What was your scariest moment in a helicopter?
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: UK
Posts: 16
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
From a long-time lurker on this forum
This thread has prompted me to add my worst moments, not as a pilot but as a useful (IMHO) addition to the payload.
Flying in a 355 in mountains in deteriorating weather (unknown before t/o - departure airfield and destination loud and clear). Past PNR (it was a part of the world with few places to get fuel) in a valley that would be pretty any other day, following a rushing river and a railway line that kept disappearing into holes in the hill. Either side the tops are in cloud and it's raining.
We're down to about 30kts, wipers going fit to melt the screen, our eyeballs touching the inside of it. Him - the driver - and me looking out for just about anything that might make the day that little bit worse.
Then I see three cables about 300 yards ahead and above us, describing a graceful arc out of the cloud and disappearing back into it, I can see about a quarter of a mile of them but they are (relatively) safely above us - about 50 feet. So I keep quiet. When we are safely past them, I asked if he saw them - he hadn't; and at the same time wondering how many others we had passed without seeing them. It bothered ME.
Flying - in different mountains - as rear crew in a 205A-1 with a new pilot that I didn't know and had maybe fibbed a bit about his command of English. It was a lovely sunny day with no wx problems at all, and we were loaded with steel scaffolding tubes sticking out of both doors en-route to a mountain top.
We were approaching an area known to be the favourite of the hang gliding mob on a day such as this. I dutifully told the pilot of the likelihood a few miles in advance, he nodded and said "Yes".
After a few minutes, I could see quite a few of said lunatics fluttering about and I pointed them out to him and suggested that he might like to turn left a bit to give them some room. "Yes" he said, and carried on.
I am now standing - as much as you can in a 205 - between the crew seats, speaking loudly enough to not need intercom, tapping my intrepid aviator firmly on the shoulder and alternately shouting "HANG GLIDERS", pointing at the now very visible brightly coloured flock of, and I would imagine, slightly apprehensive bird-men and a suggested course some 90 degrees left of our present heading.
Now obviously pi$$ed off with my back-seat driving, he said "YES, YES, YES.." - and flew straight through the middle of them.
Having managed to be avoided by them - we didn't take ANY avoiding action, we clattered on to the drop-off point for our load.
The drop site was on a gently rounded summit strewn with beach-ball size boulders. An HLS had been cleared on the flattest part of the summit - a circle about 15 feet round - but God's Gift to Aviation decided to land "Nearer the construction site". "NO, NO" I said, "land on the 'H'" - did he? Did he buggery. I pleaded with him to land on the HLS but he insisted that "ISSOKAY" to land elsewhere.
We did.
After the aircraft had un-ceremoneously fallen over backwards until its tail skid had found something hard to hit did he move it to the prepared spot.
After much humping and carrying of the load - at 9000ft - we returned to base.
I was not impressed and told EVERYONE including the CP not to fly with our new friend and to fire him NOW.
Didn't see him after that. But the worry is, somebody probably did.
Fred
Edited for typos.
Flying in a 355 in mountains in deteriorating weather (unknown before t/o - departure airfield and destination loud and clear). Past PNR (it was a part of the world with few places to get fuel) in a valley that would be pretty any other day, following a rushing river and a railway line that kept disappearing into holes in the hill. Either side the tops are in cloud and it's raining.
We're down to about 30kts, wipers going fit to melt the screen, our eyeballs touching the inside of it. Him - the driver - and me looking out for just about anything that might make the day that little bit worse.
Then I see three cables about 300 yards ahead and above us, describing a graceful arc out of the cloud and disappearing back into it, I can see about a quarter of a mile of them but they are (relatively) safely above us - about 50 feet. So I keep quiet. When we are safely past them, I asked if he saw them - he hadn't; and at the same time wondering how many others we had passed without seeing them. It bothered ME.
Flying - in different mountains - as rear crew in a 205A-1 with a new pilot that I didn't know and had maybe fibbed a bit about his command of English. It was a lovely sunny day with no wx problems at all, and we were loaded with steel scaffolding tubes sticking out of both doors en-route to a mountain top.
