Engine Failure
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: somedays in a helicopter, other days in a fixed-wing....
Posts: 163
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Engine Failure
Interested to here some actual accounts of anyone who has actually experienced a real life:
Engine Failure
T/R Failure
Jammed Controls
Fuselage issues (Eg: something falling off!!!)
Instrument/avionics Failures
Even more so, any at Night or IFR ?
Any information on how you handled it, how it felt, how it made you feel and if it was different to what you were taught ? just curious......
Engine Failure
T/R Failure
Jammed Controls
Fuselage issues (Eg: something falling off!!!)
Instrument/avionics Failures
Even more so, any at Night or IFR ?
Any information on how you handled it, how it felt, how it made you feel and if it was different to what you were taught ? just curious......
Last edited by jetflite; 20th Feb 2008 at 12:18. Reason: (Typo...)
Join Date: May 2001
Location: Escrick York england
Posts: 1,676
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
engine failure in md600 at 150 ft 50 knots over the airfield boundary at cranfield
landed ok suprised my self it was better than my normal landing
but it did go very very quiet exept for the annoying voice of the fadec telling me engine out engine out [as if i didnt know ]
i then received a bolxxxxg from the atc for landing/parking on the taxiway
landed ok suprised my self it was better than my normal landing
but it did go very very quiet exept for the annoying voice of the fadec telling me engine out engine out [as if i didnt know ]
i then received a bolxxxxg from the atc for landing/parking on the taxiway
Last edited by md 600 driver; 20th Feb 2008 at 12:57.
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Northern Virginia, USA
Posts: 8
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Mag failure Bell 47-G2
I had one Mag on a Bell 47-G2 fail in flight during my PPL training. We didn't notice until I pulled power during my final approach flair. Ugly landing, and my instructor gave me the evil eye because I was pretty far into training to have such an bad final. I complained that I didn't have any power, but it was hot and the first assumption was that I was late on the throttle (no govenor, just slight corolation on the G2).
After getting chastised when I finally put the a/c down on a taxiway he said something along the lines of "alright lets do THAT again", he took the controls, and attempted to lift off. Hot day, and he could barely get the thing off the ground (redline on MP). That's when we did a mag check and decided to call in the mechanic.
Interesting failure that I would never have been able to train for, but it could have been a big problem if I'd needed to go around near the ground. Certainly made me more aware hot temps, and steep approaches.
After getting chastised when I finally put the a/c down on a taxiway he said something along the lines of "alright lets do THAT again", he took the controls, and attempted to lift off. Hot day, and he could barely get the thing off the ground (redline on MP). That's when we did a mag check and decided to call in the mechanic.
Interesting failure that I would never have been able to train for, but it could have been a big problem if I'd needed to go around near the ground. Certainly made me more aware hot temps, and steep approaches.
"Just a pilot"
Engine failure,UH1H at night, after landing at a remote airfield in Vietnam, siezed at idle during cooldown. The bad guys assaulted the field later. Never flew with pintle-mount 60s again.
Engine failure/compressor stall, AS355F1, in flight, autorelight effective, after the right yaw and ran normally to landing. Stator vane failure, fell off but twisted 90 in the taper and stuck- no damage to any other compressor components.
Engine condition lever, after landing, AS355F1. Felt really stupid looking at that thing in my hand, attached to the ceiling by the start button wires.
Rotor brake lever failure, AS355F1, same as above.
Transmission suspension bar bearing failures (3 occurrences, 2 at once) in AS355F1. The old style stainless steel tubes that were pinched closed around the bearings, spread at the compression, mount bolt and hardware and hole in tubes kept everything together until I landed. There was a distinct "thunk", like someone hitting a cast iron skillet with a ball peen hammer, and cabin dropped about an inch.
Tail rotor spider bearing failure, climbout, AS355F1, flew back to an airport and run-on landing. It's hard to keep your feet on the floor even when you know the pedals don't do anything.
Hmmm... there seems to ba a pattern with the AS355F1, and I haven't even mentioned the junk electricals.
Drive train failure, H269B, in cruise, lower pulley bearing, forced landing in pasture successful.
