Engine Failure
Engine failure on climb out in Bell 47 in the desert in Egypt luckily was near bushes for reference. ( as against the time i was flying at 500ft been going for hour or so and noticed some trees and small valleys below...thought about it until i realised i was at about 20ft agl 
)
Hiller lost 4ft section of blade ...shook so bad you could not see any instruments just a blur ....
Flew loads of times with no airspeed / engine/ rotor rpm but that was spraying in those days !!
Thats plenty for me ...if i were you jelly , i would think someone is trying to tell me something !!!!! ( V glad your still here tho,
)
)Hiller lost 4ft section of blade ...shook so bad you could not see any instruments just a blur ....
Flew loads of times with no airspeed / engine/ rotor rpm but that was spraying in those days !!
Thats plenty for me ...if i were you jelly , i would think someone is trying to tell me something !!!!! ( V glad your still here tho,
)
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Stuck Pedals
OH-58C, evening ...Ft. Campbell ...cruise to CAAF, lots and lots concrete. About 12,000 ft of runway if I remember correctly.
Uneventful run-on landing, lot's of sparks and two shiny fire trucks.
Followed procedure, throttle to keep the nose pointed generally in the right direction, ended up with a non-event and a nice story.
Uneventful run-on landing, lot's of sparks and two shiny fire trucks.
Followed procedure, throttle to keep the nose pointed generally in the right direction, ended up with a non-event and a nice story.
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Hmmm, a bit like asking some rough cowpoke dude in an outback pub, how many kids has he got? Ah well yer honour only 38 on this issue that I’ll own up to. That is, that necessitated the use of those magic phrases, land immediately, or, land ASAP.
On ‘47’s; anything from T/R drive shaft failure in hover at sixty feet to complete damper frame break up, five stars on the spooky side that one, to several mundane eng failures – eng thru bolts, valve failures, rocker shaft fell out once, turbo exhaust pipe x three, fuel pump seals blown out, ditto fuel tap seals x 2, one mag failure coupled to a wiring harness short on two plugs on the other side mag. My first real one, also five stars – couldn’t even see the instruments with the vibes that time.
Magneto drive shaft failure x 2- one of those with the late Lester Chambers on board as a slave, his first slave ride, (he was far too good a man to go the way he did) landed right under a very big tree, no chainsaws and five minutes of hovering to get out after repair. Then there were several xmon types like fan drive failures, one free wheel failure from sixty feet with my father in law on board (another five stars), fan drive belts.
Oh, and the R22 did someone say, one drive belts failure, and one upper bearing failure, each required a full auto in most unpleasant circumstances.
Four of the type referred to by SC, one particularly hang the head job, one I overlooked the fuel tank rigging thereby misjudging the quantity, that one was real funny when my pax asked me "if yer need some spanners to bleed her I've got em in the toyota". That came at flare height.
One quite deliberate with a very obstinate pax, still inexcusable as it gave me a hot stop on the turbo and the last was still a mistake as I missed the fuel contamination into a nearly already full R22, the only one of all events that was bent or even scratched.
Of the six (land ASAP ones) the last was the only totally harmless one. – Just settled into the first cuppa at cruise at daylight or there-about and the most ungodly bashing and banging out the back. Now having lived thru the infernal din of a ’47 free wheel failure I immediately thought the worst, down went the old heave ho. Another magic little spot appeared right there, hmm still had drive power at the bottom, no strange noises, every thing in green??? Got out and it’s the bloody Zeus fasteners on the inspection panel have let go. Knee’s shaking climbed back up, cancelled the emerg call, and carried on. Yeah tonight I will get them repaired.
I can say that all in all, I got a hell of an emerg training vocabulary to rely on.
To classify the two phrases, Landing ASAP usually means that the thing will still fly, but not that is always safe to do so; land immediately is always when the collective goes down as a mandatory life saving function.
I must say that I have always worshipped my ab-initio instructor as the gentleman whose genius blessed me with just enough nouse to get my collective thoughts together and rationalised BEFORE I decided on the CORRECT course of action, EVERY time.
I wonder if the basic first license syllabus, anywhere, covers such capacity nowadays. Most it seems are too bloody scared to switch the engine off.
So you newbies it’s all in the first few hours of instruction (if you have a good instructor) that you will be either blessed by talent or forever wondering if it is luck that you live with. Then again many people go for ever without so much as a burp. And, it’s not always the engine.
On ‘47’s; anything from T/R drive shaft failure in hover at sixty feet to complete damper frame break up, five stars on the spooky side that one, to several mundane eng failures – eng thru bolts, valve failures, rocker shaft fell out once, turbo exhaust pipe x three, fuel pump seals blown out, ditto fuel tap seals x 2, one mag failure coupled to a wiring harness short on two plugs on the other side mag. My first real one, also five stars – couldn’t even see the instruments with the vibes that time.
