Stuck pedal landing video and story

[havoc]

Lucky and walks away


http://www.myfoxcolorado.com/myfox/MyFox/pages/sidebar_video.jsp?contentId=5892289&version=1&locale=EN-US

Helicopter Emergency Landing Captured on Video
'Stuck Pedal' caused tense moments
Last Edited: Wednesday, 27 Feb 2008, 10:52 AM MST
Created: Wednesday, 27 Feb 2008, 10:00 AM MST

The small helicopter made a hard, but safe landing at the Erie Airport in Boulder County. February 27, 2008. SideBar


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BOULDER COUNTY - A helicopter pilot made a hard landing at the Erie Airport Wednesday morning after experiencing trouble with the aircraft’s rudder. The landing was captured on video.


The pilot radioed the control tower at about 9 a.m. to report a problem with the rudder, limiting his ability to steer the helicopter.


SkyFOX pilot Rob Marshall said a stuck pedal was the source of the problem.

After circling the airport to burn off fuel, the pilot attempted the landing. He pointed the nose of the aircraft downward as he set down on the runway with little difficulty.

The pilot was not hurt and the helicopter did not appear to be damaged.

[ShyTorque]

Those "rudders" on helicopters - shouldn't be allowed, they often go wrong.

Far better to have a tail rotor instead.

Actually, he was lucky to get away with that.

[on21]

Just wondered how an R22 would have faired with such a problem?

The Enstrom does seem a more rugged machine.

[The Nr Fairy]

on21:

I've practised stuck pedal plenty of times in the R22 - may not have got away with it for real, but with the instructor beside you it's easy !

And I think it was easier in the R22 because, at the bottom, pulling power made the nose go right, not left like this example did, so I am surmising based purely on the footage that power was rolled off.

And yes, he was lucky to get away with, but he's walked away which is all that counts.

[firebird_uk]

Would he not have been better putting it into autorotation and running on at a higher speed?

[Heli-Ice]

He got it down, the rest is chit-chat.

Now he has a video of his performance and is able to review it over and over again to make sure the next one will be a little bit more graceful.

[JBL99]

Good job !!

[NickLappos]

He had stuck LEFT pedal, probably stuck in a climb. An autorotation would have been disaster.
With the nose creeping left as he slowed down, he was hoping that the increase in power toward the hover would make the nose come back rigt as the main torque increased. That didn't happen, the left pedal was too much. As it turned left he should have rolled the throttle down to reduce rpm a little, which would have produced less left thrust, and also would have raised the main torque. This would bring the nose right and he could have landed straight ahead.

He didn't, but he did time the cut and the touchdown superbly, so it ended up well.

[SASless]

Does the Engstrom have a collective mounted throttle or a separate lever type control for the throttle?

Perhaps reducing the Rotor Rpm to the bottom of the green before commencing the final approach would have helped out in maintaining control....that was pretty much the standard method that I learned over the years.....anything that slows the tail rotor and thus reducing the thrust output to less than that required for a normal hover.

I always heard in tail rotor failures....stuck left (American rotation) makes for a good day....stuck right complicates things.

The BK manual suggests doing a run-on landing for stuck right....try that at 80 knots some night! Me...I would opt for a full autorotative landing with the engines in idle in stead of the run on method.

[IFMU]

Does the Engstrom have a collective mounted throttle or a separate lever type control for the throttle?
Sasless,

I learned to fly in an Enstrom F28A. It had a collective mounted throttle and no correlator. I thought it was a great machine to learn to fly in. The A was gutless.

My instructor had me practice tail rotor failures, effectively stuck right pedal. I always thought that if I had a real one I would just shoot an auto, as we did a bunch of touchdowns and it autos like a dream. But a stuck left pedal, I can't remember practicing that one. Looks like he did a good job to me.

-- IFMU

[SASless]

Indeed he did....as both he and the helicopter lived to fly another day.

The stuck left practice is fun....and when one sees how non-eventful it is....takes the fear away.

The way I did it in a Huey was to get lined up to the landing area, set up a shallow approach then roll the throttle right down to the bottom of the green arc and maintain that RPM. We then flew the approach to a very low height off the landing site....say about a foot or so....accept whatever side slip occurs....peer through the side windows.....and decelerate the aircraft very gradually until either the nose comes to a steady position at a hover or just as the nose comes into alignment with the landing surface...gently lower the collective and touch down.....if the nose comes around to the right....meaning you missed it....accelerate and when the nose flops around to the other side....start over if you have room....or do a go around and come back again for another try.

Reducing rotor rpm will help reduce the sideslip in forward flight due to the reduced thrust coming from the slower rotor.

In the method I use....there is no need to jockey the throttle trying to keep the nose straight although one can do that as well but it only complicates things.

I have practiced the same method in every single rotor helicopter I have flown and found that method to work. Granted some were a bit more sensitive than others and aircraft like the BO/BK and 76 made for a real hand dance if flying single pilot.

[Brian Abraham]

I always heard in tail rotor failures....stuck left (American rotation) makes for a good day....stuck right complicates things.


The quote that was said around our neck of the woods was

Lucky Left, Rotten Right.

[ShyTorque]

In a certain part of the world that gets complicated, especially if you fly both clockwise and counter clockwise main rotors (rucky ref, lotten lie? wtf :confused: )

The retreating blade side is the lucky side, both for the direction to point the nose on the approach and also for the helpful crosswind direction. This works for any main rotor direction and you should hopefully remember which way that was from your last start-up. :p

[Bertie Thruster]

.......and even better when you are current clockwise, counterclockwise, notar and conventional!

[rotorboater]

Great result, Luckily Enstroms are built like trucks, cant see a r22 staying upright after that landing.

[toolguy]

I learned in the F28A also and for stuck left we would come in about a foot off the ground, hold collective, roll on throttle to swing the nose to the center line at about a foot off the ground, then drop the collective an perform a straight on running landing. If you swung the nose over the center line, you could get another shot if you had enough runway. Stuck rights were a piece of cake, go around, weathervane, lower collective and throttle, and do a straight in running landing. I know a lot of people no longer train to the ground, but back when we did all the time and I think we were better off for it. :}

[whatsarunway]

I hope he didnt do something silly like let a mobile phone drop down into the tail rotor controls and jam the pedals, that would be really embarrassing. :O

any landing you can walk away from and all that.

good job. :D

[FLY 7]

Bit of a 'newbie' question, but why would he choose to land on the runway and not the grass?

[whatsarunway]

try skidding along the grass at any speed sideways. then try it on the tarmac! actually try the tarmac first! the skids have a habit of digging into the dirt.
:E

[rotornut]

Just saw it on my local TV station - CFTO-TV. Of course, they got it wrong in terms of the problem.

However, bravo to the pilot!

[FairWeatherFlyer]

BTW, last edition of magazine Loop had an interesting article by Dennis Kenyon on dealing with tail rotor failures including some practical experience!

Read news article more carefully and there's an interesting comment about continued flight after the initial diagnosis to burn fuel. I wonder if that was for further reflection on issue, weight modification, or reduce fire risk if the landing was less optimal than the pleasant actual outcome?