Expert flying or 'Oops, I've just filled my trousers'?

[Lord Mount]

At the risk of apearing strange or an anorak.

I've just been watching a re-run episode of that 80s classic, 'Airwolf'. You know, the one with the big hairdos and Jan-Michael Vincent (the man with only one facial expression).

During one scene a motorcycle was being chased along a road at ground level by a B206. I would estimate the speed to be 50-60 mph.
As the motorbike went round a right hand bend the pilot banked right and the main rotor chopped through the bushes by the side of the road.
The outer foot to 18" of the rotor disc made contact.

I replayed the footage a few times and there were leaves, small branches and all things arborial involved which makes me believe it was not a scripted stunt.

Now I am merely a relatively low hour PPLH and would welcome comments from the wealth of experience on this site, but my humble opinion is that rotor contact with anything is seriously bad news.

My question is this.

Apart from times of war (certain chapters in 'Chickenhawk' come to mind), are there occaisions where pilots would consider using their helicopters as a topiary tool?

[ShyTorque]

I think unless we have a deathwish, the answer is 100% NO; we do everything to avoid touching them on anything at all.

They aint strong enough for such antics and cost an absolute fortune.

[Whirlygig]

They aint strong enough for such antics and cost an absolute fortune.

Applies to many things in life!! :}

This is what can happen with a tree/rotor blade interface scenario (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9pcZXZ9WzBc)

Power lines are a tad dodgy as well - about 50 secs in! (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=cir6JlzmXyg)

Cheers

Whirls

[Chickenhawk1]

Heard stories from the old guys in New Zealand from back in the day when they did stuff like that fairly regularly in their 500s. They'd go into a confined and the draw from the MR pulled branches down so they'd trim them back to get out.

[SilsoeSid]

There were some LS's in Brunei that needed a little 'tending to' in order to get in and sometimes back out as Chickenhawk1 mentions about the kiwis. Good job the Scout had blades of steel!

Funny thing nature, she wants to revert back to how it was!

[ShyTorque]

Been there; First tour (nearly thirty years ago this year), Puma, Belize jungle, small clearing, big heli, a couple of new blade tips. Sorry Boss.

I wasn't the only one though; Boss's heli, same scenario, one time needed four new blades... :p

Not as bad as the Apache on Whirls' video though. That was just silly.

[tistisnot]

Ah, repetitive incidents ...... HFACs - Organisation, training, planning .... seems pretty silly to me!

[Lord Mount]

The answers given were, on the whole, what I was expecting.

Which brings me on to a further point.

Regarding the original Airwolf footage, what I expect happened was that the director briefed the pilot that he wanted the most exciting chase the pilot could produce. I think that going agricultural was completely unplanned.

The editor kept the footage in but cut away immediately after the rotors went through the bush so it is possible the pilot abandoned the chase as soon as it happened (probably very pale and in a cold sweat).

Are there any 'Oh my God, I learned a lesson from that' moments that others would like to share?

[baffler15]

An oldy but a goody, Whirls!

Pilot 1: D'ya reckon I'll make it through there?:E
Pilot 2: (without hesitation) NOPE!:eek:
Pilot 1: Oh, ye of little faith.....look how big that is!:mad:

***** bbbzzzz! *****


I've seen that video on more "arousals" than I care to remember!

:ugh:

The Baffler :ok:

[SASless]

Chopping yer way in and/or out of a LZ was not all that uncommon in a place far, far away years ago.

Usually there were guys on the ground that needed the ride to the extent a few rotor blades seemed expendable at times.:(

[mtoroshanga]

In the military we had Alouette 3s, if you knocked a tip against a tree, as often happened, you could take all three off and fly without any problem.

[TRC]

I once watched a pilot in an Alouette II chasing a car for a commercial. He did the same thing as the Airwolf pilot - banked a bit harshly and whipped the top off a small twiggy tree.
Not two years later he repeated the scenario in a 206, but this time it wasn't a twiggy tree but a hillside. He didn't survive.

I've been in a 205 landing in a tight site, and the pilot had no qualms about 'enlarging' it with some amateur tree surgery. Fortunately it didn't need it, but I reckon any contact between the heavy and tipcap-less blades and the light foliage wouldn't have caused any damage. Not something that should be done on a daily basis though.

[r44raven]

One of the pioneers of using helicopters in movies was a guy called Jim Gavin. I remember seeing a chase he flew in a film called "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" when chasing a car in a 206, he makes a really tight turn at low level and looks like he's about to shove the nose into the ground but manages to pick it back up. For any lawyers out there, I'm certain he was in control at all times. Just an anorak fact - his passenger in the pursuit was a sheriff played by Vic Morrow who, ironically, was killed many years later by a helicopter during the filming of "Twilight Zone - The Movie"

Now, where's my life...I'm sure I left it round here somewhere....:(

[tottigol]

Check out the applause at the end.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tsDSvcEDCgg

[Verbatim03]

Whoops
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRDJ9oyjcMc

[MightyGem]

Check out the applause at the end.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=tsDSvcEDCgg

Prime example of why not to give the crowd a show.

[Droopy]

Notice that just as the blades are grinding to a broken mess and the pilot is no doubt considering the merits of chicken farming, someone within earshot says "...that's normal..."

[007helicopter]

Whoops
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRDJ9oyjcMc

The Hiller in verbatim03 post I assumed wiped his tail rotor out in the flare, assuming this happened would there be any other recovery than dump the collective?

I assume you are at that point merely a passanger.

[gingernut]

In this terrible incident http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4VcsQ08OH-I I had the misjudgment to let my daughter take control.

The tree's havn't really recovered, and my rotor is now in bit's , but luckily we survived.

[Flying Bull]

Stories from the times and the older boys, when fireing of staff wasn´t so easily considered.
One day the hangar windows had to be cleaned.
One Pilot went to his Aluette, taped a sponge to each tip, started the helicopter and started cleaning the windows.....
I trust the teller - there were other stories, these guys played around with the birds and testes their skills by picking firecones from the trees - with their bladetips....
But nobody asked, when the tips were changed......
Enough spares were in the hangar ;-)
Greetings Flying Bull

[Bernouli's what?]

These get a little cheeky on NVG in a 212, but at least no-one's shooting at us!
http://photos-173.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sctm/v183/118/114/571987173/n571987173_613381_5745.jpg