AS332 Tail rotor incident Down Under

[Time Out]

ABC radio just ran a news item about a Puma landing safely after a level 1 emergency. Anyone know any more details?

[Flytest]

Guys,

heard a whisper that an AS332 suffered loss of tail rotor control on Aug 29th, and the skipper had to make an emergency (And exciting!) 65 kts running landing. Unfortunately the brave boy lost control and smashed the tail boom. Anybody able to clarify the incident and put me straight??

[What-ho Squiffy!]

First bit true - not sure about the last bit regarding smashing the tail boom (possibly right...). Situation has casued some rush inspections though...

[unbridled]

My understanding is that it was pure mechanical failure in the control system. They had 2 attempts at landing - the first was slow and they nearly lost control, so they went around and came in faster, which worked better. Don't know of any further damage. The captain is very experienced, and was with a relatively inexperienced (on type) co-pilot.

[ScotiaQ]

:cool:

It seems that the lockwasher broke allowing the nut holding the Tail Rotor Control Spider to undo. This caused break up of the bearing in the spider and also loss of tail rotor control.

if this is the case, the pilot did very well because the pitch on the tail rotor blades could have been anywhere. Unlike a tail rotor cable failure where the blades go to neutral pitch, you know what you have and can deal with it.

As I say if this is the case "Well done that man"

[Flytest]

ScotiaQ

Absolutely agree, had heard the same as you, superb skill from the driver.. but I bet he had a large brandy that night all the same:ok:

[unbridled]

ScotiaQ

Quite agree! Difficult position to be in, he showed good judgment and pulled it off superbly.

[rotormat]

Captain - very experienced with thousands of hours on type
Co-pilot - experienced sfo with 1000 hours on type

As per normal LTR proceedure you need to do a practice approach to determine the best speed for the run on landing.

Did a brilliant job, aircraft rcovered withour further damage.

What failed: Bearing in spider which meant that the shaft spun and unwound the locking nut which attached it to the tail rotor servo.

obviously this meant they had no tail rotor control and did not present in the same way as a tail control failure.

Well done crew

[rotorrookie]

was this then more like stuck pedal than loss of tailrotor control?

[Autorotate]

Since I am not an engineer just wanted to ask if this part that unwound, was it supposed to have been lockwired at the end ?

Wondering how it could have come undone.

:E

[Flytest]

Autorotate

See Scotia Q's post further up the list.

[Autorotate]

Thanks and disregard my previous post. :\


:E

[Time Out]

The ATSB report is at this location (http://www.atsb.gov.au/aviation/occurs/occurs_detail.cfm?ID=585)