Ditching a helicopter: (incl pictures)

[johned0]

I'd hate to have to preflight that Lynx from where it was put down.

J.

:)

[scenictours49]

Jock,
A word of advice.
If you use photos of ditched aircraft, just be careful and check whether they rolled over on impact or much much later.
Chances are the crew/pax got out level, most of the photographs you see are obviously taken only when the cameraman arrives and the sea state or rescue ship might have knocked it over well after a safe egress.
If I'm stating the obvious I'm sorry.
49ers

[HughMartin]

Is this of any use?

http://209.196.171.35/images/gtigkditch.jpg

From the Bristow Helicopters 50th Anniversary Website

http://209.196.171.35/.

And an other

http://209.196.171.35/images/sinking61.jpg

And this one is deliberate

http://209.196.171.35/helimage/61inwater_big.jpg

[chopperdr]

islander: send me a pm, have video of faa flight testing of apical float systems in action, video includes full on autos into water of 350 / 120 / 900 / 105's. would be great for training purposes.
dr

[212man]

I suspect that the 61 picture (middle one) is the aircraft that dropped its tail wheel of the back of a boat then chopped the roof off as the disc was moved forward. This gave the pilot no means of shutting the engines down (quadrant missing) and so he ditched it along side and waited till it ran out of fuel.

May be wrong, but it seems strange to have a camera on the scene otherwise (a/c is still running in photo).

[Islander Jock]

HughMartin,
Some great photos there. Thanks very much.

Chopperdr,
Check your PMs pls.

Rgds

IJ

[CYHeli]

Not being a boatie I'm not sure of the answer.
If you are trying to land/auto into wind, wouldn't this be pushing the wave at you? Or does it depend upon sea-state, current, etc.
Great thread to have resurfaced (;) ).
Looking forward to doing a HUET course soon after reading all of this...

[Thomas coupling]

Have I missed something? Why is the latest entry on this thread (other than mine!) 2006?????? And it is still on the front page of rotorheads?

[Peter-RB]

Hey TC,

thats a gap of 7yrs, well working in Wales does things like that to ya, have a coffee and arranged the white coat brigade to make a visit..quickly before you find out more has gone on !

Peter R-B;)

[John Eacott]

I haven't seen this ditching video posted before, from December 2013. We really need to brief the pax to keep filming through these events!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=913_1417448165

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=39d_1417449448



And there was this classic, which disappeared soon after Bristow Nigeria became aware of it back in 2009 ;)

GLplm2nYyis

[lelebebbel]

That first one looks like an S76. I really wonder what happened there, sounds like an engine spooling down?

[Hilico]

And then spooling back up, just before it hit the water?

[RVDT]

"Apparently" it collided with the sea in "bad weather" "apparently"

ATSB (https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2014/aair/ae-2014-089.aspx) helping out as investigation still "open".

9M-STE S-76C MHS on Petronas seismic job.

Good luck with finding much more info - pax were from France, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Canada.

MHS don't seem to have had much luck like their airline counterparts. Disproportionate number seem to end up in the Ogen.

Some comments on the Malaysian "bad luck" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/map-happy/this-theory-may-explain-m_b_6432192.html).

You can only understand as much as your culture will allow.

[helimutt]

sorry to say it but that approach to the ship in video 1 doesnt appear to be a very good one at all. looks way too slow, looks way too low. If he'd flown a normal profile instead of hanging around to the side, he may have made it to the deck when the donkey quit. Only my personal opinion from the video footage. But what do i know as ive only landed offshore a few times.

I'd love to know who teaches this sort of approach. :eek:

[rantanplane]

And then spooling back up, just before it hit the water?

And then it's not an AB helicopter, then surely no technical faults, could it be pilot error? :rolleyes:

[212man]

I don't think it's the engine spooling up - I think it's the decayed Nr recovering when the collective is lowered, once on the water.

The engine winds down in a pefect place to have landed on the deck! Any sooner and they would have been commited to the water (with the slow shallow approach). The captain took the controls off the co-pilot and flew it away from the deck! :ugh: The aircraft sank because they hadn't armed the floats :mad: The submerged aircraft got dragged by the seismic array for about 2km.

The guy taking the video (Finnish) just went to work and did his 28 day stint, once rescued :D:D

[212man]

Some comments on the Malaysian "bad luck".


Whilst there may be some truth in the discussion in the article, I think it's a stretch to associate it with any of the accidents referred to: We have no idea what happened to MH370 so how can we discuss the crew's actions? MH17 could have been a number of other carriers in the area, and appears to have been a case of Russian roulette - literally! The Air Asia crew were Indonesian and French, so the Malaysian argument is irrelevant!

[megan]

Yer pinch me post John? :{