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Old 18th May 2020, 23:49
  #32 (permalink)  
Ascend Charlie
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Great South East, tired and retired
Posts: 4,380
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Never ever pull the nose over the trees, it may end in a stall, and nose down into the ground.
Bit different for a chopper. Built like a racing tadpole, the rotors will flip off and the fuselage will start slipping down through the trees. If you entered level, then the horizontal stabilizer will probably snag on some branches, the nose swings down, the weight comes on those branches, they break off, and the tadpole is headed nose-first for the ground 100' away. And there is little protection in a fibreglass nose and perspex window for the unlucky pax.

Better to enter the trees very nose-high, and hopefully fall in the same way. The tailboom, which is disposable, might take a lot of the energy of the crash, and landing backwards gives a bit of protection with the seat, instead of hanging face-first from a seatbelt.
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