R44 Loses tail rotor.
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: UK
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C'mon then chopjock - let's hear it.....................
So now out of trim and flying at 85mph. I reduced power, kept the speed up and looked for somewhere to put down. There were steep hills and trees all around, so decided to enter a shallow decent, maintaining speed and headed for a hill top in the distance where I could see an open field.
Getting closer I saw two fields, both sloping, one with cows in it and another with a flat area on top. I decided to enter auto rotation and gently wound the throttle back, feeling the response as I did it to make sure the engine was still there if I needed it. then turned into wind and did a perfect zero speed landing.(This is easy in an Enstrom).
On the ground I could feel a hell of a vibration and a loud grinding noise was coming from the back so I shut down right away without cooling the engine. When I got out I could see the tail rotor was not turning but the main rotor was.
I called my engineer and he came out the next day with a replacement tail gearbox and I flew it home.
Quite an experience I thought.
Excellent Chopjock, give yourself a DWM and go to the front of the class.
I particularly liked the no frills recovery service. The beauty of DiY repairs like this is the lack of demand for paperwork or any reporting procedures. One can simply carry on with ones life and look back on it as a minor glitch in ones life.
Bravo.
I particularly liked the no frills recovery service. The beauty of DiY repairs like this is the lack of demand for paperwork or any reporting procedures. One can simply carry on with ones life and look back on it as a minor glitch in ones life.
Bravo.
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Australia
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Gees chopjock, you could have embellished it a bit, you don't mean to say that you didn't have to spend the night in the nearest farmers barn with the um atttrac--- etc.
tet
tet
Chief Bottle Washer
Interesting
Pilot, ground crewman blamed for Tulsa helicopter mishap
Pilot, Ground Crewman Blamed For Tulsa Helicopter Mishap
Posted: Dec 17, 2013 3:22 AM EST
Updated: Dec 17, 2013 3:52 AM EST
Richard Clark, NewsOn6.com - email
TULSA, Oklahoma - The National Transportation Safety Board blames the pilot and a ground crewman for the crash landing of a small helicopter at Tulsa International Airport in February.
Osage SkyNews 6 pilot Will Kavanagh spotted the damaged Robinson R-44 helicopter from the air on February 6, 2013.
He could tell the chopper was missing its tail rotor and could see that the aircraft had spun around several times on the ground.
In the NTSB's Probable Cause Report on the incident, it blames the accident on the "line technician's failure to remove the refuelling mat from the helicopter fuselage following service, which resulted in the mat striking the tail rotor, and the pilot's inadequate preflight inspection."
The refueling mat is a roughly two-foot by one-foot rubber mat which is placed around the fuel filler tube to prevent damage to the helicopter's paint by the fuel nozzle.
In his Factual Report released in September, NTSB investigator Michael Folkerts wrote that the pilot was leaving TIA at about 5 p.m. to fly down to Jones Riverside. When the helicopter reached about 150 feet in altitude, the mat struck the tail rotor and knocked it off.
The pilot told the NTSB he felt the helicopter buck and start to turn to the right, so he immediately cut fuel to the engine and began an autorotation, a maneuver helicopter pilots use to land if they lose engine power or the tail rotor.
The pilot, who is rated as a commercial helicopter and instructor pilot with 1,255 hours of total flight time, landed safely and no one was hurt.
Witnesses found the mat and the tail rotor blades nearby.
Photos provided by the NTSB show the mat was almost ripped into two pieces.
The helicopter, which is owned by Crumpton Aviation, sustained some damage in the landing.
Posted: Dec 17, 2013 3:22 AM EST
Updated: Dec 17, 2013 3:52 AM EST
Richard Clark, NewsOn6.com - email
TULSA, Oklahoma - The National Transportation Safety Board blames the pilot and a ground crewman for the crash landing of a small helicopter at Tulsa International Airport in February.
Osage SkyNews 6 pilot Will Kavanagh spotted the damaged Robinson R-44 helicopter from the air on February 6, 2013.
He could tell the chopper was missing its tail rotor and could see that the aircraft had spun around several times on the ground.
In the NTSB's Probable Cause Report on the incident, it blames the accident on the "line technician's failure to remove the refuelling mat from the helicopter fuselage following service, which resulted in the mat striking the tail rotor, and the pilot's inadequate preflight inspection."
The refueling mat is a roughly two-foot by one-foot rubber mat which is placed around the fuel filler tube to prevent damage to the helicopter's paint by the fuel nozzle.
In his Factual Report released in September, NTSB investigator Michael Folkerts wrote that the pilot was leaving TIA at about 5 p.m. to fly down to Jones Riverside. When the helicopter reached about 150 feet in altitude, the mat struck the tail rotor and knocked it off.
The pilot told the NTSB he felt the helicopter buck and start to turn to the right, so he immediately cut fuel to the engine and began an autorotation, a maneuver helicopter pilots use to land if they lose engine power or the tail rotor.
The pilot, who is rated as a commercial helicopter and instructor pilot with 1,255 hours of total flight time, landed safely and no one was hurt.
Witnesses found the mat and the tail rotor blades nearby.
Photos provided by the NTSB show the mat was almost ripped into two pieces.
The helicopter, which is owned by Crumpton Aviation, sustained some damage in the landing.
Join Date: Feb 2005
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walll, I'll be damned.
A friend of mine once was ferrying a G2 along at 5,000', with heaps of fuel in jerries on the litters. Silly bugger miscalculated the actual in tank fuel, all the way to the ground it was running through his brain, how will I explain this if I stuff up the auto, he didn't.
Something as stupidly unnecessary as those blessed fuel mats should be thrown in the trash can, so's the idiot factor is limited.
A friend of mine once was ferrying a G2 along at 5,000', with heaps of fuel in jerries on the litters. Silly bugger miscalculated the actual in tank fuel, all the way to the ground it was running through his brain, how will I explain this if I stuff up the auto, he didn't.
Something as stupidly unnecessary as those blessed fuel mats should be thrown in the trash can, so's the idiot factor is limited.
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Professional means that everything SHOULD be perfect before start up, what part of professional does this guy understand or operate under..?
Peter R-B
Lancashire
Peter R-B
Lancashire
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T/R failure
Be interested to know what sort of yaw angles and associated speeds were experienced in the straight & level portion of the recovery? Plus the weight of the Enstrom at the time and the maximum power that could be used without losing directional control? DRK
Such mats were brought into use very briefly on one AAC squadron to counter the skin-damage being caused to Gazelles by the refuellers letting-go of the filler cap, rather than placing the cap on an adjacent step. The practice of using the mats was quickly rescinded when, during night-flying, a mat couldn't be accounted-for. It was subsequently found lying on the dispersal near the tankers. One side of the black rubber mat had orange markings, the other didn't - you can guess which way it was found.
A solution was found for the swinging filler-cap - repositioning and shortening the securing wire so it would only reach the footstep or the nozzle aperture.
A solution was found for the swinging filler-cap - repositioning and shortening the securing wire so it would only reach the footstep or the nozzle aperture.
Last edited by diginagain; 13th Nov 2014 at 23:09.
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Oh dear, the "quick" pre flight strikes again!? As a helicopter is basically a ball of force vectors pulling in opposite directions, pre flights are pretty important....Practiced TRF's in the 206 the other day, amazing the effect rolling off the throttle has. Of course my biggest fear of a tail rotor/gearbox letting go, is if it is bad enough to cause the T/R gearbox to depart...that happens and the CofG shift totally ruins your day. 
