Aircraft handling qualities in autorotation are
critical in determining the level of safety of
rotorcraft. For helicopters suffering from an engine
failure, transcending from powered to autorotative
flight occurs rapidly and requires immediate and
accurate pilot reaction. Although it is important
for the handling qualities in this flight state to
be predicted correctly, obvious difficulties will
exist in using flight tests as a means of validation
when autorotation constitutes an abnormal mode of
operation. In the research work presented in this
paper an alternative approach is applied, of
configuring a generic rotorcraft model as a
gyroplane, a type of vehicle for which its main
rotor is constantly in autorotation. Flight tests
are used for the validation purposes both for steady
state and dynamic response cases. Results are
produced to complement those already existing for a
dissimilar gyroplane type thus increasing the level
of confidence obtained. It is concluded that
important handling qualities indicators such as the
steady state trends are correctly predicted although
limitations are imposed due to rotor speed
discrepancy.