Throttle cable broke, 206 B, flight position, uneventful for the pilot, just wouldn't go to idle. Remainder of day off.
Engine failure/compressor stall, AS355F1, in flight, autorelight effective, after the right yaw and ran normally to landing. Stator vane failure, fell off but twisted 90 in the taper and stuck- no damage to any other compressor components.
Engine condition lever, after landing, AS355F1. Felt really stupid looking at that thing in my hand, attached to the ceiling by the start button wires.
Rotor brake lever failure, AS355F1, same as above.
Transmission suspension bar bearing failures (3 occurrences, 2 at once) in AS355F1. The old style stainless steel tubes that were pinched closed around the bearings, spread at the compression, mount bolt and hardware and hole in tubes kept everything together until I landed. There was a distinct "thunk", like someone hitting a cast iron skillet with a ball peen hammer, and cabin dropped about an inch.
Tail rotor spider bearing failure, climbout, AS355F1, flew back to an airport and run-on landing. It's hard to keep your feet on the floor even when you know the pedals don't do anything.
Hmmm... there seems to ba a pattern with the AS355F1, and I haven't even mentioned the junk electricals.
Drive train failure, H269B, in cruise, lower pulley bearing, forced landing in pasture successful.
Throttle cable broke, 206 B, flight position, uneventful for the pilot, just wouldn't go to idle. Remainder of day off.
Had a couple of magneto failures in Bell 47's - just lost a bit of power. Both times I was light enough that it was a non-issue.
Had a bad roll hydraulic cylinder, again on a Bell 47 (TomCat Mk5A to be specific) - causing hardovers with any roll input. As a sub 50 hour PPL at the time with a couple hours in type & no real checkout, systems or emergency procedures training from the owner (took it around the pattern a couple times & was turned loose, maybe 15 minutes total) that was interesting.
I've had the pitot tube get plugged by bugs, so no airspeed indication.
Also have had a rotor tach generator failure, so no rotor rpm indication - still had the engine needle working.
All minor stuff, I was definitely luckier than some other pilots working for one operator - one guy had a centrifugal clutch failure in a Bell 47, on the next flight after I got out. He was in a turn (ag spraying) when it let go, walked away from it but totalled the ship. Another year a Hiller 12E lost the torsional coupler between the engine & transmission right after liftoff - minor damage to the ship (bent gear) but the engine oversped badly & added to the expense. I'd been flying it that morning, he'd been going a few hours that afternoon...
Had a bad roll hydraulic cylinder, again on a Bell 47 (TomCat Mk5A to be specific) - causing hardovers with any roll input. As a sub 50 hour PPL at the time with a couple hours in type & no real checkout, systems or emergency procedures training from the owner (took it around the pattern a couple times & was turned loose, maybe 15 minutes total) that was interesting.
I've had the pitot tube get plugged by bugs, so no airspeed indication.
Also have had a rotor tach generator failure, so no rotor rpm indication - still had the engine needle working.
All minor stuff, I was definitely luckier than some other pilots working for one operator - one guy had a centrifugal clutch failure in a Bell 47, on the next flight after I got out. He was in a turn (ag spraying) when it let go, walked away from it but totalled the ship. Another year a Hiller 12E lost the torsional coupler between the engine & transmission right after liftoff - minor damage to the ship (bent gear) but the engine oversped badly & added to the expense. I'd been flying it that morning, he'd been going a few hours that afternoon...
Hughes 500D....Alaska....9500 feet AGL...evening twilight....un-classic engine failure....way too much time to think about it!
Chinook...dropping a slingload on a very small mountain top....engine failure on one....closely followed by a severe compressor stall on the other....one very interesting ride down the mountain side trying to regain airspeed and Main Rotor RPM
Chinook....N2 overspeed drive shaft failure on one....rocket ride to a great height and whopping big Main Rotor Overspeed while figuring out what the heck was wrong....resulted in addition of said problem to training and checklist.
Bell 206....jammed collective....made run on landing at a bush camp.
Huey....tail rotor failure control failure at a hover.