Magneto drive shaft failure x 2- one of those with the late Lester Chambers on board as a slave, his first slave ride, (he was far too good a man to go the way he did) landed right under a very big tree, no chainsaws and five minutes of hovering to get out after repair. Then there were several xmon types like fan drive failures, one free wheel failure from sixty feet with my father in law on board (another five stars), fan drive belts.
Oh, and the R22 did someone say, one drive belts failure, and one upper bearing failure, each required a full auto in most unpleasant circumstances.
Four of the type referred to by SC, one particularly hang the head job, one I overlooked the fuel tank rigging thereby misjudging the quantity, that one was real funny when my pax asked me "if yer need some spanners to bleed her I've got em in the toyota". That came at flare height.
One quite deliberate with a very obstinate pax, still inexcusable as it gave me a hot stop on the turbo and the last was still a mistake as I missed the fuel contamination into a nearly already full R22, the only one of all events that was bent or even scratched.
Of the six (land ASAP ones) the last was the only totally harmless one. – Just settled into the first cuppa at cruise at daylight or there-about and the most ungodly bashing and banging out the back. Now having lived thru the infernal din of a ’47 free wheel failure I immediately thought the worst, down went the old heave ho. Another magic little spot appeared right there, hmm still had drive power at the bottom, no strange noises, every thing in green??? Got out and it’s the bloody Zeus fasteners on the inspection panel have let go. Knee’s shaking climbed back up, cancelled the emerg call, and carried on. Yeah tonight I will get them repaired.
I can say that all in all, I got a hell of an emerg training vocabulary to rely on.
To classify the two phrases, Landing ASAP usually means that the thing will still fly, but not that is always safe to do so; land immediately is always when the collective goes down as a mandatory life saving function.
I must say that I have always worshipped my ab-initio instructor as the gentleman whose genius blessed me with just enough nouse to get my collective thoughts together and rationalised BEFORE I decided on the CORRECT course of action, EVERY time.
I wonder if the basic first license syllabus, anywhere, covers such capacity nowadays. Most it seems are too bloody scared to switch the engine off.
So you newbies it’s all in the first few hours of instruction (if you have a good instructor) that you will be either blessed by talent or forever wondering if it is luck that you live with. Then again many people go for ever without so much as a burp. And, it’s not always the engine.
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Stuck Pedals
Shawn Coyle:
I've been trying to remember (and failing
) the root cause. I was flying with an IP who was gracious and brave enough to let fledgling scout pilot make the decisions and then fly it to the ground. Great confidence builder!
I remember pushing pretty hard in-flight, then deciding we had a high confidence of of a successful outcome in the current state, but were unsure of the consequences of forcing pedal movement.
Pretty sure when it was on the ground, we tried to free the pedals unsuccessfully, put on ground-handling wheels, pulled it off the runway and went for a beer. Sorry I'm not much help. If the answer comes to me, I'll post it. I never heard of it happening again.
Marc
I've been trying to remember (and failing
) the root cause. I was flying with an IP who was gracious and brave enough to let fledgling scout pilot make the decisions and then fly it to the ground. Great confidence builder!I remember pushing pretty hard in-flight, then deciding we had a high confidence of of a successful outcome in the current state, but were unsure of the consequences of forcing pedal movement.
Pretty sure when it was on the ground, we tried to free the pedals unsuccessfully, put on ground-handling wheels, pulled it off the runway and went for a beer. Sorry I'm not much help. If the answer comes to me, I'll post it. I never heard of it happening again.
Marc
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A friend had an electrical fire in a gazelle. I was occupying the left hand seat in a warm friendly daze when I sniffed the air and indicated we may have to land. He was slightly non-plussed as he could not smell anything.
Later I asked why he hadn't noticed the all pervasive scent of burning wires.
"I don't have any sense of smell."
"Didn't they pick that up at your medical?"
"They never asked."
Later I asked why he hadn't noticed the all pervasive scent of burning wires.
"I don't have any sense of smell."
"Didn't they pick that up at your medical?"
"They never asked."
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been flying for two years and have about 600 hours in an r-44(500 hours of that is in a 2006 Raven II). No engine failures but will list the problems below. Didn't really think of any of them as emergencies but just a pain in the A**.
So many hydraulic leaks i lost count(few of them i landed and i couldn't see any fluid in the resevoir)
Alternator failure on the above r-44 with 30 hours on it
Fuel pump failure at night with 400 hours on it
Bird strike (bird hit the main rotor, dented the one blade then flew back(well flopped back) to hit the empenage and smacked down on that, the flying rat came about 1 foot from hitting the tail rotor(better day then it could have been, by the way i felt to big bumps one when it hit the blade and the second when it hit the tail fin and i mean big bumps).
