How not to take off in your Robinson!!

[nomorehelosforme]

Came across this today, clearly it wasn't the pilots day.

https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=9e6C9_1592379852

[homonculus]

a helicopter failed to take off and fell into the water three weeks after flicking its tail in mid-air

Pulitzer prize to the journo who penned this....

[Fareastdriver]

Looks like he tried to do a splash & go.

[Hilico]

It felt a bit like less than three weeks between flicking its tail in the air and the impact.

[212man]

Originally Posted by homonculus

Pulitzer prize to the journo who penned this....

I doubt it was a journalist and almost certainly auto-translated from Chinese!

[Bell_ringer]

I think that can go down as 4 take-offs and landings in the logbook

[TheReverend]

Originally Posted by nomorehelosforme

Came across this today, clearly it wasn't the pilots day.

Link deleted

BEWARE, clicking that link brought up a rather unusual image that had to be closed before the Robinson footage could be viewed.

[Robbiee]

Soooo, I'm guessing a slippery surface and slow on the pedals?

,...well at least it wasn't a 22! :-)

[evil7]

Maybe he forgot that he sold his Clipper last week

[Two's in]

I've often wondered what would happen if you just yanked the collective without touching the pedals or the cyclic - mystery solved.

[Rotorbody]

In all fairness, the aircraft did it's best to fly away from the water. However, the person operating the controls must have had other intentions... Wonder if the water was cold!

[Teddy Robinson]

I saw similar behaviour with an R22 at rather close quarters some years ago (dramatic enough for me to dive for cover)
From recollection the incident was something to do with a gust lock or control friction setting which caused a serious PIO as soon as the thing lifted.
Does this make sense ?

I don't fly these machines, but I'm sure that plenty on this forum do and can comment further.

[Mutley1013]

To be fair, I don’t think it is how to take off in any helicopter.

[kansarasc]

All the humor aside, can someone please elaborate on takeoff technique and hazards from slippery surface like ice? I do not remember reading this in Helo Flying handbook. But one of my instructor mentioned one time to me.

[aa777888]

Originally Posted by kansarasc

All the humor aside, can someone please elaborate on takeoff technique and hazards from slippery surface like ice? I do not remember reading this in Helo Flying handbook. But one of my instructor mentioned one time to me.

Not sure how that is relevant to the sh*t show referred to by the original post, and this question may be worthy of its own thread, but: when operating from a slippery surface (which is not always ice, some ramps can be incredibly oily and slick), probably the biggest issue is transitioning the main rotor between fight RPM and ground idle RPM (both directions, speeding up or slowing down). Obviously this must be done gently and slowly while working the pedals appropriately to prevent the ship from spinning right around on you. In Robinson helicopters, under slippery conditions I've been trained to turn off the governor and manually control rotor RPM until safely up to flying speed, then turn the governor back on. I operate onto and off of glare ice often in the winter and this works quite well, and of course it works under less slick conditions also. Even if you don't think the conditions are slick always be ready to put some power pedal in when coming up out of ground idle rotor RPM.

[kansarasc]

Not sure if this question is relevant to sh*t show displayed here but I asked because Robbiee mentioned slippery surface TO
Governor off during lift off from slick surface is interesting. I will discuss that with my instructor

[meleagertoo]

Spraying bugs with helicopters? Whaat?

I wonder what sort of nozzle you'd need to spray helicopters. Some kind of rotary atomiser? It seems an extraordinarily complexand costly way of getting rid of bugs. Why not use an insecticide?

[212man]

I wonder if there was a C of G issue with the insecticide tank? It seems to just tip backwards and stick the TR in the water, which no doubt results in loss of TR drive and the subsequent gyrations.

[Bell_ringer]

Can piston engines develop sufficient torque to make rpm transitions (usually spinning up not down) tricky?
would think a normally aspirated engine would have all the torque of a wet noodle thrown at a wall.

[aa777888]

Originally Posted by kansarasc

Not sure if this question is relevant to sh*t show displayed here but I asked because Robbiee mentioned slippery surface TO
Governor off during lift off from slick surface is interesting. I will discuss that with my instructor

In case I wasn't clear enough in my post above, the governor is turned back on prior to pickup. It is only turned off so that the throttle can be opened more slowly above 80%. Once you achieve full RPM you turn the governor back on, then go flying. Upon landing, you can leave the governor on as roll-off overrides the governor, of course.