Bell 407 ground school auto-rotation training

Tom's personal recollection of doing an auto-rotation under a test pilot's supervision during ground school for the Bell 407. Used to ground the auto-rotation explanation in concrete experience. Harrison Ford is mentioned as having gone through the same training the week before.

I've auto-rotated a helicopter once. I got to go to flight ground school for the Bell 407 and they let me go on a little test ride. They had a real test pilot taking me on the trip, fortunately. He let me do an auto-rotation. You have to do auto-rotations about once a year just to requalify as a pilot. It's always sort of fun to auto-rotate. Lots of people go out there and just don't have anything else to do with their helicopter. Harrison Ford had been there the week before me — he had bought himself a new helicopter, and people like that say, "hey, let's go auto-rotate for a while," go up and down. It's just sort of like riding a carnival ride. If you've got a few extra million, why not.

Student: [reminds him of the topic]