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Stuck Tail Rotor Pitch

A type of helicopter tail rotor emergency involving a mechanical failure is "stuck pitch or stuck pedal". This means that a linkage or cable have become jammed, stuck, or broken and the tail rotor is left with whatever pitch was in it last.

The handling of this emergency will include a slide on landing, controlling the heading with your throttle. If you have a lot of pitch in the tail rotor (stuck left pedal in a counter clockwise rotating system), you will conduct more of a steep approach to a slide on landing and do have the option to bring the power back in and do a "go-around" if you feel it necessary. If you have very little to no pitch stuck in the tail rotor (stuck right pedal in a counter clockwise rotating system), you will conduct a shallow approach to a slide on landing and DO NOT have the option to bring in power and do a go-around. Bring the power back at low speed will cause you to spin out of control.

The examiner that I use has told me that student pilots have told him that they will handle this emergency with an auto rotation (Procedure of loss of tail rotor thrust). This will not work and could cause you to fail the check ride. Do not confuse the two types of tail rotor failures. Stuck pedal=slide on / Loss of thrust=auto rotation.


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