We were approaching an area known to be the favourite of the hang gliding mob on a day such as this. I dutifully told the pilot of the likelihood a few miles in advance, he nodded and said "Yes".
After a few minutes, I could see quite a few of said lunatics fluttering about and I pointed them out to him and suggested that he might like to turn left a bit to give them some room. "Yes" he said, and carried on.
I am now standing - as much as you can in a 205 - between the crew seats, speaking loudly enough to not need intercom, tapping my intrepid aviator firmly on the shoulder and alternately shouting "HANG GLIDERS", pointing at the now very visible brightly coloured flock of, and I would imagine, slightly apprehensive bird-men and a suggested course some 90 degrees left of our present heading.
Now obviously pi$$ed off with my back-seat driving, he said "YES, YES, YES.." - and flew straight through the middle of them.
Having managed to be avoided by them - we didn't take ANY avoiding action, we clattered on to the drop-off point for our load.
The drop site was on a gently rounded summit strewn with beach-ball size boulders. An HLS had been cleared on the flattest part of the summit - a circle about 15 feet round - but God's Gift to Aviation decided to land "Nearer the construction site". "NO, NO" I said, "land on the 'H'" - did he? Did he buggery. I pleaded with him to land on the HLS but he insisted that "ISSOKAY" to land elsewhere.
We did.
After the aircraft had un-ceremoneously fallen over backwards until its tail skid had found something hard to hit did he move it to the prepared spot.
After much humping and carrying of the load - at 9000ft - we returned to base.
I was not impressed and told EVERYONE including the CP not to fly with our new friend and to fire him NOW.
Didn't see him after that. But the worry is, somebody probably did.
Fred
Edited for typos.
John R81 tells my favourite kind of story; romantic. However I can't match that and wish that I could recount my worst experiences, particularly one featuring the enemy doing their damndest to kill me. Unfortunately that would reveal my identity to some colleagues, so schtum I must stay.
Close encounters with cables come to mind, particularly when I was flying along a river at the base of a cliff and cables unmarked on my chart flashed a couple of feet above my rotor disk. A farmer had built an electric water pump station next to the river and hung cables from the nearest grid source near the cliff top down into the valley.
Another scare with HT lines happened when flying low under heavy cloud one evening in poor forward vis with thunderstorms around. In a flash of lightning I saw huge pylons carrying many cables not very far ahead.
A different kind of cable which scared the hell out of me was the one I saw the base of almost too late on a misty day, as it angled upwards invisibly into the low cloud to connect with the TV mast 800' above.
All these frissons of fun occurred while on active military ops, not training, where we were encouraged to operate at around 50' agl.
Once I landed with several helicopters which proceeded to shut down. I got out of my machine and followed another pilot towards a village. Shortly bullets cracked through the long grass between him and me, which we didn't understand for a couple of seconds. Suddenly all helicopter crews were running to restart and get out of range of a serious fire-fight which we'd dropped in on accidentally. No-one got hit.
Close encounters with cables come to mind, particularly when I was flying along a river at the base of a cliff and cables unmarked on my chart flashed a couple of feet above my rotor disk. A farmer had built an electric water pump station next to the river and hung cables from the nearest grid source near the cliff top down into the valley.
Another scare with HT lines happened when flying low under heavy cloud one evening in poor forward vis with thunderstorms around. In a flash of lightning I saw huge pylons carrying many cables not very far ahead.
A different kind of cable which scared the hell out of me was the one I saw the base of almost too late on a misty day, as it angled upwards invisibly into the low cloud to connect with the TV mast 800' above.
All these frissons of fun occurred while on active military ops, not training, where we were encouraged to operate at around 50' agl.
Once I landed with several helicopters which proceeded to shut down. I got out of my machine and followed another pilot towards a village. Shortly bullets cracked through the long grass between him and me, which we didn't understand for a couple of seconds. Suddenly all helicopter crews were running to restart and get out of range of a serious fire-fight which we'd dropped in on accidentally. No-one got hit.
