Vuichard Recovery Technique - How to escape a Vortex Ring State 

PLEASE READ FOLKS: My hat is off to Mr. Vuichard. Sir, I owe my life to this technique. True story. I am a retired US Military Pilot (US Army helicopter pilot with over 37 years of flying experience, accident and incident free all of these years, I'm retired now). When I retired I started flying EMS helicopters. I responded to a scene flight at 2:00 am in the morning, zero moon illumination, and overcast skies. I had my ANVIS 9 NVG's thank goodness. My landing zone was extremely tight and I made 3 attempts to land with no luck so my last option was to land with a tailwind (not the best decision), I should have landed at another location and had an ambulance take my medical crewmembers to the scene, but I didn't. On final approach at approximately 400 to 500,' I IMMEDIATELY started to settle in my downwash (Vortex Ring State, VRS). I knew right away what was happening, not my first time in VRS. The trees were 150' (tall pines), if I had attempted to recover the old way, by lowering collective (altitude permitting) and flying out of the VRS I would have smacked the trees (98% sure that would have been the end result). Sir, I performed the "Vuichard Recovery Technique" I learned 6 months earlier and BAM!!!!! I "immediately" stopped my sink rate in

As a CPL and instructor with over 7000 hours this is brilliant!

This very clever presentation should be shown in all helicopter flying schools and annual recurent trainings everywhere. So clear ! It will save helicopters and lives. Merci !

Awesome! The visualization of the Ring State with the mist really drives the point home. You can instantly see when the rotor system enters and exits. Keep up the great videos!

I've seen quite a few illustrations of VRS in my time, this has to be the best by a very long way. Thank you sir.

I’m not sure who gave this a thumbs down but I hope they never fly a helicopter with passengers. In every walk of life you will find knobheads I suppose. Great video. Great visuals. Life saving techniques demonstrated. Thank you.

Tim Tucker gave me my PPL checkride in 2014. We did traditional recovery. I passed. I just did the Robinson safety course in August and we did this Vuichard recovery. It's so much quicker and more efficient. We are told to use takeoff power, roll right, and add left pedal. It's that easy. Recovery is fast and easy. If you have an obstacle on your right you can roll left.....just takes a bit longer. THANKS TIM TUCKER

Incredible insight into vortex ring state. Thank you

What a phenomenal demonstration!! Thank you, sir!

AT LAST I have found a visual demonstration of what VRS is. Makes so much sense now. Thank you!

What an amazing demonstration. Great job

WOW! Nothing like a visual!

Excellent training video, thank you so much for creating.

Thank you for an excellent presentation. This really helps visualize what happens.

Awsome video! Thanks so much for visualizing this manouveaour!!

Wonderful service to safety and knowledge! Thank you.

This should be mandatory viewing. Good job, and thank you.

Great video and lesson for all the aviators out there..thanks 🍀

Thank you Claude for all your work and engagement for safety in the helicopter business. Absolutely brilliant and clear message for all pilots.

Well done my man. Clever. Realistic. Teachable. Must become standard recovery maneuver .

Thank you for all

Wow wow wow, what a fantastic detailed demonstration, thanks for doing this 👍🏻♥️

Very good explanation

Wow, that's the best visualization of VRS I've ever seen!

Absolutely brilliant !

Amazing technique

Really cool way to visualize it

I managed to wrap my head around it from explanations, and had a working mental picture of what was happening, but seeing it like that in such exact detail was unreal, great job 👏 👍

Great idea for visualisation of air flow. . . and concept of new, more swift exit route to recovery = should get award. Thanks all.

Bravo! To all involved in the creation of this video.

GENIOOOOOOOOOOOO !!!!!! GRACIAS POR ESTE VIDEO. I ALSO TAKE OFF MY HAT TO MR.VUIVHARD BECAUSE OF HIS BRILLIANT TECHNIQUE, BUT WHAT IMPRESSED ME MOST, WAS HIS WAY OF SHOWING IT. CONGRATULATIONS AND I REITERATE MY GRATITUDE

Great video and very well done. We have been using this technique for over 25 plus years in the Canadian Helicopter industry. It is extremely effective for longline operations. The use of spray booms gives the perfect visual effect. Two thumbs up!

