Video released for Aust Army BlackHawk crash

[topendtorque]

That's comedy gold

Beetlenut2
I don’t share your sense of comedy, I also wonder about your observations; your post #23, Chinooks?

I thought the passages of your post #28 very illuminating.

1) The witness got himself well tangled up, which is not to me a point of derision, merely a trait of someone batting on and unaware of the finer details to which he is trying to refer.

2) He appeared to be on another plane of understanding as to the expected outcomes and procedures for the exercise than the person, Major 4, even though both were in the same enterprise. (Perhaps even the same machine)

3) It follows that both of the pilots of the crashed machine must have also been on a plane of understanding different from Major 4.

Those three observations speak volumes to me about procedures of; allowable manoeuvres, briefing, planning and expectations. The expectations of whom, the client, the flying detachment on site or - some one or group back in headquarters who thinks that a certain procedure is required to effect a certain result from some hypothetical threat, without regard to basic helicopter flight characteristics.

The HQ bloke may have heard that “fifteen knots downwind is well within the performance parameters of the aircraft”. If no one else in the command chain knew better about the many forms and the dangers of VRS at low level and planned exercises accordingly then they plainly wouldn’t know what they were talking about.

That - is - how - people - get - killed.

I’ll bet that there is no SOP that says that descent manoeuvres to a negative airspeed should be avoided. If there were I do not believe that this pilot would have got caught the way he did.

Someone on here recently said that after 1500 hours in the military they thought they knew everything and realized with hindsight that the only thing that saved them was the flight authorisation process.

Very honest, I too reckoned that at about 1200 hours I was just becoming aware of what it was that I did not know about this low level game, but how to learn it??? And low level challenging the elements was all that I did, unlike the military which gets lots of routine straight and level stuff.

That was why I had a bit to say about the Townsville prang where I reckon vastly inexperienced types got thrust into a situation that was beyond them, obviously.

But it was the system that allowed it to happen, most possibly because the system didn’t know what it didn’t know and hadn’t catered for that. That is plainly wrong and needs to be transparently amended. That is why I treat the BOI with somewhat a jaundiced eye.

People come on this and other forums on most subjects to either learn or perhaps impart something to help others learn. I try to subscribe to both functions as I reckon you’re never too old to learn and I am most grateful for the thanks that I have often received for the practical training that I given, including the dangers of VRS.

I am also mindful of many who may like to say something on this Fiji subject but by dent of their profession or connection must refrain, even though these forums are “rumour networks.”

I think I have outlined where I am coming from, but where do you come from Beetlenut2?