3 ms·

The helicopter people on this forum seem to conclude that the fall speed of heavier helicopters is slower: https://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/484972-weight-vs-

• jdmichal 9y ago
  Ah, I see where you were going now. That is interesting; never heard of it before. I agree with you, that at first glance it seems like the gain in potential energy would be countered by the increase in the lift force necessary. Maybe there's some sort of flat efficiency loss going on, that is overcome by the higher energies present in the heavier scenarios? It does seem that everyone is in agreement that the heavier helicoptor would require more applied pitch. Which may not actually be desirable, given my impression that a pilot would attempt to burn the kinetic energy in the rotors to lift via pitching the blades right before landing.