Brilliant Demo!

Very clever, well done to show everyone! I hope this video reach very far!

Absolutely stunning!

This is an amazing video showing the Vortex Ring State. It was visually captivating, and showed the air and how it behaved around the helicopter. This method was en genius. Thank you for sharing your knowledge!

Absolutely awesome teaching video!!!! Many thanks.

I had heard of vortex ring state as a risk for helicopters and found this video. The visualization provided by the mist makes it stunningly clear what is going on and why it would be such a risk in flight.

did it with Claude Vuichard successfully, a must know !

Excellent demonstration that will save lives. Deserves a safety award.

Awesome demonstration.

Very well explained and shown.

FANTASTIC vid👍

It's pretty cool seeing it with the spray set up.

Excellent video.

Absolutely amazing presentation!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

Excellent presentation!

Great job 👏

Larry Doll at Rocky Mountain taught a similar technique in the 70/80’s Good on ya for using the ag booms for visual reference.

Incredible example!!!!!

Well that's certainly convincing. My instructions were always "move" in the quickest way possible, whether forward sideways or even aft. But this strongly suggests that "right is right" (for my machine). THANK YOU!

MY HAT IS OFF TO YOU GUYS GREAT WORK !!!!!!!

Awesome demonstration. The UH-1 with counter-clockwise rotor, you must use right cyclic. Thanks for this video!

Helicopter pilot for 20+ years and 6k+ hours. Absolutely amazing procedure! The other procedure is so ingrained into me as a motor skill now, I just hope I can remember this one next time. Great way to demonstrate visually! Well done videography also! Hope they put this video and the procedure into all RW flight Training and the manuals! Thanks!

Brilliant .... an excellent exercise .. shows that pictures (especially moving ones) can save thousands of words .. thank you !!

that was the most beautiful thing i ever seen

Thank you for this beautiful video, but most of external load pilots knew and used this recovery technic before you named it Vuichard, as vortex are part of our daily job.. Cyclic foward (or into the main wind) and pich lowered is still a good technic depending of the vortex conditions, quality of your blades, rotor efficiency, trajectory/path, hight, (cross)wind(s), landshape and type of obstacles you got around you. One technic, does NOT replace the other, they are just complementary and combinable.

❤thank you for sharing 🙏

Wow! Great job.

Pretty neat procedure

What amazes me is how quickly the vortex is destroyed, the helicopter only needs to move sideways by half the rotor diameter and the vortex just breaks up. I had visualised that it needed to move sideways by a whole diameter but it appears that you don't. Excellent and very informative.

Excellent 👍👍👍

thank you!!!

Great video!!.

EXCELLENCE! VUICHARD!

amazing.....

thats beautiful

Awesom! more clear visual understanding. Thanks Vuichard

Wahou fabuleux très instructif et ces image expetionnel on comprend à merveille.

I'm not a pilot but have a deep love of helicopters. Have spent many hours in a sim thanks to a good friend and successfully did a number of autorotation landings and a 360 degree pirouette with nose pointing at a fixed object. Simple for you pilots but a bit much for a total rookie. I just want to add my compliments about this amazing video. Seeing the phenomena actually happen and how to recover gave me goosebumps. Awesome video and no doubt it will save lives. Seeing is so much more effective in teaching than just words or drawings. Bravo!

EXCELLENT!!!!!

This is what I want to see!

Very interesting, impressive & so good to understand what happens in this situation/maneuver. Also for me as a huge 🚁-Fan with only R/C HELI experience & without a real pilot-license ;] Cool video 👍🏼‼️

Awesome! What a greate idea to use a smoke generator to visualize vortex ring, with a live flying helicopter!

