What is the maximum allowable hover turn rate?

What is the maximum allowable hover turn rate?

• A. 25 degrees/second
• B. 40 degrees/second
• C. 30 degrees/second
• D. 35 degrees/second

Answer: (C)

In hover, yaw control relies entirely on tail rotor thrust, and there isn’t translational lift helping stabilize the aircraft. That means changing heading quickly uses the tail rotor and the rotor wake in a way that can push the helicopter beyond what the controls can reliably manage. There’s a defined maximum hover yaw rate that keeps you within safe margins, preserving controllability under typical wind conditions and pilot inputs. The best choice reflects this balanced limit: it provides enough responsiveness to be practical while staying well within the tail rotor’s authority and the rotor system’s stability margins. Rates that are too slow are unnecessarily conservative for hover operations, while rates that are too fast risk loss of precise control or tail-rotor overload in hover.

In hover, yaw control relies entirely on tail rotor thrust, and there isn’t translational lift helping stabilize the aircraft. That means changing heading quickly uses the tail rotor and the rotor wake in a way that can push the helicopter beyond what the controls can reliably manage. There’s a defined maximum hover yaw rate that keeps you within safe margins, preserving controllability under typical wind conditions and pilot inputs. The best choice reflects this balanced limit: it provides enough responsiveness to be practical while staying well within the tail rotor’s authority and the rotor system’s stability margins. Rates that are too slow are unnecessarily conservative for hover operations, while rates that are too fast risk loss of precise control or tail-rotor overload in hover.