Helicopters can be scary things.

[martin-w 3,235]

 

[stans 703]

First, helicopters do not fly, they just beat the air into submission.

Second, (expletive not allowed) that's scary!  Especially the helicopter falling out of the sky and parts of it hit an RV.

[martin-w 3,235]

16 minutes ago, stans said:

First, helicopters do not fly, they just beat the air into submission.

Second, (expletive not allowed) that's scary!  Especially the helicopter falling out of the sky and parts of it hit an RV.

 

I have heard it said that in some ways they are safer, in that you can autorotate but honestly, when it does go wrong its shocking.

Saw a video of an incident the other day, at first I thought it was just mechanical failure and the tail rotor pitch went bonkers, turned out it  could have been due to do  the following... pilot didn't realise the nose wheel brake was on and attempted to taxi left, no luck, so applied full left pedal. Seems he  realised the brake was on so took it off. The result, with cyclic on the way up and full right pedal was a horrendous spin and helicopter destruction. Cant figure out why he wouldn't have taken his feet of the pedal. Incident is still being investigated. 

[LHookins 3,103]

34 minutes ago, stans said:

First, helicopters do not fly, they just beat the air into submission.

"Helicopters do not fly.  They are so ugly the earth repels them."

The first thing prospective helicopters pilots are told in US Army helicopter training school is, "The airplane is a collection of sound aerodynamic principals that flies.  The helicopter is a collection of mistakes that flies."

Too bad I failed the physical on that one.  Probably saved my life, as this was during the Viet Nam era. 😄 

Hook

[Chock 17,769]

Just now, LHookins said:

"Helicopters do not fly.  They are so ugly the earth repels them."

The first thing prospective helicopters pilots are told in US Army helicopter training school is, "The airplane is a collection of sound aerodynamic principals that flies.  The helicopter is a collection of mistakes that flies."

Too bad I failed the physical on that one.  Probably saved my life, as this was during the Viet Nam era. 😄 

Hook

Yup, the US lost about 4,000 helicopters in the Vietnam war. Not all of these were crashes or shootdowns and some shot down cho0ppers were recovered and repaired, but a lot of those losses were things such as dumping them over the side of ships when evacuating the country, or writing stuff off to the VNAF in 72, but you only need to read Robert Mason's Chickenhawk to know how dangerous a job that was in the Vietnam War, especially on the Loaches.

Seen a lot of those clips before, and some others besides, and for the most part they appear to be pilot error; either getting into a VRS, going somewhere too close to obstacles, or trying to sort out a bad situation instead of simply closing the throttle or dropping the collective.

Of course it's easy to say that when you're sat in a nice chair and not in the situation yourself, but the fact is they do seem to be very unforgiving of poor judgement. on the plus side, a lot of those incidents look fairly survivable although all those rotors and bits of shrapnel flying about when disaster strikes is incredibly dangerous for anyone nearby.

[edpatino 1,964]

With helicopters things can go wrong even being at just a few feet above the ground, not to mention high on the air, as the video shows.

Took once one of these helicopters from East Manhattan in NY that flies for about 20 minutes above the city to show it to tourists, and can tell you that the experience was so scary that I'll never do it again. There was a side movement and vibration that made you feel sick during all the flight. I was in the back with one of my daughters and my wife was seated in the front alongside the pilot, and suddenly my wife told the pilot to fly over the Empire State to take a picture and the heli hovered over the building pointing down and that was the scariest moment of my entire life!. Never again.

 

[Chock 17,769]

Just now, edpatino said:

Took once one of these helicopters from East Manhattan in NY that flies for about 20 minutes above the city to show it to tourists, and can tell you that the experience was so scary that I'll never do it again

They can certainly be alarming when you fly in them, but to be honest, the most alarming thing I noticed about a helicopter the first time I flew in one - a Bell JetRanger - was not the flight itself, but the overpowering smell of jet fuel around the thing as you approached it. As I got near it, it smelled like it was an fire accident waiting to happen. I realise that was probably because the gas turbine exhaust was being blown outwards by the rotor downwash, but it seemed to me that if you'd have clicked a lighter whilst you were within a hundred feet of the thing, it would go up like a roman candle. Even when I worked on the ramp at an airport and there was a massive jet fuel spillage one time - the smell of which took days to dissipate - it never smelled as strong as that chopper sat on the ground with its engine idling.

Ironically on this subject, the second time I went in a chopper (also a Bell JetRanger) that very same helicopter crashed a week later, when it suffered and engine failure and had to autorotate but it came down hard, injuring everyone who was on board the thing, so I'm very aware that those things can be dangerous.

[stans 703]

To date, my only helicopter ride has been in a Bell 206 JetRanger.  Fun flight at a local, small airshow/fly-in.

[Penzoil3 480]

I took a ride in an R-44 at a local airshow. Loved it. Gave up the front seat to a little old lady who had about 20 years on me, but it was still great from the back.