safe site) to land as soon as practicable (a suitable site, without extending the flight). The Warnings chapter has the generic meanings; the exact wording is at the front of your RFM's emergency section.
The phrase sets the time. You still choose the site — and in a helicopter "the nearest safe site" is often a field rather than an airfield.
Source 2
Where you are decides how much time you have
The same failure can be a non-event high and fast and a crash low and slow. Height buys time to react; speed buys energy to flare with and a fin that helps with yaw.
The height-velocity diagram maps this for an engine failure. Utility work — long-line, wire patrol, hover work — lives in its shaded areas by necessity. That makes the plan for "what if, right now" part of the job, not an afterthought.
A way to decide
Once the aircraft is under control, decisions follow a pattern most training material shares, including the FAA's: recognise what has changed, consider what it means and what options you have, choose one, act, and then check whether it worked.
The value of a model is that it stops the two classic errors: acting before diagnosing, and diagnosing so long that the options run out.
Source 5
Practising emergencies safely
Emergencies are trained by simulating them, and the simulation is a risk of its own. The FAA's autorotation guidance (AC 61-140A) cites a review in which autorotation-training failures featured in 68 of 523 helicopter accidents.
Two patterns recur: the exercise drifts past the point where it should have been abandoned; and the aircraft is left in an abnormal configuration — a switch, a twist grip — when a check or exercise ends. Brief the exercise, the abort criteria and the way back to normal before starting.
After you're down
An emergency doesn't end at touchdown. A rotor still turning, a fire, a damaged tail rotor or water around the aircraft each bring their own dangers to the people getting out.
The passenger brief — doors, belts, where to go and which way not to walk — is part of the emergency procedure for them.
Source 12
A warning appears. What comes first?
Fly first. Then identify, then act.
Which of these can least afford to wait?
The horn. Rotor rpm out of range threatens lift and control within seconds.
Why aren't all emergency procedures done from memory?
Only immediate actions are memorised. The rest are read, so nothing is missed.
Before an action you can't undo, what should you look for?
A gauge, a noise, the aircraft's behaviour — one glance that confirms the light is telling the truth.
What is the recurring trap at the end of a simulated emergency?
A switch or twist grip left where the exercise put it. Restoring the configuration is part of the exercise.
Sources
- Helicopter Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-21B) · FAA · Chapter 11, Helicopter Emergencies and Hazards
- Helicopter Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-21B) · FAA · Chapter 5, Rotorcraft Flight Manual
- AAIB report: AS350 B3e Ecureuil, G-MATH · UK AAIB
- Aviation Investigation Report A08A0007 (AS 350 BA C-FHHH, power-recovery autorotation, Mount Pearl) · Transportation Safety Board of Canada · Summary, History of the flight, Analysis, footnote 2
- Helicopter Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-21B) · FAA · Chapter 13, Effective Aeronautical Decision-Making
- Helicopter Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-21B) · FAA · Chapter 7, Helicopter Performance
- AS350B3 rolls — engine controls · Aerossurance
- Information Notice 2976-I-76 · Airbus Helicopters · Revision 0, 23 February 2016
- AC 61-140A, Autorotation Training · FAA · 31 August 2016, paras 5.1, 5.4, 6.4 and 7.1.3
- Aircraft Accident Report AAR-17/01, Airbus AS350 B3e N390LG, Frisco, Colorado · NTSB · 3 July 2015
- Eurocopter addresses AS 350B3 engine-control failure recovery · Aviation International News · 30 October 2006
- Helicopter Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-21B) · FAA · Chapter 8, Ground Procedures and Flight Preparations
Educational only. Not approved training material, and never a substitute for the Rotorcraft Flight Manual, an instructor, or your operator's procedures. Figures marked as manufacturer data or test results are not limitations. This content is a draft and has not yet been reviewed by an instructor.