Fukushima Prefecture AW139 crash land, no immediatefatalities
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On that prang they didn't lower the collective on touchdown and the aircraft briefly got airborne again. When the aircraft touched down the 2nd time it rocked forward and in doing so the MRB chopped the tail boom. Two years later they sunk it properly off Sydney heads after an engine failure.
Search and Rescue : not on this occasion.
Geez, Gullibell, were you there??? Bet you wasn't.
I was.
We were required by CA$A to do touchdown autos at night to an unlit pad, in order to be allowed to fly below LSALT at night in a single. Everybody was required to do the night checks every 3 months, and one pilot (who sadly is no longer with us) had been ducking and weaving that roster. I surprised him one night and away we went. I demo'd the first one so he could get his eye in.
On his first auto I put on the power and we went around from final, as he hadn't made the "gate" of 100', 60kt and stable approach. On the second one, all looked good, the flare, the pitch pull and nose over to level, waiting to cushion on, but the ground was 6" higher than we expected. Bounce. I took over, tried to ensure level and cushion on, but it bounced again. Never seen that before, we were out of collective and just along for the ride.
Thump onto the ground, sitting a little closer to the grass than normal. Obviously we had spread the skids, and probably rocked the transmission out of limits. Shut it down, advised the tower we would be there for a while to inspect it, stepped out and looked back.
"Oh, pharque!"
The other pilot steps out and looks back. "Ohhh, pharque!" The observer in the back clambers out. "Awwww, pharque!"
The Follow Me jeep comes trundling along a taxiway, and as he turns towards our spot, the headlights play over the machine. He screeches to a stop. "Ohh, Pharque!" and on it went.
I have still got the tail rotor blade, which had dug into the ground next to the stinger, on a wooden plaque on my wall. Yes it did go for a swim a few years later, with a different tail boom.
Geez, Gullibell, were you there??? Bet you wasn't.
I was.
We were required by CA$A to do touchdown autos at night to an unlit pad, in order to be allowed to fly below LSALT at night in a single. Everybody was required to do the night checks every 3 months, and one pilot (who sadly is no longer with us) had been ducking and weaving that roster. I surprised him one night and away we went. I demo'd the first one so he could get his eye in.
On his first auto I put on the power and we went around from final, as he hadn't made the "gate" of 100', 60kt and stable approach. On the second one, all looked good, the flare, the pitch pull and nose over to level, waiting to cushion on, but the ground was 6" higher than we expected. Bounce. I took over, tried to ensure level and cushion on, but it bounced again. Never seen that before, we were out of collective and just along for the ride.
Thump onto the ground, sitting a little closer to the grass than normal. Obviously we had spread the skids, and probably rocked the transmission out of limits. Shut it down, advised the tower we would be there for a while to inspect it, stepped out and looked back.
"Oh, pharque!"
The other pilot steps out and looks back. "Ohhh, pharque!" The observer in the back clambers out. "Awwww, pharque!"
The Follow Me jeep comes trundling along a taxiway, and as he turns towards our spot, the headlights play over the machine. He screeches to a stop. "Ohh, Pharque!" and on it went.
I have still got the tail rotor blade, which had dug into the ground next to the stinger, on a wooden plaque on my wall. Yes it did go for a swim a few years later, with a different tail boom.
AC.....now there is a for real "There I wuz" story!
Amazing how those sudden onsets of excessive gravity can affect helicopter flight dynamics!
Amazing how those sudden onsets of excessive gravity can affect helicopter flight dynamics!
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Search and Rescue : not on this occasion.
Geez, Gullibell, were you there??? Bet you wasn't.
I was.
We were required by CA$A to do touchdown autos at night to an unlit pad, in order to be allowed to fly below LSALT at night in a single. Everybody was required to do the night checks every 3 months, and one pilot (who sadly is no longer with us) had been ducking and weaving that roster. I surprised him one night and away we went. I demo'd the first one so he could get his eye in.
On his first auto I put on the power and we went around from final, as he hadn't made the "gate" of 100', 60kt and stable approach. On the second one, all looked good, the flare, the pitch pull and nose over to level, waiting to cushion on, but the ground was 6" higher than we expected. Bounce. I took over, tried to ensure level and cushion on, but it bounced again. Never seen that before, we were out of collective and just along for the ride.
Thump onto the ground, sitting a little closer to the grass than normal. Obviously we had spread the skids, and probably rocked the transmission out of limits. Shut it down, advised the tower we would be there for a while to inspect it, stepped out and looked back.
"Oh, pharque!"