Chinook....hit by .51 Cal...removed left pedal from under my foot...hydraulic fed fire in cockpit...IMC recovery by means of GCA approach at a SF Base Camp.
Now I recall why I fancy strong drink!
Chinook...dropping a slingload on a very small mountain top....engine failure on one....closely followed by a severe compressor stall on the other....one very interesting ride down the mountain side trying to regain airspeed and Main Rotor RPM
Chinook....N2 overspeed drive shaft failure on one....rocket ride to a great height and whopping big Main Rotor Overspeed while figuring out what the heck was wrong....resulted in addition of said problem to training and checklist.
Bell 206....jammed collective....made run on landing at a bush camp.
Huey....tail rotor failure control failure at a hover.
Chinook....hit by .51 Cal...removed left pedal from under my foot...hydraulic fed fire in cockpit...IMC recovery by means of GCA approach at a SF Base Camp.
Now I recall why I fancy strong drink!
First solo on helicopters, Gazelle. Lifting off and trimmed with the force trim release the bird to the accelerative attitude. When I reached circuit speed I tried to trim again – but the force trim release had failed. So I called the instructor back to the landing zone and finished the circuit against the springs of the trim. He jumped in and wanted control – and even so I had told him, that there was force on the stick, the blades nearly hit the ground, when he took control. We flew back to our homebase, only to find out, that only a circuit breaker has popped (unfortunately where I couldn´t reach it), but the instructor could have ;-) After that only the one or the other bird strike without mayor damage, a little bit scary at night so ;-) Then an engine chip on a twin at MTOW, shut the engine down and landed on a nearby little airfield leaving 15 meters of skidmark on the grass. Scary was a coughing engine in a 206 while underway with passengers at max. cruise power. The helicopter veering, dancing needles all over the panel until I lowered the collective. I continued a bit, trying to check out what caused it with less power applied, when the engine coughed again. Lowering the collective again solved the problem only a few seconds. Again the engine coughed. With 60isch knots and minimum power setting, telling the passengers, we´re going to land, I went back to base, always prepared for an engine off. The technicians found, that pieces from the compressor housing (each clamshell the amount of a small finger) went through the engine. Had another bad feeling, when flying over sea at night and checked the fuel consumption. The amount calculated were more than usual but engine parameters were o.k.. Used the stopwatch and calculated again, even more consumption. Did a few turns to see, whether there might be fuel leaking, but couldn´t see any. Returning to homebase the consumption increased and we weren´t sure, if we could make it. Called for the firetruck. After landing no leak was found, just the electrics went mad. All other moments were due to pilot or crew misjudgements – that are stories for another thread (where you need to open the luck bag and put something into the experience bag) Greetings Flying Bull
Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Philadelphia PA
Age: 73
Posts: 1,835
Likes: 0
Received 2 Likes
on
2 Posts
Three engine failures
OH-58A when I rolled the left hand throttle to idle just a bit too briskly, and the fuel control wasn't set right and the engine flamed out (unannounced engine failure on takeoff along a runway for a student who was doing very well).
Couldn't figure out why there was a beeping noise with the collective full down until I saw the oil pressure drop to zero..
No damage.
Canadian version of CH-46 - following practice engine failure on #1with correct checklist procedures, downwind in traffic pattern / circuit, instructor says "Around here, following a practice engine failure, we put the 'bad' engine throttle up to about 85-90% N1 in case the good engine quits". I nod agreement that this is a good idea, which was followed almost immediately by #2 eating itself up. Not sure who got #1 throttle to fly, but in following 30 seconds we managed to regain composure, shut down #2, restart our hearts and do single engine landing. No damage, except to #2 engine.
Hangs head in shame having joined club that I'd much rather not be a member of - S-55, front tank with 55 gallons, burns 45 gallons per hour, airborne 45 mintues, engine quits due to lack of fuel. Shameful part is twice in previous 10 minutes SSV (still, small voice) had said "switch fuel tanks", and I hadn't listened.
Minor damage to airframe, moderate damage to ego.
In all three cases, I was obviously not expecting an engine failure, and it did take me quite by surprise. Not sure that one second intervention time is a long as it needs to be.