In a land faraway...many...many...many years ago....flying a Chinook with a slingload of bullets and water to a US Army unit atop a high hill in Cambodia...in ratty weather...in and out of cloud (mostly in) tracking out using GCA vectors....a loud "BANG" was heard in the cockpit area. Next was seen "fire"....lots of FIRE!
Beiing very close to the origin of the both the bang and fire....a .51 caliber machinegun bullet had removed the left pedal from under my foot...severed hydraulic lines...and started a fire....I was quick to notice something was not quite right.
As I was playing the "Weeny Roast Scene"...as the "Weenie"....it struck me I really would preferrred to have been someplace else....like anywhere else almost.
We were able to recover the aircraft to our takeoff point....doing a GCA approach back down....and upon landing....did an inventory confirming all important bits of crew were still as they should have been...although a bit burnt and leaking from some new openings...we called it a day.
Sitting in a roaring fire....in cloud....over some very hostile country filled with some equally hostile folks....will give you a wee scare. I know...I wee whenever I remember it.
That has been my greatest claim to flame in my flying career.
Beiing very close to the origin of the both the bang and fire....a .51 caliber machinegun bullet had removed the left pedal from under my foot...severed hydraulic lines...and started a fire....I was quick to notice something was not quite right.
As I was playing the "Weeny Roast Scene"...as the "Weenie"....it struck me I really would preferrred to have been someplace else....like anywhere else almost.
We were able to recover the aircraft to our takeoff point....doing a GCA approach back down....and upon landing....did an inventory confirming all important bits of crew were still as they should have been...although a bit burnt and leaking from some new openings...we called it a day.
Sitting in a roaring fire....in cloud....over some very hostile country filled with some equally hostile folks....will give you a wee scare. I know...I wee whenever I remember it.
That has been my greatest claim to flame in my flying career.
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Where I'm pointing...
Posts: 582
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
First solo cross country nav-ex; learning not to lean forward to look at the chart on your knee, the hard way.
From then on I picked it up, or paid attention not to move my cyclic arm forward with my body!
From then on I picked it up, or paid attention not to move my cyclic arm forward with my body!
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: France
Age: 83
Posts: 194
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Any Army pilot flying in the North German low link routes in the early 70's who heard his observer shout "Starfighter 3 o'clock"
... and remember the buggers came in pairs !!
In the 15 years that the Luftwaffe had been flying the F-104s, 178 had crashed, claiming the lives of 85 pilots.
... and remember the buggers came in pairs !!
In the 15 years that the Luftwaffe had been flying the F-104s, 178 had crashed, claiming the lives of 85 pilots.
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: England
Age: 56
Posts: 591
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Easy
Sitting in the pilot seat of the Jet Ranger I was buying and the current owner saying "thanks, for the deposit cheque, I trust the balance will be wired into my account this afternoon!"
Joel
Sitting in the pilot seat of the Jet Ranger I was buying and the current owner saying "thanks, for the deposit cheque, I trust the balance will be wired into my account this afternoon!"
Joel
I was flying Iroquois at the time for the Aussie Airforce and doing some freefall parachute drops with the Army display team, the Red Berets. I had just reached the drop altitude of 12,000' when I became aware of a very urgent personal call of nature, and I do mean urgent. Get on the ground now or fill my pants!
Out with the jumpers and into a spiral max rate descent and head for the edge of the drop zone and into the bush do take care of things.
Lucky I had a two piece flying suit on that day!
Scary, nearly didn't make it!
Regards,
BH.
Out with the jumpers and into a spiral max rate descent and head for the edge of the drop zone and into the bush do take care of things.
Lucky I had a two piece flying suit on that day!
Scary, nearly didn't make it!
Regards,
BH.
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Stuck on 50:30 North
Age: 68
Posts: 42
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
TOOOO many to mention! But a few for consideration.
