PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Helitrans (Norway) AS-350 missing off coast of Germany
Old 17th Dec 2012, 08:55
  #66 (permalink)  
Nubian
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: At home
Posts: 503
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Mustfly79,


Tragic days for the families and all involved in this last accident.
Hopefully the investigators will find the cause of it as the helicopter seems to be almost intact.

Now, as you refer to servo transperancy, I don't know how much you know about the phenomenon, but it is nothing that will happen to a helicopter in cruise flight. From the accidents you mention,(all of them+a good few others) without going too much into details, they did not fly straight and level just prior to their crashes, but (semi)acrobatic flight with full ship of pax with moderate to high G-turns,High speed,etc. Google: Sundance Helicopter N270SH, or Colin McRae, G-CBHL. Those have also been discussed here before, but the investigation reports are openly availble if you do a search for it. Those are only examples, as there are many more.

In those crashes, I am not too sure the result would have been too different if said individuals was flying a another machine at the time....

Back a few years, there was a video of one of American Eurocopter's testpilots on the BO105, which was practicing for a filmshoot that went badly as well due to the pilot's too agressive handeling at a too low altitude, combined with the flightcaracteristics of the BO-105. I don't feel it is appropriate to blame the helicopter for those accidents, which is related to the individuals aciton behind the controlls.

So, for this accident which we know very little about just now, but the helicopter being almost 100% intact is a good thing for the investigators. I think it is a wrong approach to start focusing on the Hyd system like some are more inclined to do. It is just too early to do that.

All the best.
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