Watched this thing lots today at work. Dont think it was a tailrotor failure for a couple of reasons....
Disclaimer: I am armchairing this one, yes I know I wasnt there, but, having flown the type, and looking at the video, here's my best guess:
He appeared to be in an auto , starts to flare, looks like he try to stretch just a little as he brings in power, he gets the nose left yaw. then abrubt right, then bucks all over the place. almost regains control. If he had lost the tail rotor , he would have started to spin, as he increased power, not quite the same "dance he went through". The T/R appears to still be spinning it looked like he had plent of NR.
The Astar is flyable, with loss of t/r, youll spin, but once you pass thourgh 30kts or so, it'll fly. If it was a simple T/R failure, you could feasibly fly it a ways and run it on.The Astar has a long tail boom and weathervane's pretty good. Thats not to say it wasn't some wiered jammed pedal senario.
This is my theory:
He had a HYD failure. The horn went off (same horn as eng out), entered an auto trying to make the first rooftop. Flared at the bottom, brings in power, not enough R pedal (its a B**ch) and lost it. Looked like (imo)he was wrestleing the HYD (from the pitching, gyrations and viloent attitude changes), trying to get it under control, with several near recoverys. If it gets away from you, and your not prepared , it will look alot like what I saw on the video.
Only time and NTSB will tell.
All I gotta say is , thank god they all walked away.
Any comments?
RB
Last edited by rotorboy; 6th May 2004 at 02:37.