FLIGHT SAFETY FOUNDATION

HELICOPTER SAFETY
Vol. 14 No.1

January/February 1989

Preventing Dynamic Rollover

Before describing how to prevent dynamic rollover, the author , a U.S. Naval aviator,
explains how a helicopter can be maneuvered into attitudes that can induce rollover.
by
Maj. Joseph H. Schmid

Before a pilot can understand what dynamic rollover is, it is

helpful to know what it is not. There exists for every object a
static rollover angle. This is the angle to which you must tilt
an object to bring the center of gravity directly over the roll
point. If the object is tilted beyond this angle, it will fall over.
It is this angle that the drunk defies.
For most fleet helicopters, the static rollover angle is between
30 and 35 degrees. Every helicopter also has a critical
rollover angle. This is the maximum hillside angle on which
you can land the helicopter and still be able to have the rotor
system horizontal.
Another way of thinking about the critical rollover angle is
that it is the maximum blade flapping angle. For most fleet
helicopters, the critical rollover angle is approximately 13-17
degrees. The important concept is that you can be committed
to dynamic rollover at a roll angle much less than the static or
critical rollover angles.

Occurrence of a Dynamic Rollover

Depends on Four Conditions
Four general conditions must exist for a pilot to get into
dynamic rollover.
The helicopter must be on or restrained to the deck.
A wheel or skid could be in contact with the ground

or an object on the ground such as an external load. It

may be a tiedown chain that restrains the helicopter,
even though the skids or wheels are off the ground. In
a recent mishap, dynamic rollover was suggested,
even though the witnesses stated that the wheel was
either on the ground or close to it. If the wheel was
not on the ground, it could not have been dynamic
rollover.
The helicopter must pivot about the ground contact
point instead of the center of gravity. There are many
common flight regimes in which the helicopter will
pivot about the ground contact point. During vertical
takeoffs from hillsides, the helicopter pivots about the
uphill skid or wheel until the gear is level. Operators
of skid-equipped helicopters often shake the rudder
pedals before takeoff in arctic conditions to prevent
the possibility of pivoting about one skid frozen to the
deck.
Lateral cyclic during takeoff has been the cause of
numerous dynamic rollovers (or pivots about the
ground contact point). Taking off with tiedowns attached provides a pivot at the ground attachment
point.
The most common occurrence is ground contact in
lateral translation. A classic case is the instructor who
was demonstrating a night hover with the position

lights on flashing dim. He developed just a bit of a

drift. The aircraft caught a skid 650 feet from the
initial hover point. The helicopter then flipped
smartly onto its back.

point. For rolls about some point other than the center of
gravity, the moment of inertia changes to become I=mr2 +
md2, where d is the distance between the center of gravity and
the point of rotation.

The helicopter must have some angular velocity

about the pivot point. That is to say, you must have
some roll rate about the pivot point.

Clearly, the moment of inertia must be greater for rolls not

about the CG. The helicopter still has the same maximum
control moment. Therefore, with a greater moment of inertia,
full opposite stick displacement will not produce as large a roll
rate. More important, the helicopter cannot arrest as large a
roll rate. That is the insidious part of dynamic rollover. What
is a normal roll rate about the center of gravity may well be an
excessive roll rate when pivoting about a wheel or skid. The
bottom line remains: The basic cause of dynamic rollover is
excessive angular momentum.

The helicopter is usually at liftoff thrust or light on

the skids.

Examine the Cause of Rollover

With an understanding of when dynamic rollover occurs, the
next step is to study why it occurs. The basic cause of
dynamic rollover is excessive angular momentum. Isaac
Newton said that an unbalanced force equals the time rate of
change of momentum . . . F = ma. That is true for objects
moving in straight lines. However, for rotational motion,
Newtons law changes slightly an unbalanced moment
equals the time rate of change of angular momentum.
Angular momentum is defined as the moment of inertia (I)
multiplied by the angular velocity ( ). Newtons law really
does make sense in relation to helicopters. In a hover, there is
no roll rate or angular velocity. However, when the cyclic is
displaced, the rotor system is tilted. The thrust of the rotor
system then creates a moment about the center of gravity, and
the helicopter develops a roll.
Remember, the moment of inertia is a bodys resistance to
rotation and is defined for rolls about the center of gravity as
the sum of all the bits of mass of the body (m) multiplied by
the square of the radius of each of those bits from the center of
rotation. Algebraically, the moment of inertia is I = mr2.
This is the old spinning figure skater trick. When the skater is
on the ice, there is little friction, so there is little change in the
angular momentum I of the skater. As she brings her arms
in, the mass does not change, but the radius of where that mass
is located does decrease. Therefore, as the skaters moment of
inertia and resistance to rotation decreases, her spin rate, or
angular velocity, increases.
For every helicopter, the manufacturer must determine the
maximum control moment. Each helicopter must, by U.S.
military specifications and U.S. Federal Aviation Regulations,
achieve a particular roll rate. The manufacturer knows the
mass of the helicopter and how that mass is distributed.
Therefore he knows the moment of inertia. The manufacturer
produces the helicopter so that, with full cyclic displacement,
the rotor system produces a sufficient moment about the center of gravity to change the angular momentum of the helicopter and achieve the desired roll rate.
This is acceptable for rolls about the center of gravity, but
dynamic rollover occurs when the pilot rolls about a pivot
2

