Starting the year lucky

[havoc]

audio on the video did not work (?)


http://www.wlwt.com/video/14957519/index.html

Helicopter Makes Hard Landing At Hospital Helipad Reported by Laura Borchers // E-mail
January 1, 2008, 4:36 p.m. EST
57 minutes ago



A medical helicopter made a hard landing at University Hospital early Tuesday morning.

UH's director of aircraft Dudley Smith said the helicopter, owned by Patroleum Helicopters Inc., had dropped off a patient just after 5:30 a.m.

"As they were leaving, the pilot had a little bit of operational control problem with the aircraft and ended up doing a hard landing on our helipad," Smith said.

But the helicopter didn't make a clean landing on the pad, instead landing to the side, damaging its landing skids and tangling itself in a safety fence.

The result left much of the helicopter dangling off the edge of the building.

Firefighters were able to secure the helicopter and keep it from falling, then helped to pull it away from the ledge.

"The helicopter is obviously going to have to go off of our helipad. I don't think its going to be able to fly off so we have to look at operational issues as far as cranes or another helicopter and we'll do that over the next several days," Smith said.

The flight crew was not hurt in the incident.

[206Fan]

No audio for me ither, can hear the emergency vehicles just!

Good job by the pilot on getting it down again safely anyway!

[Revolutionary]

"the pilot had a little bit of operational control problem"

That would be a cyclic control lock still in place.

[206Fan]

That would be a cyclic control lock still in place.He was def lucky it happened wer it did then.. What would cause the cyclic to lock?

[Revolutionary]

Err... the pilot?

The cyclic can be secured when not in use via a swiveling bar that lifts up from the front of the stick and hooks into a pin just under the panel. The bar actually comes up quite prominently between your legs when locked but I suppose it could use some added visual cues like, maybe, a rotating beacon or something.

They were in quite a dicey spot for this to happen -a rooftop pad. Had they slid backwards only a few more feet they would have gone over the side. I'm just relieved that they are all okay.

[Shawn Coyle]

Whatever happened to full and free control checks prior to starting engines???

[topendtorque]

Whatever happened to full and free control checks prior to starting engines???

There is a not so famous story from North Queensland, of a hill billy mustering driver, no - novice I must say - who was asked the same question by an insurance auditer a year or two back.

The reply was;
"errr yeah, mate eh. but that was before I put me swag in eh!"

It appears that the helicopter was seen to do several very tight circuits of the pad until one skid hooked a fence wire.

The owner was not amused, the pilot rang around not long after wanting to get onto an AOC for his own helicopter. haa haa.

[TeeS]

Hi Revolutionary, is that rumour or inside knowledge?

Shawn, no such thing as a 'full and free' on the 135, however I would have thought there would be plenty of opportunities to recognise a locked cyclic before any major collective lever application was made!

TeeS

[skadi]

TeeS wrote:
Shawn, no such thing as a 'full and free' on the 135, however I would have thought there would be plenty of opportunities to recognise a locked cyclic before any major collective lever application was made!



Yes, for sure, but that was obviously not the first time to happen.
Sometime ago this year? Eurocopter released a bulletin, that a locked cyclic ( EC 135 and 145 ) could manually be overridden by relative small force ( the small ballshaped pin below the dashboard breaks off ). As far as I remember, there was a incident/accident in GB???

skadi

[Shawn Coyle]

All the more reason not to be too quick to get airborne - there should always be a pause between light on the skids and lifting to the hover, shouldn't there?

[mickjoebill]

Do I see the blades of a second helicopter on the other side of the building, camera right?


Mickjoebill

[Revolutionary]

'I would have thought there would be plenty of opportunities to recognise a locked cyclic before any major collective lever application was made!'

Indeed... There's the hydraulic check on the startup checklist for one. For another, the lock sticks up between your legs like one of those tribal penis gourds.

[VH-XXX]

Yes there is a second chopper up there.

[barit1]

PHI chopper suffered hard landing 01 Jan, removed by crane (http://www.wlwt.com/news/14975109/detail.html) today from Cincinnati hospital helipad.