Definitely not like the way we'd practiced in any case.
OH-58A when I rolled the left hand throttle to idle just a bit too briskly, and the fuel control wasn't set right and the engine flamed out (unannounced engine failure on takeoff along a runway for a student who was doing very well).
Couldn't figure out why there was a beeping noise with the collective full down until I saw the oil pressure drop to zero..
No damage.
Canadian version of CH-46 - following practice engine failure on #1with correct checklist procedures, downwind in traffic pattern / circuit, instructor says "Around here, following a practice engine failure, we put the 'bad' engine throttle up to about 85-90% N1 in case the good engine quits". I nod agreement that this is a good idea, which was followed almost immediately by #2 eating itself up. Not sure who got #1 throttle to fly, but in following 30 seconds we managed to regain composure, shut down #2, restart our hearts and do single engine landing. No damage, except to #2 engine.
Hangs head in shame having joined club that I'd much rather not be a member of - S-55, front tank with 55 gallons, burns 45 gallons per hour, airborne 45 mintues, engine quits due to lack of fuel. Shameful part is twice in previous 10 minutes SSV (still, small voice) had said "switch fuel tanks", and I hadn't listened.
Minor damage to airframe, moderate damage to ego.
In all three cases, I was obviously not expecting an engine failure, and it did take me quite by surprise. Not sure that one second intervention time is a long as it needs to be.
Definitely not like the way we'd practiced in any case.
Downwind at about 1000ft after a stolen car in Oxford on a very windy day, big gust and the autorelights both came on...looked in to see both engines returning to normal indications.
(AS355F1!)
On NVG in bandit country at high power climbing away from a drop off when one engine froze...back to the mill and shut it down in the overhead. Was tempted to call ourselves a Whirlwind (i.e single engine Wessex) on the flight safety net.
On NVG in bandit country at high power climbing away from another drop off when the cockpit window came off in me hand guv, the wire trapping fingers against the armour plate (when the armour was in position, it was almost impossible to reach the window handle so the technique was to pull on the wire which had the same effect as using the handle - the pin would come out of the hole and the window could be closed). Brian took control and Mick L climbed out of the cabin to hold onto the door so that it wouldn't come off totally (prob taking some fingertips, blades, tail rotors etc with it). Short transit back to R850 and I got my hand back. My own fault for climbing in like a herd of elephants - must have dislodged the jetisson handle on the way in. Plonker.
(AS355F1!)On NVG in bandit country at high power climbing away from a drop off when one engine froze...back to the mill and shut it down in the overhead. Was tempted to call ourselves a Whirlwind (i.e single engine Wessex) on the flight safety net.
On NVG in bandit country at high power climbing away from another drop off when the cockpit window came off in me hand guv, the wire trapping fingers against the armour plate (when the armour was in position, it was almost impossible to reach the window handle so the technique was to pull on the wire which had the same effect as using the handle - the pin would come out of the hole and the window could be closed). Brian took control and Mick L climbed out of the cabin to hold onto the door so that it wouldn't come off totally (prob taking some fingertips, blades, tail rotors etc with it). Short transit back to R850 and I got my hand back. My own fault for climbing in like a herd of elephants - must have dislodged the jetisson handle on the way in. Plonker.
"Just a pilot"
B206L1, departing a rig with a load of "critters", when reduce power to cruise, engine surges, aircraft yaws, gauges dancing, the whole thing. I reduce power more, surge stops. Power back up to cruise, surge and yaw return. Landed atop nearest BIG quarters roof top pad. Roving maintenance works on it for 4 days, tightening fittings, replacing lines and various logical bits before they replace the starter-generator, which cures the engine surging...
Lost a generator in a B206B3, offshore, before Loran, much less GPS. Shed load, everything's working fine, hold a heading and a platform on the leg should appear out of the summer haze in couple minutes. No, it doesn't happen.
Ten minutes later, I recognize that I'm in a block 30+ degrees off my course line, and I "pilotage" home. What I didn't know is that losing the generator's current to the nose mounted battery changes the wet compass deviation, significantly.
