Real story or myth?

[Arm out the window]

Can anyone shed any light on the following as to whether it's fair dinkum or just a good bar story (which is where I heard it, so that accounts for the lack of verification - brain cell count probably taken a hit)?

Some military helicopters, I think Bell 47s, are out in the training area (somewhere!) with one POB in each.

One of the pilots is busting for a leak, so he puts down on a handy pinnacle, tightens up the control frictions and hops out with the engine running and rotors turning.

He wanders down the slope a bit and answers the call of nature, and while he's away the collective vibrates itself up or whatever, and the aircraft departs without him and rolls itself up in a burning fireball down the other side of the hill.

Our hero doesn't hear it because he's got his helmet on still, presumably.

Meanwhile, one of his mates is flying in the area and sees the burning wreckage.
Thinking his friend has gone in, he lands on the same spot that the first aircraft has just vacated (sans pilot), tightens his frictions and scrambles down the slope to try and save his friend.

Unaware of any of this, our hero finishes what he had to do (must have taken some time!), wanders back up to the top of the hill, sees a running helicopter and, assuming it's his, straps in and ******s off, unaware that now he's in a different machine to the one he originally signed for!

Can this be true??!!

If not, it's certainly a good yarn.


:)

[Dean Morris]

G'day. I saw this story in a book somewhere, supposedly true. As I recall the story continued with our hero noticing the wrecked machine during his departure, relanding and offering assistance to the "poor crew", standing by "their" wreck. Apparently it took quite a bit of discussion and checking of logs and serial numbers to convince our man of the awful truth!
******.

[Whirlybird]

I've read this too; I think it's in "Learning to Fly Helicopters" by R. Randall Padfield. The details are slightly different, but it is supposed to be a true story.

[ditchy]

Has to be crap. The sound of an upright 47 at idle is significantly different to the sound of one rolling down a hill, a fact I can verify from personal experience. Unless our hero was in the habit of wandering 2 kilometres away to find a suitable tree to fertilise or the Berlin Philharmonic was practising the 1812 Overture in the next valley, there is no chance this mishap could go unnnoticed even with other 47s buzzing around overhead. IMHO of course...........

[Arm out the window]

Ditchy

From your comment, it sounds like you've got a tale to tell as well - anything for public consumption?

[B Sousa]

Its True, Its True. I remember its was at Ft Wolters Texas in the 60s and they were OH-23s......and We drank a lot in those days..........

[Helibiggles]

Yep! heard that one before. True ... well who really knows..
Heres a factual one.
One of the local mustering boys pulled up on a ridge (a BIG ridge) up in Arnhem country (NT), busting for a leak and didn't put the bungee over the collective. A little pitch later and our mate is at the top and the R22 is at the bottom....with all the survival gear. All ended happily but it took some explaining..... :rolleyes:

[Ancient Pelican]

Don't know it that one is true, but anything was possible at Ft. Wolters in the '60's.
Saw an OH-23 on take-off at about 50-75 feet do a 360 pedal turn and then continue the climb out, the IP looked at me and just shook his head. One luckless candidate tried to stop the main rotor from turning by grabbing the tail-rotor drive shaft of an OH-13, it grabbed his glove and flipped him over the otherside of the tailboon, just dislocated his shoulder!!!

[oldbeefer]

IT'S TRUE! Twas the AAC in Cyprus in the (I think) '60s on the side of Trudos. worked with one of them some years ago!

[Newfie Driver]

No myth here, true, true, true and one damn good story.

The early 90's in the Gulf Of St. Lawerence, (Canadian East Coast) two rival Newfoundland companies where conducting flights to the pack ice to observe the seal herd. Both pilots knew each other quite well and where good friends.
Both aircraft landed on the sea ice without difficulty and after some time the pilot of Company A decides that he will go for a little stroll as the ice seems very stable this day. The pilot of Company B aircraft decides that he is in no mood to roam with the animals and will stay in the aircraft and do what pilots do best (day dream about making more money). Shortly thereafter he notice his aircraft is moving....alarmingly...the ice is rafting all around him...he fires up his machine and moves it to a safer spot a few hundred feet away. On landing he observes that company A's pilot is not going to make it back to his aircraft in time and now he is faced with the a terrible choice. Does he sit in his machine and watch as his friends (the other companies aircraft is lost in the ocean) or does he run and save it. ........
He did what most of us would do I think...he leaves his machine running at idle (frictions bound tighter then Tobies Ar$e) and runs over and fires up his friends machine. Job well done...........

Until he is just settling his new ac on the ice when his machine flops over to a 30 degree angle....slowly slowly slowly it rolls rolls rolls .....ting...tailrotor gone....whack.... mainrotor gone.....scream...engine on the way out.
All this why his new (best)friend is patting him on the back and telling him to "get out of my seat, and by the way, need a lift home?!?!"

Well that just about ended a bad day..... until, Company C, also working close by with a medium, where contracted to sling our slightly damaged and very repairable Longranger back to the mainland.
As our pilot in question sits on land waiting for his broken ride to be landed he hears the unmistakable blade slap of the 205.
Yet, as it draws closer he sees no load, running to the machine thinking that they are in for more fuel he is told by the medium pilot that the aircraft is "over the ice" the pilot in questions says "you mean my aircraft is on the ice" "no no" responds the 205 guy "I mean your aircraft is over the ice,as in a bit over here and a bit over there, we bunched it off"

The rather terrible side to the story is Comapny B fired our pilot for the incident, the not so terrible side is Company A hired him the next day and now he is there CP who answers to the new DFO, well you can guess who that is?!?!

