Emergency Floats and stability
Just wondering if one of the rotorheads can steer me in the right direction for some info.
During a HUET course I was conducting today one of the students asked me about whether any specific data relating to maximum sea state that say an S76 or AS365 could expect to remain upright upon ditching was available. Those two types are fairly common here in Angola. I could not really answer it with any info based on authoritative sources except for what I have read and that is that on emergency floatation, most helicopters will be fairly unstable.
Things like the control of the landing/impact on the surface, whether or not pax panic and rush to one side, whether the airframe remains headed into wind and waves and whether all the floatation cells function correctly are some of the factors I could come up with.
Anyone know if there is any documented study of this subject?
Thanks in advance
IJ