I can remember a couple generator failures in an Astar, too, one of which was not alerted by the caution panel illuminating. At night, in an EMS bird, there's lots of power consumers, so it gets dark and quiet relatively quickly. In any case, by the time the voltage starts to drop, it's too late to save a useful amount of battery, sorta like waiting until the engine coughs to look for fuel.
Some starter/generator failures over the years, where the starter refused to drive. This is one event where a fit of temper might be useful, malletizing the starter sometimes re-seats the brushes, allowing a start and normal generator operation back to base. For the unfamiliar, "malletizing" means giving the offending device a whack, a satisfying process even when not efficacious.
Lost a generator in a B206B3, offshore, before Loran, much less GPS. Shed load, everything's working fine, hold a heading and a platform on the leg should appear out of the summer haze in couple minutes. No, it doesn't happen.
Ten minutes later, I recognize that I'm in a block 30+ degrees off my course line, and I "pilotage" home. What I didn't know is that losing the generator's current to the nose mounted battery changes the wet compass deviation, significantly.
I can remember a couple generator failures in an Astar, too, one of which was not alerted by the caution panel illuminating. At night, in an EMS bird, there's lots of power consumers, so it gets dark and quiet relatively quickly. In any case, by the time the voltage starts to drop, it's too late to save a useful amount of battery, sorta like waiting until the engine coughs to look for fuel.
Some starter/generator failures over the years, where the starter refused to drive. This is one event where a fit of temper might be useful, malletizing the starter sometimes re-seats the brushes, allowing a start and normal generator operation back to base. For the unfamiliar, "malletizing" means giving the offending device a whack, a satisfying process even when not efficacious.
Robinson's ain't too bad... my mag failure was in an R22 and...
...numerours MGB Chip lights, clutch lights, electrical failure, engine fire (lots and lots of smoke), carb icing and also it dumped all it's oil at 1000'...
apart from that, they ain't too bad!
...numerours MGB Chip lights, clutch lights, electrical failure, engine fire (lots and lots of smoke), carb icing and also it dumped all it's oil at 1000'...
apart from that, they ain't too bad!
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Truro
Posts: 128
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Super Puma, China. The engineers decided to remove the white plastic shroud that surrounds the rotor mast and sits just above the gearbox, due to a small crack. OK, you guys know what should be there and what isn't needed.
45 minutes later I was about 60 miles south of Kai Tak when my main gearbox pressure started to twitch then oscillate. The rig was about 25 miles away when the main pressure fell to zero, the standby pressure was firm. Until that started oscillating and then fell to zero with about 8 miles to run. We landed on the rig (South Sea Driller) and discovered that the aircraft was really shiny, very smart. 
The shroud which was so dispensable by common agreement of the engineers, prevents the main gearbox oil from being syphoned up the outer part of the mast. That cost them one or three Carlsbergs.
The other pilot was Chinese, he could not speak English, so we had an interpreter sitting in the jump seat, standard practice over there at that period. His main contribution to this event was to point at the guage and say "Ohhhhhhhhhh!"
45 minutes later I was about 60 miles south of Kai Tak when my main gearbox pressure started to twitch then oscillate. The rig was about 25 miles away when the main pressure fell to zero, the standby pressure was firm. Until that started oscillating and then fell to zero with about 8 miles to run
. We landed on the rig (South Sea Driller) and discovered that the aircraft was really shiny, very smart. The shroud which was so dispensable by common agreement of the engineers, prevents the main gearbox oil from being syphoned up the outer part of the mast. That cost them one or three Carlsbergs.
The other pilot was Chinese, he could not speak English, so we had an interpreter sitting in the jump seat, standard practice over there at that period. His main contribution to this event was to point at the guage and say "Ohhhhhhhhhh!"
In no particular order:-
Jet Provost - undercarriage collapse despite 3 greens and a greased landing.
Hunter - engine compressor creep causing horrible rubbing noise. IMC glide landing from about 30,000ft. (just a concerned pax on this one!)
Gazelle - 1. fcu failure in hover 2. fenestron stall causing about 15 rotations and 4 sets of brown trousers from my pax and me.
