Originally Posted by
Jack Carson
I would like to revisit the fuel starvation scenario. Back in the 1980s our unit had a similar inflight breakup of a Bell AH-1S. I was determined that the cause may have been the result of an inadvertent rollback of the engine at high speed and max power. This resulted in the rotor extreme main rotor flapping causing it to contact the airframe in multiple places as it departed the aircraft. It concerns me that the pilot request fuel within 3 minutes of takeoff into what would have been a relatively short flight.
If I remember correctly (Nick Lappos will), that was something fairly unique about the Cobra. In the event of an engine failure at high speed, you were well advised to delay lowering the collective as you normally would because that resulted in excessive rotor flapping.The correct response was "Whut?" and then remembering not to do that right away.