Originally Posted by
SuperF
Sorry to blow your mind TC, but things do happen safely and legally outside of your very limited view of aviation.
So to prove that I am wrong about leaving a helicopter without a pilot at the controls you link:
1. A document from Airbus that now makes it Legal to do it, even if they don’t recommend it!! Prior to this it was illegal but the have acknowledged that it is done and have reduced the restriction in the flight manual!
2. A document from the NZAIA, actually it was the helicopter committee of that organisation that I happen to be on, I remember sitting having this discussion with our CAA about this very issue. That document is a procedure that describes exactly how to do what I have said can be done safely and legally.
3 and 4 no idea, far to many pages to read on a phone!
I am guessing that somewhere the one from Robinson says that the pilot must be seated at the controls while the blades are turning, or something similar.
So let’s clear a few things up.
Do not hot refuel with Avgas, higher flash point just silly. We actually had some idiot do it in NZ,R44 I think, with those lovely static creating nylon overalls that everyone likes to wear now, burnt his machine!!!
Engine blades at Ground idle, 66% roughly.
Stay close, within the rotor disk is best if you can, but close!
Controls locks/frictions as appropriate for machine.
Check weather conditions, don’t be a dick!
Listen to your machine! You can hear it starting to wind up, and it will give you plenty of warning that it wants to fly. If you cannot hear your helicopter engine starting to wind up, if you are in it or outside it, then you shouldn’t be flying.
Airbus now allow it, it is NOW legal to hop out with rotors turning.
Bell just don’t care. They say minimum crew 1 pilot for flight. Flight time is skids up to skids down. So if the skids aren’t off the ground then you are not flying, therefore you do not have to have a pilot at the controls!! Ask a lawyer!
If anyone ever wants to see how hard it is for these things to fly away by themselves, sit at ground idle and pull collective, engine will slow, blades will droop, but no flying away...
If you need more proof come to NZ, contact me, I will run my helicopter for you and show you how safe it is if done properly.
Hopefully you're not the pilot I observed at a certain south NZ airport who left his 355 running and completely unattended for almost twenty minutes next to an unlocked gate adjacent to a public car park. He got out to assist his passengers deplane (fair enough) but then carried their luggage into the terminal building. I started videoing it because it was a gusty day and the blades were flapping. I also moved my car, containing my kids, further away. After he sauntered out of the building he climbed in, whacked the throttle forward, lifted off and basically "threw the Heli back over his left shoulder" without any sort of a clearing turn and almost collided with another aircraft taxiing behind him. He was no spring chicken either...