Helicopter Landing....then unexpected Takeoff (Video)

[glimmerman_alpha]

Found this video on the net.

http://www.zippyvideos.com/860443874...zs-rso_almost/

Interesting incident. Any thoughts on cause?

[Flashover999]

Wow! That is scary! I would love to know what happened there also. How the blades didnt contact the ground to the front is amazing. Would a sudden gust from the rear cause that much dis-symatry in the rear to cause the disk to move forwrd like that? Did the front of the skids get caught on something on the ground to cause the turning moment?
Will be waiting for the discussion with interest.
Great video...thanks for putting it on.

[Fun Police]

could be unexpected gusts up the chute, but maybe unexpected inputs to the controls, too?
betcha haynes undies saw a small boost in stock prices that day.

[Fortyodd2]

A bit more than your average main rotor handling check!!!!!

[Bitmonx]

Woa....my pulse was going a bit faster when watching

It looks like there was only one person on board. When the bird was in a stable hover you could see the CG was somewhat forward. This can only be with considerable tailwind if solo.
I was once in a situation when my left front passenger had a weight of near (or maybe over) the max seat weight (is it 240 lbs.?) and two not so light pax were in the back seat. The CG was so much forward that I had not too much aft cyclic travel left. When coming back for landing the person waiting on the ramp to unload the pax told me when I touched down with the front skids I must have been 1 1/2 ft. of the ground with the rear portion of the skids.
Maybe the pilot tried to lower the bird with cyclic input instead of slowly lowering the collective and the addition of a gust from the rear may have caused the pilot to over control believing he was going to dig the T/R in to the tarmac?
I am very curious about what you guys come up with.......

[puntosaurus]

There's almost always a slightly disconcerting tilting in the final stages of a 44 touchdown, and I suspect that the combination of wind and cg caught this pilot by surprise and resulted in his overcontrolling. Could be a gust, but everything is so stable up to that point that I'd doubt it. My bet is the pilot felt the tilting backwards, got spooked and shoved the cyclic forward. Did well to get away with it though !

[Flashover999]

When the Heli first goes forward the is no forward movement of the skids across the ground which interests me....when it rocks back (Thank-god for the TR guard me thinks) then forward again is slides across the ground and takes off. still makes me wonder if it dug in or got caught on something? Dynamic roll in the forward axis of sorts.

[fhvn4d]

if id have done that... id have been shaking and wobbling like a dog ****ting over a briarpatch when i finally got it back! tht was a really smoooth transition back to stable flight..... would centering the cyclic while still having AOA on the blades in a forward heavy CG a/ do that??? thinking along the lines of hes skids down, centering the stick with the ground effect cushion still bubbled under the blades and the collective not bottomed could do that right????

[puntosaurus]

My bet is that when it rocks back the first time the pilot is still in control and lowering the collective, therefore when he gets spooked and just shoves the cyclic forward there's not enough collective to get the front of the skids out. I'm guessing that by the time he's going forward for the second time he's already made up his mind to throw that one away (good call !) so the collective is on the way up and the front doesn't dig in this time. On second viewing I do buy the strong tailwind though, there's a gentle oscillation forward as he comes in that looks like it's wind rather than pilot induced.

[foreigner]

It happened in Cape town a little while ago. Was a PPL pilot with 3 pax, landed into wind, apparently the passenger knocked the cyclic forward. The miracle was that he missed the aircraft in front of him when he took off again.

[SASless]

You mean that is not a "normal" touch and go in a Robbie? Now there I was thinking I was getting the hang of things after seeing that....now what was I thinking?

[Johe02]

Amazing. . .

I've noticed some PPL(H) students who are PPL(A) have a tendancy to shove the cyclic forward on touch-down . . Old habits die hard.

"passenger knocked the cyclic forward". . .

Betcha. .

[wishtobflying]

Link to video if you want to download it directly:

http://216.86.149.136/videos/0/351027_4a7d6_256k.wmv

[Creaser]

Left skid deos not appear to be in contact with the ground on the first touchdown.


Creaser

[Gerhardt]

Being a low-time pilot, it made my heart skip a beat.

[funfinn2000]

Wow

I'd check my pants after that, maybe he was'nt used to flying solo and the lack of weight and he could have been a bit over used to having extra bodies

a student of ours wnet back to Uk with his private a flew solo in his own R44 done a steep app into his garden a hit the stinger and **** a brick

[Capt Hollywood]

I can't seem to get the links to work which is a tad annoying as it sounds like an interesting clip. Can anyone email me the clip?

CH

[cyclicmicky]

The " passenger " would have had a very sore jaw after we got back down if I had been the pilot..and made to clean my pants out!!
Seriously though folks..as a low time pilot no longer flying robbies,(I went Enstrom), I would have to question my ability to recover as well as the pilot in this clip. He did very well to get that back so quickly without any ground resonance or rollover.

[Vfrpilotpb]

Its almost the exactly the same that I once witnessed of a guy letting the stick slip fom his hand, he grabbed and pulled back to much, too quickly!

Vfr

[funfinn2000]

I do'nt think he fully lowered the collective and the lack of weight and forward cyclic made him do his first forward roll , his pivot point was the front of the skids and he he thrust greater than lift and the rolling forward moment ,and i do'nt think he planned that T/O .