;)

[ 06 September 2001: Message edited by: Newfie Driver ]

[Adge Cutler]

Isn't there a similar one where a heli was being flown single pilot out in the Gulf, heli lands and pilot hops out for a slash. Heli proceeds to go for a swim, cue embarassing 'phone call to operator along the lines of "Ello Ops? I appear to 'ave lost my 'elicopter" :D

[G.Khan]

Adge Cutler - nearly but not quite. It happened in 1968 with a near new Bell 206. The aircraft flew from base, in the northern part of the Gulf, Iranian side, to a rig with some pax and a heavy HF radio in the baggage locker. The rig was in shallow water and the heli-deck was at the top of one of the three legs, about 150' above the deck.
Pax all got out and immediately left the heli-deck to descnd the ladder, forgetting their radio, leaving the pilot only with a helicopter way out of C of G limits. Company policy not to shut down on a rig with only one heli-deck, ever.
The pilot, who was very experienced but new to type, applied the frictions and got out to unload the radio, the deck was metal and the aircraft started to rotate, the pilot, now on the opposite side to his door, had no option but dive for the deck, the aircraft completed a turn or two and went over the side. Fortunately it went into the sea and not onto the deck.
What made matters worse was the fact that the aircraft had only been on site for a month or two and the customer had been waiting at least three months for it to arrive.

[ 07 September 2001: Message edited by: G.Khan ]

[helmet fire]

Did hear another one in same vien (drunk & unreliable) of RNZAF UH-1H being shut down on snow, boys out for a brew with Army lads. UH-1H wants to brew up too and slides down slope into brew tent!! Nil damage I believe! :D

[Thud_and_Blunder]

Anyone (2 Flt AAC?) going to top this with the sequential whiteout stories from Norway, or (in a similar vein) the formation tipstrike? :D

[John Eacott]

T & B,

Dave (GL) Warren would know all about formation tip strikes in RAN Wessie: and both involved flew to a safe landing :D

Of tales of slung loads, there was the AL2 on floats off Warri, Nigeria, that padded so much on start that the TR drive shaft was slightly cut through. Eventually, hero Frog
chief pilot driver arrives in Puma from Port Harcourt, hooks up lame AL2,and flies away.

Like, flies away as if solo. Passing through 500 ft, AL2 is now flying formation, alternatively port and starboard. Ch'enge in the back suggests a bit of moderation, or jettison. Very upset that Frog doesn't even orbit to watch the splash, simply heading NE for Pt Harcourt. Amazingly, aircraft data plate is retrieved from wreck before it sinks, and insurance claim is filed.

Insurance chappie turns up at offices in Scheven/somewhere in Netherlands, and checks on various details of claim, including weight of AL2 on departure. When all is finalised, a cheque is presented for underslung load insurance, $5/kilo :rolleyes:

[Steve76]

I think this has been posted before....ah what the hell!

Read in the NZ crash comics a few years ago.

One of our more experienced lads (10000hrs+) landed the H500 at the fuel drums on a wet and yucky day. Wearing the standard Redbands and raincoat he proceeded to exit the still running machine. Raincoat snags on collective, gumboots fail to acquire traction, Pilot face plants dirt, H500 receives full throttle and decides to go solo. Our pilot picks himself up, quickly analyses that entering the hovering 500 may not be good for his health and subsequently dives behind the handy cover of the fuel drums (!).
H500 enters translation and writes itself off in nearby field.
THE END :o

[MightyGem]

Told to me by an Aussie Army pilot back in the 80s.
One of their guys out in his Kiowa lands for a bite of lunch. Moves away to a safe distance to get a brew on. Unfortunately, the very dry grass catches fire. Even more unfortunately, the aircraft is downwind of the fire. Result: one burnt out helicopter.

http://www.data-techniques.net/cwm/cwm/cwm/crying.gif

[oldbeefer]

Yes, T&B. There was the AAC Gazelle in Germany. Landed at the top of a slightly sloping parade square in winter. weight on skids, no worries. Throttle chopped, Gaz whizzes down the slope and writes off a landrover (or vice versa). Pilot phones Flt Cdr who says "what a pratt, stay there". Flt Cdr jumps in Gaz and flys to the site. You can guess the rest - weight on skids, throttle chop, now two trashed Gazs and the landrover looking even sicker. This was in an incident signal while I was working in France (79ish). I translated it into French and caused much amusement amongst the FAF pilots.

[Ascend Charlie]

Just a story, dunno if true:

New Guinea, pilot brings 206 to a 1-skid hover in a teensy pad on the side of a hill to unload a survey crew. Their briefing was to get out on the uphill side, stay very low, depart to the front of the machine, not uphill, and get well clear.

OK, the lads follow the brief, out the door, down low, out the front and disappear in the jungle.

Pilot goes to pick up, finds that skid is stuck under some vegetation and will cause a dynamic rollover if he pulls more power. Slope is too big to let the downhill skid down to the ground so he can chop away the uphill skid's weeds.

He jiggles and joggles, but to no avail, so all he can do is sit in a 1-skid hover until the team comes back.

The fuel gauge hit zero before that. Machine rolls gracefully downhill, but no fire as no fuel. Pilot not hurt, team has a puzzled look when they return.

[megan]

Dave (GL) Warren would know all about formation tip strikes in RAN Wessie: and both involved flew to a safe landingWas the guy flying SAR that day. Biggest concern anybody in charge had was recovering the depleted uranium balance weights that had been spread about the countryside, don't know if they ever found any.

One crew flying a OH-58 reputedly landed on a sand dune, shut down and went about their business. Upon return, no helicopter. Had slid down the rather high dune into a gully, fortunately undamaged, so able to crank and go home.