I've had many 'moments' over the years, but 3 stick in my mind as really scary!
1) 6 monthly check ride in an Army Gazelle with QHI LHS. Final auto to the ground (thank God! nearly finished). Smooth (I thought) touchdown for running landing, when we both heard loud 'crack'! Both looked at each other in a 'what was that?' sort of way, when world started to tilt. Front U/C crosstube had snapped and the skids were splaying out from the front. We came to a stop with the A/C 30deg tilt to Stbd and the blade tips 6" from the ground.
2) Inbound to ABZ from East Shetland Basin flying CoJo in 332L. 225Nm out when 3 distinct 'bumps' felt through airframe. Again, that what was that look to each other when vibration level shot up in a nanosecond. Couldn't see Capt sitting only 3ft to my right! Put out mayday call convinced we were ditching (also remember being convinced that we would break up before hitting the water). Superb flying by PIC deduced drag link failure, 3 blades behaving themselves in lead & lag, 1 doing it's own thing. Kept airbourne & diverted to Sumburgh for safe landing. But longest, rattliest (& scariest) 25 mins of my flying career. Many thanks for getting me home Hugh.
3) Flying HEMS in a 105DBS. Located incident (RTC car on roof) and set up for field landing. Well documented incident, but my fault! Got the drift wrong, division of attention etc, etc. First indication of summat wrong was pull of tail to the left, followed by.......nothing. Knew almost instantly that tail rotor had been ripped off by contact with the tree that should have been 30' away! Dumped lever and we hit the ground....HARD. U/C did it's job and folded up and we stopped belly on the ground, skids flat, but upright. 3 of us walked away battered and bruised, and a huge dent in my ego
Keep safe out there guys!
1) 6 monthly check ride in an Army Gazelle with QHI LHS. Final auto to the ground (thank God! nearly finished). Smooth (I thought) touchdown for running landing, when we both heard loud 'crack'! Both looked at each other in a 'what was that?' sort of way, when world started to tilt. Front U/C crosstube had snapped and the skids were splaying out from the front. We came to a stop with the A/C 30deg tilt to Stbd and the blade tips 6" from the ground.
2) Inbound to ABZ from East Shetland Basin flying CoJo in 332L. 225Nm out when 3 distinct 'bumps' felt through airframe. Again, that what was that look to each other when vibration level shot up in a nanosecond. Couldn't see Capt sitting only 3ft to my right! Put out mayday call convinced we were ditching (also remember being convinced that we would break up before hitting the water). Superb flying by PIC deduced drag link failure, 3 blades behaving themselves in lead & lag, 1 doing it's own thing. Kept airbourne & diverted to Sumburgh for safe landing. But longest, rattliest (& scariest) 25 mins of my flying career. Many thanks for getting me home Hugh.
3) Flying HEMS in a 105DBS. Located incident (RTC car on roof) and set up for field landing. Well documented incident, but my fault! Got the drift wrong, division of attention etc, etc. First indication of summat wrong was pull of tail to the left, followed by.......nothing. Knew almost instantly that tail rotor had been ripped off by contact with the tree that should have been 30' away! Dumped lever and we hit the ground....HARD. U/C did it's job and folded up and we stopped belly on the ground, skids flat, but upright. 3 of us walked away battered and bruised, and a huge dent in my ego
Keep safe out there guys!
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Los Angeles, USA
Age: 52
Posts: 1,631
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Many years ago, back in the days training for my PPL (H) in Sweden:
One late autumn day in 1995 my instructor calls me up and ask me if I want to fly an older 269 to its operator across the pond free of charge. It had been borrowed to cover for the schools tech ship. It's about a 45 min ride and of course I jump at this.
We pre-flight and take-off, chit chat and whatnot. Haven't flown that particular ship before, and it feels less 'firm' and responsive than the one I'm used to. Anyway, the route takes us over the archipelago in Stockholm and I'm doing my best at flying a straight line. Instructor says I should try to keep within autorotational distance of the all the litle islets we pass, in case something would go wrong. I think he is being overly cautious, but I do as he suggests. So we start to zig-zag between all the little islets, cobs and islands.
