#450 — Two Different Types of Generator Failures in Helicopters

Added: 2026-05-21

[00:00:00]Now, there's two different ways your generator can fail. One is it loses its excitation like if it over bolts, where you'll get the generator light indicating the generator relay is open.

[00:00:12]Another way that the generator can fail is it starts failing mechanically. So, the voltage output starts going down.

[00:00:21]Now, because the generator relay is still closed, you will not get a generator light. But, the generator is going down in voltage and when it gets down to battery voltage, it will actually drag the battery down with it.

[00:00:35]And the trick to this obviously is to notice it as soon as you can so that you can get that generator offline before it completely kills your battery.

[00:00:47]I look at that one time.