Wessex - 1. 2x Engine Freezes / 2x Engine Runaway ups / 1 x Divergent engine oscillations 2. Hydraulic failure.
Puma - 1. Engine oil pressure failure IMC 500ft over Irish Sea. Very long single engine transit into wind to Valley where we had an intercom failure on short finals 2. Starter motor fire. 3. Hydraulic failure 4. Main gearbox oil pressure failure due to a bag of silica gel being left in the gearbox after maintenance - the silica particles blocked the filter and pump. 5. Main gear box cowling detached on take of and struck 3 of the 4 main rotor blades (I learned about trusting students to do walk rounds!)
AB205 - 1. Engine failure at 200ft in climb in mountains (parked it on it's side and the hydraulics caught fire) Turns out the previous pilot had hot started it and not told anyone! 2. Compressor stall on finals to mountain LS at about 9500 ft - FCU out of adjustment.
B212 - Engine oil pressure failure at night about 100 miles into the desert.
A109 - 1. Engine failure IMC without autopilot - shaft between compressor and turbine failed so the indications weren't 'classic'. God has a way of telling you when you are being stupid! 2. Several eng chips 3. Several gearbox chips
AS350 - 1. Spurious engine fire warning. 2. TGB Chips
EC120 - Zip!
Rotorway Exec - 1. Engine failure on climb out at 150ft (Exhaust valve seized). 2. Secondary FADEC failure causing power loss and indications of total engine failure - however it was still running and capable of producing a bit of power. 3. Engine failure in hover taxi - another seized exhaust valve. 4. Tail rotor failure in the hover. 5. Engine power loss during recovery from auto - parked it on its side. 6. Engine oil leak from rocker cover - smelled hot oil shortly after take-off so quick circuit to land. about a pint of oil left after touchdown. 7. Fan belt failure causing hot oil / water and almost total water loss. 8. Several minor snags.
H269 - Zip!
R22 - Zip! (Except for some student-induced brown trouser moments!)
R44 - Zip!
Estrom 480 - 1. Drive bearing hot - bearing knackered 2. Eng chips.
God I love my job!
JJ
Jet Provost - undercarriage collapse despite 3 greens and a greased landing.
Hunter - engine compressor creep causing horrible rubbing noise. IMC glide landing from about 30,000ft. (just a concerned pax on this one!)
Gazelle - 1. fcu failure in hover 2. fenestron stall causing about 15 rotations and 4 sets of brown trousers from my pax and me.
Wessex - 1. 2x Engine Freezes / 2x Engine Runaway ups / 1 x Divergent engine oscillations 2. Hydraulic failure.
Puma - 1. Engine oil pressure failure IMC 500ft over Irish Sea. Very long single engine transit into wind to Valley where we had an intercom failure on short finals 2. Starter motor fire. 3. Hydraulic failure 4. Main gearbox oil pressure failure due to a bag of silica gel being left in the gearbox after maintenance - the silica particles blocked the filter and pump. 5. Main gear box cowling detached on take of and struck 3 of the 4 main rotor blades (I learned about trusting students to do walk rounds!)
AB205 - 1. Engine failure at 200ft in climb in mountains (parked it on it's side and the hydraulics caught fire) Turns out the previous pilot had hot started it and not told anyone! 2. Compressor stall on finals to mountain LS at about 9500 ft - FCU out of adjustment.
B212 - Engine oil pressure failure at night about 100 miles into the desert.
A109 - 1. Engine failure IMC without autopilot - shaft between compressor and turbine failed so the indications weren't 'classic'. God has a way of telling you when you are being stupid! 2. Several eng chips 3. Several gearbox chips
AS350 - 1. Spurious engine fire warning. 2. TGB Chips
EC120 - Zip!
Rotorway Exec - 1. Engine failure on climb out at 150ft (Exhaust valve seized). 2. Secondary FADEC failure causing power loss and indications of total engine failure - however it was still running and capable of producing a bit of power. 3. Engine failure in hover taxi - another seized exhaust valve. 4. Tail rotor failure in the hover. 5. Engine power loss during recovery from auto - parked it on its side. 6. Engine oil leak from rocker cover - smelled hot oil shortly after take-off so quick circuit to land. about a pint of oil left after touchdown. 7. Fan belt failure causing hot oil / water and almost total water loss. 8. Several minor snags.