Obviously, the second after we've passed out over a stretch of open water after just having left a small island, the engine starts to sound really strange. We look at eachother and I can see my instructors hands coming up from their restful position on his laps and starting to grab the cyclic.. BANG! Motor quits violently (seized up - as we later got to know - due to valve lodging into cylinder), aircraft yaws heavily to the right. We're at 1500ft and my instructor yells to me that he's got control and that I should call mayday on the radio. I'm probably calling a mayday on every radio frequency there is but the right one. He's managed to turn the aircraft around towards the little island. We narrowly miss a power line (I recall screaming "Do you see it? Do you see the line??!!" to which he responds "got it!"). We settle in a horse field - hard, but alive.
I remember just sitting there for the longest period of time in complete silence. Finally the horses start to come up to the heli and throw curious glances at the strange arrivals. It was rather surreal. We finally start to make our way to the nearest house on shaky legs.
Would I have managed if I've been on my own? Who knows - I had done lots of autorotation training, flown solo, but I doubt I'd have gotten all of it right in such a short time. But it's impossible to tell. All I can say is that I am very grateful that he was with me that particular day.
Anyway, after this I took one more helicopter lesson and then quit. I was afraid, I'm man enough to say. I was also broke and thought that the only way to continue was on turbines. And I simply couldn't afford that at the time.
Fast forward to 15 years later. Today I can afford it again (just barely). And two weeks ago I had 2 hours in a H300CB at Van Nuys airport. I wouldn't say it all came back to me, but I could still hover on the first try!
One late autumn day in 1995 my instructor calls me up and ask me if I want to fly an older 269 to its operator across the pond free of charge. It had been borrowed to cover for the schools tech ship. It's about a 45 min ride and of course I jump at this.
We pre-flight and take-off, chit chat and whatnot. Haven't flown that particular ship before, and it feels less 'firm' and responsive than the one I'm used to. Anyway, the route takes us over the archipelago in Stockholm and I'm doing my best at flying a straight line. Instructor says I should try to keep within autorotational distance of the all the litle islets we pass, in case something would go wrong. I think he is being overly cautious, but I do as he suggests. So we start to zig-zag between all the little islets, cobs and islands.
Obviously, the second after we've passed out over a stretch of open water after just having left a small island, the engine starts to sound really strange. We look at eachother and I can see my instructors hands coming up from their restful position on his laps and starting to grab the cyclic.. BANG! Motor quits violently (seized up - as we later got to know - due to valve lodging into cylinder), aircraft yaws heavily to the right. We're at 1500ft and my instructor yells to me that he's got control and that I should call mayday on the radio. I'm probably calling a mayday on every radio frequency there is but the right one. He's managed to turn the aircraft around towards the little island. We narrowly miss a power line (I recall screaming "Do you see it? Do you see the line??!!" to which he responds "got it!"). We settle in a horse field - hard, but alive.
I remember just sitting there for the longest period of time in complete silence. Finally the horses start to come up to the heli and throw curious glances at the strange arrivals. It was rather surreal. We finally start to make our way to the nearest house on shaky legs.
Would I have managed if I've been on my own? Who knows - I had done lots of autorotation training, flown solo, but I doubt I'd have gotten all of it right in such a short time. But it's impossible to tell. All I can say is that I am very grateful that he was with me that particular day.
Anyway, after this I took one more helicopter lesson and then quit. I was afraid, I'm man enough to say. I was also broke and thought that the only way to continue was on turbines. And I simply couldn't afford that at the time.
Fast forward to 15 years later. Today I can afford it again (just barely). And two weeks ago I had 2 hours in a H300CB at Van Nuys airport. I wouldn't say it all came back to me, but I could still hover on the first try!
Last edited by AdamFrisch; 13th Oct 2010 at 18:46.