The other pilot steps out and looks back. "Ohhh, pharque!" The observer in the back clambers out. "Awwww, pharque!"
The Follow Me jeep comes trundling along a taxiway, and as he turns towards our spot, the headlights play over the machine. He screeches to a stop. "Ohh, Pharque!" and on it went.
I have still got the tail rotor blade, which had dug into the ground next to the stinger, on a wooden plaque on my wall. Yes it did go for a swim a few years later, with a different tail boom.
Geez, Gullibell, were you there??? Bet you wasn't.
I was.
We were required by CA$A to do touchdown autos at night to an unlit pad, in order to be allowed to fly below LSALT at night in a single. Everybody was required to do the night checks every 3 months, and one pilot (who sadly is no longer with us) had been ducking and weaving that roster. I surprised him one night and away we went. I demo'd the first one so he could get his eye in.
On his first auto I put on the power and we went around from final, as he hadn't made the "gate" of 100', 60kt and stable approach. On the second one, all looked good, the flare, the pitch pull and nose over to level, waiting to cushion on, but the ground was 6" higher than we expected. Bounce. I took over, tried to ensure level and cushion on, but it bounced again. Never seen that before, we were out of collective and just along for the ride.
Thump onto the ground, sitting a little closer to the grass than normal. Obviously we had spread the skids, and probably rocked the transmission out of limits. Shut it down, advised the tower we would be there for a while to inspect it, stepped out and looked back.
"Oh, pharque!"
The other pilot steps out and looks back. "Ohhh, pharque!" The observer in the back clambers out. "Awwww, pharque!"
The Follow Me jeep comes trundling along a taxiway, and as he turns towards our spot, the headlights play over the machine. He screeches to a stop. "Ohh, Pharque!" and on it went.
I have still got the tail rotor blade, which had dug into the ground next to the stinger, on a wooden plaque on my wall. Yes it did go for a swim a few years later, with a different tail boom.
Avoid imitations
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Ah, EOLs.....Some years ago, in my QHI'ing days, I was programmed to fly a revision sortie with a student I'd not flown with before, just before his final handling test (and his award of RAF flying badge / "wings"). His training record had temporarily gone missing (!) so I spoke to his usual instructor who told me that he was very steady and competent but had occasionally had a bit of a "brain fart"......
He flew the full FHT profile as briefed to a very nice standard, low level nav to a confined area, circuits, quickstops, spot turns, sloping ground, emergency drills, etc - the lot. The final part of such a sortie was always an EOL, to a full touchdown. I briefed him to carry out a variable flare profile to the grass at Ternhill. He flew a mainly textbook EOL, i.e. "Flare, Check, Level" were all perfectly done. Unfortunately, when it got to the final "cushion" using collective, he inexplicably and rapidly applied full aft cyclic but didn't raise the collective at all! I took control very promptly and managed to gain a little altitude to clear the tail, whilst levelling again and then cushioned on with what little collective was left - it was a firm touchdown, but in the correct attitude. I shut down the rotors and went back to see if there was any damage (TBH I didn't think there would be any) because the Gazelle had been known to crease its tailboom after a very heavy landing. It was fine but looking further back I saw that the "frangible" tail fairing was a bit the worse for wear. I knew I couldn't have done that so I walked back up the field about 75 metres to see slight witness marks in the grass showing that it had just kissed the ground in a "three point" landing with the rear of the skids. Doh!
We did fly the aircraft home, after the engineers had come out fitted a new "frange" but obviously it was my fault.
The student passed his FHT (not with me) and later did very well - he went on to become the squadron commander of that same training outfit.
He flew the full FHT profile as briefed to a very nice standard, low level nav to a confined area, circuits, quickstops, spot turns, sloping ground, emergency drills, etc - the lot. The final part of such a sortie was always an EOL, to a full touchdown. I briefed him to carry out a variable flare profile to the grass at Ternhill. He flew a mainly textbook EOL, i.e. "Flare, Check, Level" were all perfectly done. Unfortunately, when it got to the final "cushion" using collective, he inexplicably and rapidly applied full aft cyclic but didn't raise the collective at all! I took control very promptly and managed to gain a little altitude to clear the tail, whilst levelling again and then cushioned on with what little collective was left - it was a firm touchdown, but in the correct attitude. I shut down the rotors and went back to see if there was any damage (TBH I didn't think there would be any) because the Gazelle had been known to crease its tailboom after a very heavy landing. It was fine but looking further back I saw that the "frangible" tail fairing was a bit the worse for wear. I knew I couldn't have done that so I walked back up the field about 75 metres to see slight witness marks in the grass showing that it had just kissed the ground in a "three point" landing with the rear of the skids. Doh!