Had the engine cough bad enough to where it lost power for a moment, dumped collective was looking to land then it stopped coughing.
I thought i would share the moment i landed in a park giving rides (i was cooling down) and a lady who was drunk and obviously on some drugs came running at the helicopter with her hands up. Needles to say my mom was working ground crew and she tackled her. I had my seatbelt off out of the aircraft running after her but my MOM beat me to it. I have to say after the fact i laughed pretty hard keep picturing my mom taking this lady down( some people have no brains but it is a good example to keep full situational awareness). That was probably the most scariest moment out of all the above.
In conclusion i'm always am prepared for the worst but i rather have small problems like above then having to deal with big problems. The above were obviously problems with the aircraft but i didn't list other problems found in inspections. I guess not all robbies are low maintenance.
So many hydraulic leaks i lost count(few of them i landed and i couldn't see any fluid in the resevoir)
Alternator failure on the above r-44 with 30 hours on it
Fuel pump failure at night with 400 hours on it
Bird strike (bird hit the main rotor, dented the one blade then flew back(well flopped back) to hit the empenage and smacked down on that, the flying rat came about 1 foot from hitting the tail rotor(better day then it could have been, by the way i felt to big bumps one when it hit the blade and the second when it hit the tail fin and i mean big bumps).
Had the engine cough bad enough to where it lost power for a moment, dumped collective was looking to land then it stopped coughing.
I thought i would share the moment i landed in a park giving rides (i was cooling down) and a lady who was drunk and obviously on some drugs came running at the helicopter with her hands up. Needles to say my mom was working ground crew and she tackled her. I had my seatbelt off out of the aircraft running after her but my MOM beat me to it. I have to say after the fact i laughed pretty hard keep picturing my mom taking this lady down( some people have no brains but it is a good example to keep full situational awareness). That was probably the most scariest moment out of all the above.
In conclusion i'm always am prepared for the worst but i rather have small problems like above then having to deal with big problems. The above were obviously problems with the aircraft but i didn't list other problems found in inspections. I guess not all robbies are low maintenance.
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I lost my Enstrom F28A in an engine failure. Had just started from a refueling when the engine stopped dead on 800'. Made an autorotation landing in a rapeseed field with about 20-30 knots forward speed which should have been OK if it hadn't been for the rapeseed that the skids stuck in (try to walk through rapeseed!) so the Enstrom tipped forward and the blades contacted the ground with a total as result.
Reason for engine failure? The ignition cable isolation burnt off with a short as result.
Why? Had had the engine rebuildt and when it was reinstalled the mechanic made a mistake, connected the ground cable to the middle of the alternator (where You can connect for instrument output).
It was OK for 5 hours flying before the accident but after the refueling I had trouble starting the engine and I drained the battery. I jumpstarted the engine and when it stated loading the battery it obviosly overloaded and burnt the ignition cables.
Was rathe lucky though, just a couple of 100 meters along my route the compact forest began.
I managed a Mayday on the way down but not more. Can still remember the chilling silence. /CC
Reason for engine failure? The ignition cable isolation burnt off with a short as result.
Why? Had had the engine rebuildt and when it was reinstalled the mechanic made a mistake, connected the ground cable to the middle of the alternator (where You can connect for instrument output).
It was OK for 5 hours flying before the accident but after the refueling I had trouble starting the engine and I drained the battery. I jumpstarted the engine and when it stated loading the battery it obviosly overloaded and burnt the ignition cables.
Was rathe lucky though, just a couple of 100 meters along my route the compact forest began.
I managed a Mayday on the way down but not more. Can still remember the chilling silence. /CC
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chca18 :
You make a very good point, there are many that I have met who like you made a good auto to an equally good landing only to be wrecked by the terrain surface and the remaining forward velocity.
At height, it is impossible under such circumstances, to select an area that has an optimal surface - except for the odd sports pitch, golf course or airfield. I discovered this from a very early age and made it a policy to never attempt a 'run on' unless the surface could be virtually guaranteed to support such activity. Those occasions are likely to be rare and so my philosophy is to always intend towards as close to zero speed TD as possible. It requires considerable practise to acheive confidence but I firmly beleive it to be the best policy.
Best Wishes
Made an autorotation landing in a rapeseed field with about 20-30 knots forward speed which should have been OK if it hadn't been for the rapeseed that the skids stuck in (try to walk through rapeseed!) so the Enstrom tipped forward and the blades contacted the ground with a total as result.