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Away out There
Posts: 54
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
T/R Blues
I backed into some small branches once in an R22, one blade struck a stick about ½’ dia. about ¾’ in from the blade tip causing the shape forming plug in the end of the blade to dislodge. I had felt the strike and poled forward to go and land about 50ft straight ahead. The unbalanced rotor set up a vibration that was so severe (it didn’t feel severe) that from the time I recognized the strike and the onset of the vibration and poled forward it took about a count of 1 and 2 and the tail end cracked off somewhere around the tail boom end casting. I don’t remember a lot more but the really scary moment was being inverted, rotating and hanging out the door. I was an experienced mustering pilot with around 16,000 hrs experience. I guess I should have chopped the throttle immediately but at that stage I had all my T/R control and the landing spot was 50ft straight ahead.While I was the mug who hit the tree I do wish that Frank's little machine could handle a bit more battle damage.
Apropos scary (not for me) and the previous post, look at this account taken from a paper by Christine Negroni in the ISASI Forum (July-Sept 2010):
For me the most scary part of this were the actions of the pilot(s).
Jim
“I arrived at work for a shift change. After parking the car, I heard one of our hospital helicopters turning on the hospital helipad. I ran to the pad so I could relieve the night pilot and take the flight…. We were responding to a multiple car accident with serious injuries…. I remember glancing at my instrument gauges before liftoff. Everything looked good. I made the appropriate calls and began the takeoff process…. As we moved forward, my warning lights and horns for low rotor rpm came on. My rotor rpm’s began to drop, and the aircraft slowly began to settle…. I turned and was able to settle back on the pad and appeared to land without incident. I looked at the gauges and around the cockpit. Everything was normal again, except I noticed that my engine throttles were not full forward. I assumed that was the problem. I pushed the throttles forward completely, lifted off again, and flew the flight to the accident scene as if everything was normal. Upon landing and shutting down at the scene, I discovered that approximately 2-3 inches of each tail rotor blade (2) were chopped off. I gave the remaining rotors a detailed inspection and checked the drive train from the engines to the rotors and found everything in place. The patient was brought to the aircraft, dying, and placed inside. I made the decision that I could make the 5-minute flight back to the hospital safely.” The flight went back without incident.
Jim
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Wiltshire, UK
Posts: 504
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
For me the most scary part of this were the actions of the pilot(s).
The patient was brought to the aircraft, dying, and placed inside.
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Beside the seaside
Posts: 670
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
TRC - was that one of your ex-sudents from the Qatari Air Force?
My scariest moments were flying with pilots from that bastion of democracy too. No matter what they did - it always seemed to be my fault!
My scariest moments were flying with pilots from that bastion of democracy too. No matter what they did - it always seemed to be my fault!
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Wiltshire, UK
Posts: 504
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
...was that one of your ex-sudents from the Qatari Air Force?
Billy Smart would have made a million out of it.
I still wake up screaming at the thought of it.
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Canada
Posts: 309
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Scary week for me
For me, it would be more like "the scariest week I had in a helicopter" were I was collecting scary moments one after the next for 4 or 5 days.
My story is, I was sent down to South America to do a "Bird Towing" job, (Magnetic survey),the Aircraft was single hydraulic Bell 205 with a T53-17 and regular 205 blades.
What I did was survey the Top of the Andes Mountains from East to West and back, Straight across doing lines with no more than 50 meters to play with on each side of the line.
The whole thing was flown at a calculated D.A of in between 20,000 ft and 25,500 ft and for almost 4 months that is all I did (with time off in there of course).
Now the scary part, the first week, where I had to deal with phenomenons found mostly in books and some which did not even exist in books at all but still had to deal with, where I tried to understand what was happening and figure out a recovery procedures before hitting anything solid and when you fly at 200 ft above ground there isn't much time for that.
Example of this would be retreating blade stall that happens when you reach the VNE at about 55 to 60kts, it is scary to see the aircraft start pitching up and roll upside down and all that with longline and bird attached underneath the machine at 200 ft above ground, your mind races to find a way out that.
