PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Vortex Ring / Settling with power (Merged)
Old 1st Feb 2011, 23:10
  #309 (permalink)  
helmet fire
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: the cockpit
Posts: 1,084
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Hi crab and TET, at the risk of thread creep, the BlackHawk accident was not a VRS event, and is very unlikely to have been "insufficient power". It is most likely to have been the S70A's tendency to suffer significant RRPM droop following a high NR manoeuvre (flare, dropping lever, etc) followed immediately by a rapid application of collective. The donks do not respond quickly and the result is significant RRPM droop until they catch up. This droop can be induced to the extent of dropping the generators offline, and has caused several other incidents in the S70A, though those others impacted the ground and became airborne again. Regardless of OGE hover power margin!
This one unfortunately impacted the ship's edge and was thus unable to become airborne again. Bingers (the pilot) came very, very close to lining up with the ship and recovering the situation, and this proximity no doubt enabled enough of the airframe to stay together and make it survivable to most on board.
Another example: US Army Demo
Of course, as I know all too well, I was not there and may have missed significant elements of the sequence, but I am concerned that we would point at VRS or SWP whilst excluding what I consider is the real lesson for UH60 pilots.
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