H269 - Zip!
R22 - Zip! (Except for some student-induced brown trouser moments!)
R44 - Zip!
Estrom 480 - 1. Drive bearing hot - bearing knackered 2. Eng chips.
God I love my job!
JJ
Avoid imitations
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
Posts: 14,576
Received 431 Likes
on
227 Posts
I once broke a fingernail whilst opening the tech log.......
Plus a "few other things".
The most scary, in retrospect, was a blade spar failure on a metal bladed Puma HC1 during my OCU course, nearly 30 years ago.
We had a BIM (Blade Integrity Monitor) caption light up at 100ft agl during a low level Navex. I put out a PAN call and landed in a field, which just happened to have a phone box immediately adjacent to it. As the PAN call hadn't been replied to, I was told to stay in the pilots seat and keep the radio on, whilst my QHI and the student crewman went outside to check it out. The aircraft was renowned for false BIM warnings prior to "Plastic blades". The QHI and crewman returned after a short while, having looked at the blades and phoned the engineers at base for advice. The QHI said it was OK, just another false alarm, but we were going back to base. The QHI flew back.
As I got out of the aircraft, I was horrified to see a red BIM (u/s) on a main blade! It wasn't a false indication in the cockpit, it was real. I walked quickly in to the line office and asked WTF was going on!
Some days on, I was quietly taken to one side by the line chief and showed a section of the blade he had been given, to show the damage. There was less than third of the main spar left intact, the entire rear of the D section was gone, only the front edge remained.........
Another minute of flying time and I might not have been here.
I got a sincere and contrite private apology from the QHI.
Plus a "few other things".
The most scary, in retrospect, was a blade spar failure on a metal bladed Puma HC1 during my OCU course, nearly 30 years ago.
We had a BIM (Blade Integrity Monitor) caption light up at 100ft agl during a low level Navex. I put out a PAN call and landed in a field, which just happened to have a phone box immediately adjacent to it. As the PAN call hadn't been replied to, I was told to stay in the pilots seat and keep the radio on, whilst my QHI and the student crewman went outside to check it out. The aircraft was renowned for false BIM warnings prior to "Plastic blades". The QHI and crewman returned after a short while, having looked at the blades and phoned the engineers at base for advice. The QHI said it was OK, just another false alarm, but we were going back to base. The QHI flew back.
As I got out of the aircraft, I was horrified to see a red BIM (u/s) on a main blade! It wasn't a false indication in the cockpit, it was real. I walked quickly in to the line office and asked WTF was going on!
Some days on, I was quietly taken to one side by the line chief and showed a section of the blade he had been given, to show the damage. There was less than third of the main spar left intact, the entire rear of the D section was gone, only the front edge remained.........
Another minute of flying time and I might not have been here.
I got a sincere and contrite private apology from the QHI.
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Alderney or Lancashire UK
Posts: 570
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
1) Mag failure. Initial thought, Why wont this bloody thing hover?
2) brain failure moved mixture to full lean instead of full rich. Initial thought. Oh S**t. Felt slightly silly. Restarted it in flight. Wife not convinced by explanation it was a routine practice.
3) Tacho failure. made me look out of the window at least twice to check it was all still going round. More confusing than frightening.
4) Lost a Wellington boot - dont ask.
5) 6 inch blade delamination- didnt notice until I landed
5) everytime one flies an Enstrom some self tappers fall off. I use the trail to find my way home.
2) brain failure moved mixture to full lean instead of full rich. Initial thought. Oh S**t. Felt slightly silly. Restarted it in flight. Wife not convinced by explanation it was a routine practice.
3) Tacho failure. made me look out of the window at least twice to check it was all still going round. More confusing than frightening.
4) Lost a Wellington boot - dont ask.
5) 6 inch blade delamination- didnt notice until I landed
5) everytime one flies an Enstrom some self tappers fall off. I use the trail to find my way home.