I investigated all three of the accidents.
Originally Posted by
ShyTorque
I suspect the type of surface had little to do with those accidents.
It actually did, the first two touched front of the skids first and because the "toes" dug in, there was no way for the skids to spread and slide.
Originally Posted by
megan
Gordy, Photo 1 and 3 look as though they had no choice and the areas not surveyed for the purpose of practicing autos, the second the result of a flare problem and nothing to do with grass.
#2 was at the airport between two taxiways and was a known training area as evidenced by the skid marks. #1 & # 3 were in Area "A", a known training area that was used daily.
#1 was a new instructor who was demonstrating having too much forward trim and allowing the helicopter to run onto the ground with forward motion...
# 2 was a checkride for CFI demonstrating a touch down auto. The examiner had a rather large stomach and the student left it too late to flare and thereby attempted an aggressive flare but ran out of cyclic as it hit the instructors belly....they hit the ground fast and the skids "dug in"...
# 3 Actually the third was a "flare" problem in that the instructor was not authorized to conduct touchdown autos and he did a "power recovery" to a hover auto and bounced forward pulling full aft cyclic---had he been to a hard surface, there is a good chance the skids would have spread a little and then skidded not compressed and then sprung up.
So yes, I believe, (and again just MY opinion), that all three of these would have had different outcomes had they have been made to a hard surface. Full TD autos can be conducted to grass safely but not all pilots possess the skills to do so.