Wow, great video and ama Inc technique 👍

great video, great visuals would be really helpful to show more from inside the cab to "see what it feels like" as I imagine there is specific feedback from the heli which should be taught to be recognized

Not a real pilot here (my full respect to those who fly helicopters for real), but turns out this manouver is quite effective even on the Mi-24P Hind in DCS which is very VRS-happy when slowing down to hover. Halved the minimum altitude needed to recover. I am truly amazed.

Awesome

Феноменально! Пилотам надо дать соответствующую премию. Операторам съёмки тоже. В первые вижу визуализацию вихревого кольца несущего винта выполненного на реальном вертолёте!!! Спасибо

love this alouette ,mean lama sa 315 n the alouette 2 n 3

One day I will fall into a vortex ring and I will escape it with the technique learnt from this video, for that I will be eternally grateful.

You are my new friend.

What an excellent video. I understand now. I fly model quadcopters and would I be correct that there will be two vortexs per propeller then?

Thank you, this is an impressive demonstration ! I am sorry but, does it happen only when there are "walls" (as in canyon, or montains) allowing the air flow to make the ring ?

Nice job girlie ✌

Wow, to actually see the airflow going the wrong way through the rotors is really enlightening. And terrifying. I'm a fixed wing pilot. But I'm curious as to whether you can get in the stall far enough to where you wouldn't even be able to command a roll to execute this. I'm a fixed wing pilot, but I find this interesting.

I fly drones and have experienced the VRS phenomenon! Great visual !!!

Great idea .... One thing I don't understand the Lama is a CCw rotor sys( looks like I am not rated) and should escape to the right by description note "2" but instead in the videos it escapes to the left??! Someone could explain where IAm wrong?

I would love to see a vertical auto-rotation. Im not sure we actually know what is truly happening with airflow in that instance.

Great tool for helicopter pilots. Let's also discuss when it is not the right tool for recovery from VRS. Obstacles on the side you would translate toward for this recovery would preclude its use. Also, if you're already moving forward, such as during a normal approach, a forward recovery should still make sense. Also, if there's any confusion during the event whether the descent & vibrations are from VRS or overpitching, the traditional recovery should be used, because it solves both. So, Vuichard Recovery is a great technique--the best in certain circumstances--but not an absolute replacement for the traditional method. CFIs should teach both, and especially should teach when to use each.

To notice, in external load operations, most of vortex ring states (stalls), occure with no load on, empty hook.

wow just wow this is excellent where you got the idea and then the execution of the whole plan this is awesome you explain something to me in a way that no one else can thank you thank you very much

Now this is Cool ! A Real life Monster, Will Kill & Its, " GOT YOU " Now I know what to do. Thnx. 🐾

Wonder why this wasnt thought of earlier. Why did they use either forward or backward opposed to sideways?

this is safer...no doubt. The other way is much more fun though! Love diving out of it to get that airspeed, kind of a rush.

This is Exactly why we no longer use helicopters to spray insecticides. 22 years going through pilots like hot potatoes, all ending up with weird tumors and respiratory issues. You can see the spray completely engulf the cab at low speed, that's every corner and turn on every field. The Hiller 12E was much more efficient than the Air Tractor fixed wing, but not when it comes to pilot health. Now Finally the multi Billion dollar lawsuit against the weed killer Round Up. Thank you for the great visuals and emergency procedure training!

Hello there , I have a question. Military pilots have to undergo confined area approaches in the field, where the rate of decent is arrested at 500-400 feet and then at the end u come up on power and settle down the aircraft. Could you pls highlight another technique for this. Pilots arrest the rate of decent till 4-500 and speed within ETL TILL THE VERY END . If you have something to add to it, I’d be very happy to take note of it. Thanks

PRetty amazing shots! Perhaps its me but i got an spider-man intro feeling to this ;)

Are they using the tail rotor to provide thrust out of the ring state? Like would this work with a coaxial or tandem rotor?

Awsme