Parachute for Choppers!!!

[SLXOwft]

Those of us of a maturer age may remember the Mannheim airshow crash in 1982 of a Chinook carrying parachutists.

On 11 September 1982, a CH-47C Chinook helicopter from the Coleman Barracks-based 295th Assault Support Helicopter Company was carrying skydivers from France, Germany and Wales when it plummeted 600 feet to the ground during an air show marking Mannheim's 375th anniversary. Forty-six people were killed, including seven U.S. troops. Five were Chinook crewmembers, while two others were American Forces Network soldiers assigned to cover the jump.

There is at least one company that will take your money should you wish to jump out of its helicopter over the Alps. Personally having confidence in the skills of pilot next to me / upfront to safely arrest descent by autorotation was enough, if that wasn't possible I suspected the cab would be probably too low to jump successfully or if high enough to jump and not in autorotation experiencing forces that would prevent manual egress. There were investigations by the US Army into using parachutes to escape from an autorotating helicopter in the '60s, the jumps were all successful but some jumpers' bodies were rotated by differential airflows close to the airframe during the first second of jumping before attaining a stable descent.

Addition: I just came across this old Rotorheads thread Parachute for Choppers!!!

It includes the following from ShyTorque:

Baling out? Used to be an RAF requirement to carry chutes in helis if going above a certain altitude (10,000ft?) - they once suffered a catastrophic fire in a helicopter (magnesium skinned Wessex I think it was) that burned out before it landed in autorotation.

However, I went completely off the idea of baling out as soon as I read the abandonment drill in the Flight Reference Cards for the Whirlwind 10.

There was a caveat at the bottom of the same FRC page which said words to the effect that "Warning: objects jettisoned from the aircraft in autorotative flight may contact the main rotor blades".

[SLXOwft]

Originally Posted by Video Mixdown

Once worked on an animation/cockpit voice recording of the loss of a Merlin in the 1990's. The crew were all wearing parachutes because it was a test flight and survived. Abandonment sounded remarkably calm and controlled.

According to this Independent story ZF644 (PP4) was flying at 12000 feet;

The aircraft's chief test pilot, Captain John Dickens, who suffered severe back injuries, was praised by Westland for bailing out late to avoid houses

ASN states 3 bailed out at c.10,000ft and Capt Dickens at 1,200'. Accident caused by a sub-standard component in the tail rotor pitch control system .

[212man]

Originally Posted by SLXOwft

According to this Independent story ZF644 (PP4) was flying at 12000 feet;


ASN states 3 bailed out at c.10,000ft and Capt Dickens at 1,200'. Accident caused by a sub-standard component in the tail rotor pitch control system .

There was a fascinating first-hand article, with accounts by all 4 crew, in Cockpit soon afterwards. Tried searching just now with no luck. I visited Westland a couple of weeks after the incident and had been due to fly the aircraft, but an embargo was put on none-Westland crews being on board, so we stuck to the sim!

[megan]

Do helicopter crew carry parachutes

From personal experience both the USN and RAN stipulated the crew wear parachutes for certain flights. A failing memory seems to recall for above 5,000. Not carried otherwise.

[Hot 'n' High]

Originally Posted by megan

From personal experience both the USN and RAN stipulated the crew wear parachutes for certain flights. A failing memory seems to recall for above 5,000. Not carried otherwise.

There you go! I stand corrected! Not for the first time ....... and will not be the last I guess.

[Hot 'n' High]

Originally Posted by Flytest

This post reminds me of my time in the Royal Navy, we actually took delivery of parachutes for Merlin crews, apparently due to loss of tail rotor drive in flight. The idea was that above a certain height, if something catastrophic happened, you stopped the main rotor and got the hell out.

Nobody actually cared about the ship, thats replaceable.

To the best of my knowledge, the system was never used.

I realise the above post is quite old (2004 or thereabouts). I wonder/hope if Flytest is still about to cast some more light on this? tucumseh and I recall some stuff involving Sea King AEW but this seems to be a similar question - possibly at the same time after the Westlands escape. I can't seem to PM Flytest and they've not posted for ages.......

[aerolearner]

One more bail out from the archives:
AB139 crash in Italy

The AB139 which crashed April 23rd, killing flight engineer Vincenzo Iellamo, was at the time undergoing autorotation tests. It is reported that the aircraft lost control, at which point the crew decided to abandon the aircraft.

Apparently the flight engineer's parachute opened too early, and became entangled in the rotor blades.

[Axel B.]

...just one of a number of recent developments in the field of parachute rescue systems for rotorcraft is the Junkers' Rescue System for Gyrocopters.

[Axel B.]

...Galaxy GRS from Czech Republic is offering a parachute rescue System for (ultralight) helicopters as well.