Westland Wessex pilot killed while logging in NZ

[Te_Kahu]

Police name pilot killed in helicopter crash

12.02.2001 1:20 PM UPDATE
Police have named the pilot of a logging helicopter killed this morning when his aircraft crashed near Motueka in the South Island.

He was 39-year-old Peter John McColl, of Motueka.

The large Wessex helicopter crashed into a steep, wooded ravine 18 kilometres southwest of Motueka just before 8 am.

Mr McColl was believed to have been working for a Christchurch aviation company. He was the only one aboard.

Rescuers were unable to reach the scene, at the head of the Pokororo Valley, until a bush fire ignited by the crash was brought under control.

The area was being logged by Rayonier New Zealand.

[SPS]

Yes, very regrettable.

Apparently the ac had just been refuelled which made the fire worse. Two loggers had just disembarked. Witnesses said that it appeared to 'lose power'. The TV film did not give any real clues to the cause other than it seems to have been a descent with rotors still turning as the tops of more than two trees were broken off (if that can be relied upon to show that).

The Heli was the only Wessex in NZ.

Condolencies to all of the pilot's family and friends.

[leading edge]

Very sad news.

The Wessex was retired from the North Sea (Southern, short range) by Bristow in 1980 after 2 unexplained accidents, one in Nigeria and one off of Great Yarmouth which killed 13 people.

The Yarmouth aircraft had just had an extensive refurb and upgrade and the theory is that the shaft connecting the engines with the gearbox sheared and caused a double overspeed and engine shutdown.

The auto was normal but then the pilot lost control around 500'asl. The theory is that the flailing shaft knocked out the hydraulics which rendered the aircraft uncontrollable before impact.

The symptom of losing power would be consistent with such a failure but of course it could be many things, including fuel.

These aircraft and the S58 and S58T should have been retired and grounded years ago as their old design makes their safety and maintenance obselete in today's market, supporting them must be a nightmare.

LE

[Formus Fivus]

If the Wessex was ex-military and had twin RR Gnomes with electronic fuel computers it could just as easily been a computer run down or run up triggering the Overspeed Trip governor to close the HP cock. The poor old Wessex was a good girl in her time but her single engine performance was unlikely to be good enough with a USL to prevent a hard landing. Add a steep hillside to the equation and it just gets worse - very sad indeed.

[Larry]

To LE:
We still have piston S-58s doing lift work in the USA(id say at least 10). As a matter of fact i was woken up by a piston S-58 last week while it was doing Air Conditioning lifts at a mall by my house. I drove over to watch the job and must say the helicopter was incredibly loud and vibrated everything. Felt like a small earthquake when the S-58 idled and ran-up. Id imagine for under 3000lb loads the piston S-58 is considerably cheaper to hire than the still common S-58T Turbine. Anything over 3500lb and the S-58T
gets the job. There must be at least 25 S-58Ts working in the USA with heavylift and firefighting their main jobs. LA County Sheriffs just retired their last 3 S-58Ts
and they were replaced with 3 Ex-Navt SH-3H SeaKings.LASD used the S-58Ts for mountain SAR , Deputy transport ,SWAT operations and
disaster (earthquake) relief.The "new" H-3s really give a leap in capability to the Sheriffs as they have been stripped down to the lowest possible weight. Last month one of the H-3s pulled a 16 man rescue team off a 5000ft mountain during a search mission , something the S-58T would be incapable of doing.After an earthquake freeways nornmally go down and the H-3s will be able to transport 30 deputys to the outlying areas of the county.During the last earthquake Army Chinooks handled that mission but the rules and regulations made it a pain to work with the Army and the Sheriffs wanted their own capability to move troops as needed.
Im certain lift S-58Ts will be around another 15-20 years as nothing else can do the jobs as economically.Part are not a problem in the USA at least.
And dosn`t the Wessex have exceptional single engine capability ? They do have an extra
400hp per engine over the S-58T.

[leading edge]

Larry

The H3 or Sea King, now there is a helicopter, still almost Queen of the skies in my opinion.

I take what you say about the economics of the S58 and they may be around for a long time yet but they are getting a little old now. I did not intend to speculate on the cause of this tragic accident, it could be many things. I thought that I would share the Bristow experence of the Wessex and what led to its ultimate retirement from passenger carrying operations on the North Sea. It had been working the North Sea for 15 years, but always on the Southern North Sea where ranges were shorter and the shutdown every 1.5 hours for a blade inspection was not so critical to flight sectors.

The S58T came into the North Sae later (around 1975) but only lasted until 1980 mainly because it became commercially obselete, too slow and underpowered when required to conform to CAA group A category ops offshore.

Not my favourite aircraft, either of them, I'm afraid, killed too many of my friends.

LE

[Flight Safety]

I also saw an S-58T doing air conditioning lift work the other day on a commercial building in Dallas, and I also drove over to watch the exercise more closely. The pilot did a nice job, but when he took off from the parking lot for the last time to go home, and he hovered momentarily, he almost backed the tail rotor into the power lines adjacent to the parking lot. The parking lot was fairly small and between two buildings. The wind seemed fairly calm, but he might have caught a wind coming over the top of one the buildings when his hover reached that altitude. At first I thought the pilot was unaware of how close he came to the power lines, but surely he must have known. On that last takeoff he was without a sling load, so maybe that was the difference. You gotta watch that stuff.

------------------
Safe flying to you...

[Pac Rotors]

Te kahu,

Did they say what the helo was doing at the time of the accident, did it have a load on or was it just hook and chain.

[Te_Kahu]

The reports I heard said, he had just fuelled up, dropped two forestry workers off and then proceeded to do the first lift of the day. He tried to lift the first log but buttoned it. I'm not sure if he just let the log go or dropped the whole strop. It was then that the machine appeared to lose power and crashed moments later, according to the workers on the ground.