And he fact that he was descending like a dropped hammer...a fact that any pilot would have instantly been aware of. Why? The descent rate was far in excess of normal procedures.
I wonder if there was some kind of failure and the pilot turned the helicopter to make for some area and thought he could autorotate in, but...in a hilly area...
I took a helicopter flying course once, and part of it was doing an autorotation. Up until that point, I had never seen an autorotation procedure before, and thought that you simply let the aircraft flutter slowly to the ground...kind of like a seed pod from a maple tree that slowly descends, rotating as it does so.
When we did it in the helicopter, the instructor explained what he was going to do and how it worked, then he nosed the thing over and dove at the ground! Boy, that ground came up fast, and he pulled the chopper up above the ground slowing it...I don’t even remember if he set it down, but I’ll say, I had no idea an autorotation worked like that! Even though the concept was explained in the ground school portion, it was quite different to be sitting in the front of that thing as the guy dove towards the ground!
I’ve watched video of autorotations since then, and some seemed mild in comparison. I wonder if the pilot was taking a dramatic approach to make an impression. When he did it, it was like being at the top of a roller coaster as he nosed it over! Felt like it, too...
Would mean he was going down but thought he was going up.