MightyGem
24th Nov 2003, 14:53
Can any of our antipodean friends confirm or deny this sorry tale...
here (http://www.darwinawards.com/slush/pending20031109-184816.html)
Autorotate
24th Nov 2003, 14:58
The NSW Electricity Comm used to have a orange and white Agusta 109. I remember seeing the thing. John Eacott might be able to shed any light on this rumour.
Autorotate.
helimatt
24th Nov 2003, 15:05
Yep, I heared this story a while ago as well. Cant remember where from though:D
John Eacott
24th Nov 2003, 17:59
The accident was basically as per the description, and the aircraft was Elcom's orange & white JetRanger, parked overnight in their depot at Orange, New South Wales. IIRC, the 206 didn't actually get airborne, but got dynamic rollover, unfortunately at the very moment that chummy decided to quit & exit stage left. The 206 was replaced by a blue Agusta A109, since two engines would obviously be twice as difficult to get started!
All happened about 12-15 years ago, about the same time as another sterling effort at stupidity occured in Adelaide. An enterprising owner of a H300, still learning to fly, decided to impress a lady friend one night with his new toy. One thing led to another, and he became more impressive when he started it. A little bell rang about engaging the rotors with the engine running, followed shortly by another lesson in dynamic rollover :rolleyes:
Not confined to this side of the Tasman, a Kiwi had a yearning to emigrate to Oz, and what better way after a vist to the pub, than to borrow a H500. He (remarkably) got it started, but his acumen on the start sequence was not followed by any flying ability, and it all ended in tears.
As did the dashing yoof, again in UnZud, who left the Friday night session to take some friends for a fly in his H500, parked conveniently in the tennis court. He'd have managed a loop from lift off, if only the ground had been 150 feet lower :eek: :sad:
Ned can relate the deer hunting episodes of Darwinism ..........
rotorboater
24th Nov 2003, 19:47
Wasn't there a scoat that broke in on his way back from the pub and manged to start and lift off in an R22 at sheffield last year, I cant believe these guys can actually start them but then they usually find that that is the easy bit versus when you nick a ford escort!