ANAC Commercial Pilot Helicopter (PCH) common mistakes
ANAC Commercial Pilot Helicopter (PCH) · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Applying fixed-wing takeoff/landing distance and climb-gradient rules to helicopter performance questions instead of using the Category A/B and HIGE/HOGE logic specific to rotorcraft.
Candidates transfer habits from aeroplane study material or from generic performance tables, and miss that helicopter performance is defined by hover capability, OGE/IGE ceilings, and rejected-takeoff/continued-takeoff decision points rather than runway distances.
What to do instead
Before answering any performance item, identify whether the question concerns hover performance, vertical climb, or a Category A profile. Practise reading the actual POH-style charts for the training helicopter, and write down the definitions of IGE, OGE, HIGE, HOGE, and the takeoff decision point so the terminology is automatic.
Computing weight and balance with the datum and arm directions reversed, or omitting the lateral (left-right) moment that matters for helicopters with side-mounted fuel or external loads.
Helicopter loading is often taught only in the longitudinal sense, and candidates mix up arms measured forward of versus aft of the datum, or forget that lateral CG limits are narrow and operationally significant in rotorcraft.
What to do instead
Adopt a fixed worksheet: list each item, its weight, its arm with an explicit sign convention relative to the datum, and compute moments in one direction only. Do the same for lateral arms. Re-check the total against both longitudinal and lateral envelopes, and rehearse one full calculation per study session until the procedure is mechanical.
Answering RBAC air-law items from memory of foreign regulations or of older Brazilian rules rather than the current RBAC text, especially for crew duty time, minimum equipment, and documents carried on board.
Many candidates train from older question sets or from FAA/EASA material, and the RBAC numbering and content have changed; subtle differences in duty limits, currency, and required documents are exactly what the exam tests.
What to do instead
Study directly from the current RBAC parts applicable to commercial helicopter operations, and build a one-page summary of document carriage, crew qualification, duty and rest limits, and maintenance release requirements with the RBAC part and item number cited. When a question turns on a specific number, recall the citation before choosing.
Confusing the roles of cyclic, collective, and anti-torque pedals when reasoning about an in-flight control or power failure scenario, and describing the wrong corrective input.
Candidates memorise control names but not the coupled effects: raising collective increases pitch and power demand and requires pedal compensation for torque, while cyclic controls disc tilt and airspeed. Under exam pressure the functions blur.
What to do instead
For each control, write the primary effect, the secondary effect, and the required compensating input. Then walk through standard scenarios (engine failure in hover, tail rotor failure, retreating-blade stall) and state the exact sequence of control inputs, checking each against the flight manual procedure.
Mixing up the aerodynamic causes of retreating-blade stall, dissymmetry of lift, and translational lift, and applying the wrong recovery technique to each.
All three involve asymmetric airflow over the disc, so candidates treat them as one phenomenon and pick a generic 'lower the collective' answer even when the question concerns flapping, blade sailing, or vortex ring state.
What to do instead
Build a comparison table with one row per phenomenon: mechanism, conditions that trigger it, symptoms, and recovery. Include translational lift, dissymmetry of lift and flapping, retreating-blade stall, and vortex ring state. Test yourself by describing each from the symptom backwards to the mechanism.
Treating the altimeter setting, QNH/QFE/QNE distinction, and transition altitude/level as interchangeable, and choosing the wrong altimeter subscale for a given phase of flight.
The terms look similar and are often memorised as definitions without the operational context of when each is set, so candidates pick the definition that sounds familiar rather than the one matching the described flight condition.
What to do instead
Learn each setting by the surface or level it references and by the phase of flight in which it is used, then answer questions by first identifying the phase described. Practise converting between indicated altitude, true altitude, and height with a worked example for each setting, and note the Brazilian transition altitude rules explicitly.
Calculating a heading or groundspeed without applying magnetic variation and deviation in the correct order, or ignoring wind effect when a question asks for a heading to fly.
Candidates learn the formulas separately and then apply them in the wrong sequence, or treat true and magnetic values as interchangeable, which produces plausible-looking but wrong answers.
What to do instead
Use a single written chain: true course, apply wind to get true heading and groundspeed, apply variation to get magnetic heading, apply deviation to get compass heading. Annotate each step with the direction of the correction (east is least, west is best) and do three practice problems per session until the sequence is automatic.
Answering radiotelephony items with conversational phrasing or with readback content that omits mandatory elements such as callsign, level, or the instruction being acknowledged.
Candidates speak fluent operational English or Portuguese and answer by meaning rather than by prescribed phraseology, missing that the exam tests standard phraseology and complete readback of safety-related instructions.
What to do instead
Memorise the standard phraseology for position reports, clearance readback, and emergency calls, and practise writing out full readbacks including callsign and all cleared parameters. Learn which instructions always require readback and which do not, and answer phraseology questions by matching the exact standard wording.
Choosing an emergency action from the flight manual that addresses the symptom rather than following the prescribed sequence, for example entering autorotation before establishing the correct collective and airspeed attitude, or forgetting that some emergencies require an immediate landing.
Candidates study emergency procedures as lists and recall the most dramatic action first; exam items often test the order and the decision point rather than the headline action.
What to do instead
For each major emergency (engine failure in hover, engine failure in cruise, tail rotor drive failure, fire, governor failure), write the memory items in order and the decision criteria for continuing versus landing immediately. Rehearse the sequence aloud, then answer questions by locating the decision point before selecting the action.
Ignoring human-factors content as common sense and choosing the answer that describes what a pilot should ideally do rather than the perceptual or physiological limitation the question describes.
Human performance items are phrased as scenarios, and candidates answer normatively instead of identifying the specific mechanism such as spatial disorientation, hypoxia onset, or the effect of fatigue on decision making.
What to do instead
Learn each human-factors topic by mechanism, onset conditions, and detectable signs: hypoxia, hyperventilation, spatial disorientation, visual illusions in approach, fatigue, and stress. For scenario questions, first name the mechanism being described, then choose the option consistent with that mechanism rather than the most virtuous-sounding option.