IFE's

[Ewan Whosearmy]

In keeping with Helimutts request for interesting topics. Perhaps some of you who have experienced any particularly harrowing In Flight Emergencies might like to share your experiences? What happened, corrective actions taken, things you may do differently if in the same position again, pointers to other forum readers etc?

Afterall, don't they always say that it is better to learn from someone elses mistakes (you know what i mean) than make your own?

Edited for REALLY shoddy spelling!

[This message has been edited by Ewan Whosearmy (edited 12 February 2001).]

[helimutt]

Ok. I haven't suffered any IFE as such but did have fun one day when myself and a friend were delivering an R22 to Cambridge from Newcastle then bringing another back.
Basically, the day was a nightmare from start to finish. Low cloud, bad vis right where we didnt want it, Cb's, requiring somewhat of a diversion, radio going bad and the low rotor horn coming on in normal flight for no reason. Keeps you on your toes though. Turned out to be every time I keyed the tx on the radio?!!! Anyone else seen this?
Managed to depart Cambridge at 17.58(closes at 18:00)
Arrived in a field 2.5 hours later with radio failure. Landed at Teeside for fuel(really necessary)then arriving Newcastle at 21:45. Official night was 21:46 with no night rating. It was a very long day!
I love R22's
Anyone had any real IFE's?
All interesting stuff.

[Ewan Whosearmy]

Helimutt,

I think i know you (and vice versa). E-mail me [email protected]

[RW-1]

Not an FE but interesting enough. At Pompano after completing a straight in auto to power recovery there was a snap sound and a buzzing that I had never heard before, and cyclic shook somewhat.

We had evidently picked up a large foil bag (of what I don't know) on the main rotor.

Eng and Nr were ok, so I announced I was setting down. I set down and we had to de-clutch to slow the system to where we could get the thing off.

No big deal but having it happen to you gives you a good idea of how you shall handle something not experienced before, Mark had told me of several people he knew (past tense) who would freak and do the wrong thing, I had heard the noise, saw the reaction of the craft and evaluated it, then took steps. just what one needs to do in a real IFE.

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Marc

[eden]

I have had the good fortune to have had 3 single engine failures of varying sphincter response levels .... 2 reasonably interesting one's and another as a precaution which ended up being the right thing to do cos it was losing engine oil.

All in the Sea King ASW beastie - aren't I lucky.

The one's that made my crew and I concentrate were:

1. SE fail as I approached the hover ....on the first dip of the day at 21,000lbs ...managed to get a away with Nr down to around 90-92% slurping the 'oggin on the way to recovering the Nr.

2. Surge (1000 deg C and rising) at bottom of Auto - due to Variable IGV's being stuck in Auto as I initiated overshoot (cos I had missed my intended aiming point) recovered to level flight at 60 knots already in SE config due to Nf decay on the burning engine ...... but had to do some swift but careful confirmation in order not to shutdown the wrong donkey!

All good clean fun - HO HO

[Thomas coupling]

Single engine failure at night in 40'hover over sea state 6 with 2 torpedoes on board?
Managed to bounce off a couple of swells before recovering the Nr.
Lost a turbine blade orbiting low over a town in a squirrel (F2).
Surge in another squirrel hovering over a football match at night!
Jammed pedal in an S61 requiring a recovery with a running landing.

Other than that pretty quiet compared to some of my associates!!!!

http://www.gograph.com/Images-7298/AnimatedGif/redstar.gif



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Thermal runaway.

[The Nr Fairy]

TC :

Were you not also the person who had a slight contre-temps with a Tucano some years ago in Somerset ? Or did I misread a post here some months ago ?

[Thomas coupling]

Sorry, not me. The pilot in that one was a CAA flight ops inspector doing "relief pilotage work" I bet he thought:
"... oh, what a relief.. http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/eek.gif." after!!!!

2 up in a tucano, struck the stinger in a 355F whilst it was in the hover!!!!

everyone lived to tell the 'tail'...sorry


http://www.gograph.com/Images-7298/AnimatedGif/redstar.gif

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Thermal runaway.

[VeeAny]

Helimutt

I think I know you also.

You told your tale to me a few days later when I delivered an engineer to you, to look at the offending TX unit.

Did we not take a trip up the north east coast that afternoon while he was working ?

Glad to see you got your AFI(H).

Are Samson still fun up there?

Cheers

V.

[helidrvr]

This one happened so long ago that I have a hard time remembering the pucker factor, although I am sure it must have been substantial.

In the early 70' I was working as a bush pilot in the Canadian Rockies. On the day in question, I was flying a Hughes 500 in and out of a tiny pad constructed as customary of logs and grafted onto the side of a very steep mountain with about 10 feet to spare between the rock wall and the MR blades.

Having dropped whatever load I was carrying I lifted and started backing away from the wall far enough to turn around and fly away. About half way through the pedal turn, there was a very nasty noise coupled with a very rapid and severe loss of power.

We had already cleared the pad enough not to hit anything and I was able to start diving to hold onto rotor RPM. Lucky for my passenger and me was that we were coming of the side of a very steep mountain at about 6,000 feet AVL (V=valley) and therefore had "all the time in the world" to get things stabilized on the way down and to pick a suitable landing spot.

In the process, I determined that I still had about 20-25% torque available and wasn't over temping. This turned the landing into a relative non-event.

Later investigation brought to light that the compressor had thrown a blade which had promptly been vaporized in the fire pot. Somehow, the engine didn't flame out and I get to tell the story to the young'ns once in a while.

Cheers http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/cool.gif


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You are welcome to visit HELIDRVR here (http://helidrvr.cjb.net)

[fishboy]

I had an engine quit in a hughes 269 with no warning at all. I had a low time student on board at 200 fee agl 50 kts and I wasn't on the controls!
Fotunately we landed with no damage to a perfect landing spot right where we wanted it. The engine is fuel injected, and a fuel injector line broke off, spraying fuel straight out the side of the helicopter. We were really lucky that we didn't burn.