We did fly the aircraft home, after the engineers had come out fitted a new "frange" but obviously it was my fault.
The student passed his FHT (not with me) and later did very well - he went on to become the squadron commander of that same training outfit.
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It still does not explained everything ??
Blades are very stiff on the 139. The all tail was chopped touching ground, I don't believe this idea of cutting the drive shaft in flight.
it is not a 206 or a Robinson.
It makes no sense and we need more info's and data to figure out what's happened.
Blades are very stiff on the 139. The all tail was chopped touching ground, I don't believe this idea of cutting the drive shaft in flight.
it is not a 206 or a Robinson.
It makes no sense and we need more info's and data to figure out what's happened.
I can imagine a scenario where the damaged section of the driveshaft cover was pressed downwards onto the shaft, a score line could easily be formed, such that the shaft broke cleanly across it. These driveshafts are lightweight by design and it wouldn't take much damage to cause it to shear.
I consider myself lucky to have escaped an inclined driveshaft failure on an S-76 when an inadequately secured part of the wiring harness contacted it (a maintenance error). As it happened, it involved the wiring to the TGB chip detector and that shorted out, putting on the chip warning light. I put out a Pan call and inside two minutes I was on the ground at the minor airfield I just happened to passing and talking to. Even by then, although the wiring wasn't heavy in weight, it had badly scored the shaft, which had to be scrapped.
I consider myself lucky to have escaped an inclined driveshaft failure on an S-76 when an inadequately secured part of the wiring harness contacted it (a maintenance error). As it happened, it involved the wiring to the TGB chip detector and that shorted out, putting on the chip warning light. I put out a Pan call and inside two minutes I was on the ground at the minor airfield I just happened to passing and talking to. Even by then, although the wiring wasn't heavy in weight, it had badly scored the shaft, which had to be scrapped.
FWIW: I recall several 212s in the GOM having cut TR DS. One was from a pair of pliers left under the shaft, other was from a coax rubbing on the shaft. Cut them till they failed. A lot of people also don't think a plastic tywrap can cut a SS hydraulic line--it can and very efficiently. Will be interesting to read the explanation for the "cut" on the forward end of the failed shafts.
Last edited by wrench1; 2nd Mar 2020 at 23:03. Reason: grammar
Avoid imitations
Join Date: Nov 2000
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An A109 (in Ireland if my memory’s correct) suffered a tail rotor driveshaft failure caused by nothing sharper than a cleaning rag.
To add to the 206 drift:
VH-PHX most often heard on the radio as "PARTILLIKS"
I longlined it out of the harbour with a 205 on to a barge. Being a heavy machine and completely waterlogged we could only get it 2/3rds of the way out of the water on to the beach so we could remove the seats and a whole bunch of other crap then slung it on to the barge just before it got too dark to see!!
It flew again as PHX until retired and sold and became SVW only to have a proper job done on it in the Blue Mountains while fire-fighting. Something about low fuel and only one boost pump operating anyone?
VH-PHX most often heard on the radio as "PARTILLIKS"
I longlined it out of the harbour with a 205 on to a barge. Being a heavy machine and completely waterlogged we could only get it 2/3rds of the way out of the water on to the beach so we could remove the seats and a whole bunch of other crap then slung it on to the barge just before it got too dark to see!!
It flew again as PHX until retired and sold and became SVW only to have a proper job done on it in the Blue Mountains while fire-fighting. Something about low fuel and only one boost pump operating anyone?
RVDT, you might be confusing it with PHW, which Chucky would call "Parteliski", much the same as Bananas would call his BHU as "Brartelform".
During my time flying Hueys in the US Army, we did EOL's day and night routinely.
Lots and lots of Day EOL's....literally hundreds of them.
Nights....not so many but lots.
We also practiced coping with Tail Rotor failures as well.
There was ample reason for ensuring a high level of proficiency in those skills.....as we were engaged in a War that guaranteed the need for such proficiency.
It paid off when it was needed and greatly reduced the casualty rate from such incidents.
In Peace Time....the cost/risk considerations skew the decision towards not doing as many and then only in very controlled circumstances.
Lots and lots of Day EOL's....literally hundreds of them.
Nights....not so many but lots.
We also practiced coping with Tail Rotor failures as well.
There was ample reason for ensuring a high level of proficiency in those skills.....as we were engaged in a War that guaranteed the need for such proficiency.
It paid off when it was needed and greatly reduced the casualty rate from such incidents.
In Peace Time....the cost/risk considerations skew the decision towards not doing as many and then only in very controlled circumstances.