There are several contributing factors that can make conditions worse. Any shift of the center of gravity toward the roll
point makes the helicopter more likely to statically roll over.
This CG shift could be caused by a cargo shift or by personnel
changing positions in the aircraft. For American-made helicopters, the thrust of the tail rotor is directed toward the right.
For rollovers to the right, the tail rotor thrust would be an
aggravating condition. Winds can also make conditions
worse. If the winds are strong enough, the side force on the
fuselage may be sufficient to roll the helicopter. Winds from
the left will increase the tail rotor angle of attack, increasing
the tail rotor thrust. Finally, winds in the direction of the
rollover will cause blowback of the main rotor, tilting it in
the direction of roll.

Tips to Prevent Rollover

The conditions for occurrence are present for nearly every
helicopter takeoff. How, then does a pilot recognize and
prevent dynamic rollover? Earlier, it was discussed that, for
rolls not about the CG, the moment of inertia increased . . . It
becomes insensitive to cyclic control. If the conditions for
occurrence are present and the helicopter does not respond to
cyclic inputs, there is a distinct possibility that dynamic
rollover is imminent. What should a pilot do now? Lower the
collective.
Look at all the forces acting on the helicopter and see how
they contribute to the rollover. The thrust of the main rotor
multiplied by its moment arm about the pivot points is in the
pro-rollover direction. The thrust of the main rotor multiplied
by its moment arm is also pro-rollover. The combined effects
of the wind are also pro-rollover. Only the weight of the
aircraft multiplied by its moment arm opposes the rollover.
Countering the roll with cyclic-only reduces the main rotor
thrust moment arm. Lowering the collective reduces the
magnitude of the main rotor thrust. Clearly, there is far greater
control authority with collective than with cyclic. Lower the
collective. The pilot who tries to snatch the helicopter off the
deck with the collective in the armpit may get the helicopter
FLIGHT SAFETY FOUNDATION HELICOPTER SAFETY

airborne. But he has just made a tremendous increase to the

pro-rollover moments and, at an altitude of about three feet,
will probably have the rotor blades strike the ground. Lower
the collective.

rollover in the opposite direction, either of which can ruin a

pilots whole day.
Prevention of dynamic rollover is simple. Control the roll
rate. Prevent the roll rates from becoming excessive by
judicious use of collective. Control the roll rate. And, if
control seems marginal, lower the collective.

Collective pitch reduction must be immediate but not a panic

reduction. The pilot who is ham-fisted and slams the collective down runs the risk of blade-to-fuselage contact or a

Insidious Rotor Ice

Pilots should be particularly aware of blade icing. With barely any warning,
ice can form quickly on the rotor with no sign of it on the fuselage.
by
Aage Roed

During the analysis of a helicopter accident, an investigative

team speculated that rotor ice, which accumulated while the
helicopter was hovering immediately below a cloud base, may
have been a contributing factor. In the post-accident report it
was also stated that ice may have accumulated on the rotor
blades, although no ice could be detected on the wind screens
or the fuselage structure.
In response to the analysis, operators have noted that ice will
always show on the wind screens and fuselage structure at the
same time that it accumulates on the rotor.

copter following closely behind and above the lead aircraft.

The flight proceeded close to the cloud base.
At one point, when the pilot of the lead helicopter had to slow
down, the second pilot found that he did not have sufficient
power to maintain altitude and made an emergency landing.
The same maneuver had been made a moment earlier without
any problem. No vibrations were felt during the flight. Two
to three minutes after the second helicopter had landed, the
lead aircraft had to make an emergency landing because of a
rapidly increasing demand for additional power to remain at
level flight.

This Is Wrong.
Several published reports show that ice can accumulate on the
main rotor without any detectable ice on the fuselage. The
following is one example:
Two helicopters flew below clouds for a short time. The lead
helicopter had a two-man crew and, for this reason, could
maintain lower altitude than the second (the non-flying crew
member kept a sharp lookout for wires). However, the altitude difference was only a few meters, with the second heliJANUARY/FEBRUARY 1989

Both crews found that the main and tail rotor blades of their
helicopters had glass-clear layers of ice varying in thickness
from about one to 10 millimeters on the outboard two thirds of
the main rotor blades. No ice was found on the fuselages or
the landing gears.
Helicopter pilots cannot be sure that they will be warned of
blade icing by ice formations on the fuselage. They also
should be aware that ice may accumulate very rapidly on the
blades.
3

34th Annual Corporate

Avation Safety Seminar
Dearborn, Michigan, U.S.
April 18-21, 1989

"Safety Through Quality:

Meeting the Challenge"
For more information, contact
Bob Cooke, FSF

HELICOPTER SAFETY
Copyright 1989 FLIGHT SAFETY FOUNDATION, INC. ISSN 0898-8145
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