At height, it is impossible under such circumstances, to select an area that has an optimal surface - except for the odd sports pitch, golf course or airfield. I discovered this from a very early age and made it a policy to never attempt a 'run on' unless the surface could be virtually guaranteed to support such activity. Those occasions are likely to be rare and so my philosophy is to always intend towards as close to zero speed TD as possible. It requires considerable practise to acheive confidence but I firmly beleive it to be the best policy.
Best Wishes
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engine and other failures
given the massive numbers of R22s and R44s out there,
either very few of you who post here fly Robinsons,
very few of you who fly Robinsons post here,
or they are just damn reliable.
take your pick.........
Big Ls
either very few of you who post here fly Robinsons,
very few of you who fly Robinsons post here,
or they are just damn reliable.
take your pick.........
Big Ls
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R22 - 2 alternator failures in flight, 1 radio failure, 1 low oil pressure light mid channel irish sea, 1 clutch failure, several chip lights, couple of starter motors..
B206 - 1 generator failure, 1 FCU failure
A109 - several total radio failures, and several engine chip lights
All quite minor stuff really..
B206 - 1 generator failure, 1 FCU failure
A109 - several total radio failures, and several engine chip lights
All quite minor stuff really..
I forgot about one in an R22 - as a student pilot on a night cross country flight with a CFI, had a fuel leak at the carb (mechanic screw-up, didn't tighten a fuel line).
Started the flight with full fuel, we both noted the fuel gauge was dropping a bit faster than expected as time went by, but then again those gauges aren't the largest or most accurate in the world to begin with either. We cut the flight a bit short as that continued & headed home just in case, on short final the low fuel light came on.
Started the flight with full fuel, we both noted the fuel gauge was dropping a bit faster than expected as time went by, but then again those gauges aren't the largest or most accurate in the world to begin with either. We cut the flight a bit short as that continued & headed home just in case, on short final the low fuel light came on.
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engine and other failures
R22: alternator failure, various tach failures
F28A: stuck collective
B206B3: starter/generator shaft failure, T/R chips
C172: night engine failure
Re: the F28A tipping over forward - the Enstroms really like to rock forward on their oleos, so I agree that with all that inertia it's worth trying to get the ground speed really low. That's not really an option in the R22, but the stiff R22 gear will slide pretty well if the terrain is at all flat, so I would opt for some forward speed in the R22 unless I had a heck of a headwind. The R44 has enough inertia to get really slow touchdown speeds.
I was lucky in the C172 - I flew just a few inches under wires that I couldn't see in the dark - almost had a heart attack the next day when we went back to look at the aircraft. Owner bolted a new engine in and flew it out of the field himself.
F28A: stuck collective
B206B3: starter/generator shaft failure, T/R chips
C172: night engine failure
Re: the F28A tipping over forward - the Enstroms really like to rock forward on their oleos, so I agree that with all that inertia it's worth trying to get the ground speed really low. That's not really an option in the R22, but the stiff R22 gear will slide pretty well if the terrain is at all flat, so I would opt for some forward speed in the R22 unless I had a heck of a headwind. The R44 has enough inertia to get really slow touchdown speeds.
I was lucky in the C172 - I flew just a few inches under wires that I couldn't see in the dark - almost had a heart attack the next day when we went back to look at the aircraft. Owner bolted a new engine in and flew it out of the field himself.
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Being conservative
BH47 - cooling fan bearing failure - what a racket! BH204 - engine failure. BH205 - loss of most left pedal authority; huge compressor stall w/momentary engine power loss, which recovered. BH206 - 2x hydraulics failure. BH212 - 3x engine runaway ups, 1x runaway down. DME fire. Inverter fire. XMSN oil cooler by pass valve stuck closed - high temp. BH222 - loose engine throttle control assembly - loss of throttle control. AH1G - SAS hardovers, many. S76A/A+/B/C/C+ - Dual T/R AFCS actuator hardover, small electrical problem. WS55III - engine fuel control computer failure - 2x. WS60 - window fell off. H500 - no problems! A109A/II/C - various small problems. Enstrom F28C - clutch failure. BK117A3 - generator failures. S61N - no problems. OH58A - no problems. UH1H - high EGT enroute, partial power. AS350 - main battery overtemp. BH214ST - no problems. On all I elected to exercise the most conservative and expeditious resolution except when over bad-guy territory. Gives a bit of credence to there not being any old AND bold pilots. Worked for me.
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AS350D T/R mishap
Had a T/R pitch link failure on an early AS350D with the older, shorter output shaft. Blade w/o the pitch link went a little wild and smacked the tailboom. Resulted in an AD that extended the output shafts. Now know why most manufacturers use brown material to cover seats.
