AS350 Nutter in NI

[madman1145]

Just seen the movie, over and over again ..

- What about this explanation for a change, the way I see what happens ..

Liftoff is fully controlled by pilot. Quite coordinated, note the heli doesn't start to turn about itself when it momentarily gets light on the skids just before complete liftoff (light on the skids looks for me to be when the airframe start to jiggle a bit just before liftoff and engine sound winds nicely up) ..

When force is being put into the blades (collective rises) without having coordination with the pedals, turning about itself while light on the skids is something I would expect to see if it wasn't fully controlled ..
If one take a 350 airborn like you do a R44 or any other sluggish helicopter, it will go very veeery fast airborn and not fairly gently like this - 350 is mentally flown, not by moving the controls like a R44 or B206 for that sake - it's a "Feel the force Luke" helicopter ..

Vertical climb while turning about itself is fully controlled. With hyd-off and a sudden liftoff I would expect to see a reward to the right going movement of the heli, since that's the position the cyclic of a 350 will force itself to move with approx. 21 kilos of force if I am remembering correct ..

The transition from vertical climb and at the same time turning about itself that goes into a forward movement while still turning about itself is somehow controlled and at least fully induced by the pilot, despite it doesn't look nicely coordinated (and now things start to go wrong for Mr./Mrs. Pilot). Its something I have only done in hoverheight and no strong winds and only seen a Pro like Dennis Kenyon do in the air OGE in a Schweizer ..

The now not so nicely coordinated turning about itself while moving ahead in the strong winds induces now more forcefull and probably some abrupt movements in the controls by the pilot, which after a full turn now result in a short momentarily hydraulic hardover and the nose suddenly pitches down for a moment. The pilot is now, and not before until now, in a real recovery situation (HYD is back online but pitch is severely down, cows a really BIG) caused by missing the 7 P's (Prior Proper Preperation Prevents Piss Poor Performance) and going beyond the pilots own skills ..

Just my five cents ..

- madman