Helicopter Flying Handbook (2025)

FAA-H-8083-21B

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• Publisher: Aviation Supplies & Academics, Inc.
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781619549920
• eBook ISBN: 9781619549937
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Aviation
• Index: Technology & Engineering

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This handbook FAA-H-8083-21B is current in 2025.

The FAA's Helicopter Flying Handbook introduces the skills and knowledge essential for piloting helicopters. It benefits student pilots just beginning their aviation endeavors, as well as pilots preparing for additional certificates and ratings or who want to improve their flying proficiency, and flight instructors engaged in teaching pilots of all skill levels.

This handbook provides information and guidance on the procedures and maneuvers required for pilot certification. In addition to a basic introduction to the helicopter, readers will find chapters on aerodynamics, flight controls, components and systems, the rotorcraft flight manual, weight and balance, performance, ground procedures, basic and advanced flight maneuvers, emergencies and hazards, attitude instrument flying and night operations.

The Helicopter Flying Handbook is the official FAA source for learning to fly helicopters and is a primary reference for the FAA Knowledge Exams. Complete with chapter summaries and illustrated throughout with detailed, full-color drawings and photographs. It also includes a comprehensive glossary and index.

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Chapter 1

Introduction to the Helicopter

Introduction

A helicopter is an aircraft that is lifted and propelled by one or more horizontal rotors, each rotor consisting of two or more rotor blades. Helicopters are classified as rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft to distinguish them from fixed-wing aircraft, because the helicopter derives its source of lift from the rotor blades rotating around a mast. The word “helicopter” is adapted from the French hélicoptère, coined by Gustave de Ponton d’Amécourt in 1861. It is linked to the Greek words helix/helikos (“spiral” or “turning”) and pteron (“wing”).

As an aircraft, the primary advantages of the helicopter are due to the rotor blades that revolve through the air, providing lift without requiring the aircraft to move forward. This lift allows the helicopter to hover in one area and to take off and land vertically without the need for runways. For this reason, helicopters are often used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft are not able to take off or land. [Figures 1-1 and 1-2]

Figure 1-1. Search and rescue helicopter conducting a pinnacle approach.

Figure 1-2. Search and rescue helicopter landing in a confined area.

Piloting a helicopter requires adequate, focused and safety-orientated training. It also requires continuous attention to the machine and the operating environment. The pilot must work in three dimensions and use both arms and both legs constantly to keep the helicopter in a desired state. Coordination, timing and control touch are all used simultaneously when flying a helicopter.

Although helicopters were developed and built during the first half-century of flight, some even reaching limited production; it was not until 1942 that a helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky reached full-scale production, with 131 aircraft built. Even though most previous designs used more than one main rotor, it was the single main rotor with an antitorque tail rotor configuration that would come to be recognized worldwide as the helicopter.

Turbine Age

In 1951, at the urging of his contacts at the Department of the Navy, Charles H. Kaman modified his K-225 helicopter with a new kind of engine, the turbo-shaft engine. This adaptation of the turbine engine provided a large amount of horsepower to the helicopter with a lower weight penalty than piston engines, heavy engine blocks, and auxiliary components. On December 11, 1951, the K-225 became the first turbine-powered helicopter in the world. Two years later, on March 26, 1954, a modified Navy HTK-1, another Kaman helicopter, became the first twin-turbine helicopter to fly. However, it was the Sud Aviation Alouette II that would become the first helicopter to be produced with a turbine engine.

Reliable helicopters capable of stable hover flight were developed decades after fixed-wing aircraft. This is largely due to higher engine power density requirements than fixed-wing aircraft. Improvements in fuels and engines during the first half of the 20th century were critical factors in helicopter development. The availability of lightweight turbo-shaft engines in the second half of the 20th century led to the development of larger, faster, and higher-performance helicopters. While smaller and less expensive helicopters still use piston engines, turboshaft engines are the preferred powerplant for helicopters today.

The turbine engine has the following advantages over a reciprocating engine:

• Less vibration

• Increased aircraft performance

• Reliability

• Ease of operation

Uses

Due to the unique operating characteristics of the helicopter—its ability to take off and land vertically, to hover for extended periods of time, and the aircraft’s handling properties under low airspeed conditions—it has been chosen to conduct tasks that were previously not possible with other aircraft or were too time- or work-intensive to accomplish on the ground. Today, helicopters are used for transportation, construction, firefighting, search and rescue, and a variety of other jobs that require its special capabilities. [Figure 1-3]

Figure 1-3. The many uses for a helicopter include search and rescue (top), firefighting (middle), and construction (bottom).

Rotor System

The helicopter rotor system is the rotating part of a helicopter that generates lift. A rotor system may be mounted horizontally, as main rotors are, providing lift vertically; and it may be mounted vertically, such as a tail rotor, to provide lift horizontally as thrust to counteract torque effect. In the case of tilt rotors, the rotor is mounted on a nacelle that rotates at the edge of the wing to transition the rotor from a horizontal mounted position, providing lift horizontally as thrust, to a vertical mounted position providing lift exactly as a helicopter.

The rotor consists of a mast, hub, and rotor blades. [Figure 1-4] The mast is a hollow cylindrical metal shaft which extends upwards from and is driven by the transmission. At the top of the mast is the attachment point for the rotor blades called the hub. The rotor blades are then attached to the hub by several different methods. Main rotor systems are classified according to how the main rotor blades are attached and move relative to the main rotor hub. There are three basic classifications: semirigid, rigid, or fully articulated, although some modern rotor systems use an engineered combination of these types. All three rotor systems are discussed with greater detail in Chapter 4, Helicopter Components, Sections, and Systems.

Figure 1-4. Basic components of the rotor system.

With a single main rotor helicopter, a torque effect is created as the engine turns the rotor. This torque causes the body of the helicopter to turn in the opposite direction of the rotor (Newton’s Third Law: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, as explained in Chapter 2, Aerodynamics of Flight). To eliminate this effect, some sort of antitorque control must be used with a sufficient margin of power available to allow the helicopter to maintain its heading and prevent the aircraft from moving unsteadily. The three most common controls used today are the traditional tail rotor, Fenestron (also called a fantail), and the NOTAR®. All three antitorque designs will be discussed in Chapter 4, Helicopter Components, Sections, and Systems.

Rotor Configurations

Most helicopters have a ...

Table of contents

• Copyright
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Chapter 1: Introduction to the Helicopter
• Chapter 2: Aerodynamics of Flight
• Chapter 3: Helicopter Flight Controls
• Chapter 4: Helicopter Components, Sections, and Systems
• Chapter 5: Rotorcraft Flight Manual
• Chapter 6: Weight and Balance
• Chapter 7: Helicopter Performance
• Chapter 8: Ground Procedures and Flight Preparations
• Chapter 9: Basic Flight Maneuvers
• Chapter 10: Advanced Flight Maneuvers
• Chapter 11: Helicopter Emergencies and Hazards
• Chapter 12: Night Operations
• Chapter 13: Effective Aeronautical Decision-Making
• Glossary
• Index