Other things like LTE can also be a scary thing, when the slowest you can go is maybe 10/15kts before you lose control of the tail rotor, still at 200 ft and still with the darn longline and bird and you are simply falling down the mountain spinning trying to figure a way out of it before the next ridge gets too close. Because you got to start climbing well in advance of the slope, Another scary one is the "Huey tuck" you know you get stuck in whatever attitude your in and no response from the controls, you don't want to be in that one I can tell you right now. Also couple more not in books. All these scary situations, I had to deal with them many times before finding out where the limits where and finding out little clues telling me I was close to whatever limits I was reaching. It took me 3 to 4 days to masters the flying techniques needed up there.
After that it was ok, since we could do it, they kept adding lines and new jobs. I was told it was two world altitude records (unofficial) for bird towing, we used 2 different systems. Learned a lot out of that. Found out where the actual, real limits of the aircraft where and it ain't quite was it is in the book
Those were my scariest moments.
JD
My story is, I was sent down to South America to do a "Bird Towing" job, (Magnetic survey),the Aircraft was single hydraulic Bell 205 with a T53-17 and regular 205 blades.
What I did was survey the Top of the Andes Mountains from East to West and back, Straight across doing lines with no more than 50 meters to play with on each side of the line.
The whole thing was flown at a calculated D.A of in between 20,000 ft and 25,500 ft and for almost 4 months that is all I did (with time off in there of course).
Now the scary part, the first week, where I had to deal with phenomenons found mostly in books and some which did not even exist in books at all but still had to deal with, where I tried to understand what was happening and figure out a recovery procedures before hitting anything solid and when you fly at 200 ft above ground there isn't much time for that.
Example of this would be retreating blade stall that happens when you reach the VNE at about 55 to 60kts, it is scary to see the aircraft start pitching up and roll upside down and all that with longline and bird attached underneath the machine at 200 ft above ground, your mind races to find a way out that.
Other things like LTE can also be a scary thing, when the slowest you can go is maybe 10/15kts before you lose control of the tail rotor, still at 200 ft and still with the darn longline and bird and you are simply falling down the mountain spinning trying to figure a way out of it before the next ridge gets too close. Because you got to start climbing well in advance of the slope, Another scary one is the "Huey tuck" you know you get stuck in whatever attitude your in and no response from the controls, you don't want to be in that one I can tell you right now. Also couple more not in books. All these scary situations, I had to deal with them many times before finding out where the limits where and finding out little clues telling me I was close to whatever limits I was reaching. It took me 3 to 4 days to masters the flying techniques needed up there.
After that it was ok, since we could do it, they kept adding lines and new jobs. I was told it was two world altitude records (unofficial) for bird towing, we used 2 different systems. Learned a lot out of that. Found out where the actual, real limits of the aircraft where and it ain't quite was it is in the book
Those were my scariest moments.
JD
Last edited by fijdor; 22nd Oct 2010 at 01:38.
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Los Angeles, USA
Age: 52
Posts: 1,631
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Interesting.
Fijdor - re you saying that retreating blade stalls comes at actual lower airspeeds up there, or was it just because the IAS was so much lower?
I didn't know tail rotor authority deteriorated that much up there, but it makes sense.
I do recall how sloppy the controls got when we climbed high in the 269 years ago - to the point where I thought it was uncomfortable - so I can barely imagine how hard it must have been up at your altitudes.
Fijdor - re you saying that retreating blade stalls comes at actual lower airspeeds up there, or was it just because the IAS was so much lower?
I didn't know tail rotor authority deteriorated that much up there, but it makes sense.
I do recall how sloppy the controls got when we climbed high in the 269 years ago - to the point where I thought it was uncomfortable - so I can barely imagine how hard it must have been up at your altitudes.
Black Jacques Shellacque - Tabernak!
Youtube is your friend - check out the N1!
Youtube is your friend - check out the N1!