Christchurch wedding day helicopter crash
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: australia
Age: 60
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It was a photo job. It seems there were 4 POB. One could speculate. Low height. Low speed. Reasonably heavy. Turn out of the wind. An oopsie moment. Before you know it high sink rate, loss of directional control, splatter. Often the way with photo job accidents. Or maybe the engine suddenly stopped at a really bad place on the H/V diagram, the end result is the same.
Last edited by rottenjohn; 16th Jun 2021 at 11:13.
@Rottenjohn, Gullibell wrote "one could speculate".
Speculate: -> form a theory or conjecture about a subject without firm evidence
That's exactly what he did and have to agree, VR is a possible cause and you don't even have to be heavy for that.......
Speculate: -> form a theory or conjecture about a subject without firm evidence
That's exactly what he did and have to agree, VR is a possible cause and you don't even have to be heavy for that.......
My speculation speculates one of four possibilities, in order of likelihood.
1. An oopsie moment during a photo shoot at low level (don't always believe initial passenger reports about anything);
2. A sudden engine failure at a bad spot in the H/V profile.
3. A sudden engine failure outside the H/V which the pilot messed up the auto-rotation and splattered it.
4. Something else.
I haven’t been able to fly actively for a while, so haven’t cracked open my R22 RFM recently, but I do recall a safety notice issued by Robinson regarding the risk of photo flights, a mission that might be considered by too many as simple to carry off.
Confirm her brother e86, 817.
,...but if there's one thing Robby's do, its separate those who study from those who just cram the night before the test.
VR is a possible cause and you don't even have to be heavy for that.......
The area is low density altitude, as cold and low as you could hope for. Even a 4-up Robbie is not short of grunt on a short trip.
Agreed, and even more so that national AIBs are so quick to propose it in reports involving larger modern generation aircraft
1. An oopsie moment during a photo shoot at low level
What's so dangerous about that?
Nothing. Except all of them ended up in hospital with serious spinal and other injuries. However so it happened, it is fortunate they all survived. Knowing a little bit how these things can unravel, I wouldn't be surprised if operational aspects are involved, more than just a sudden engine failure.
CM - I got your PM but your inbox is full I think
Why on earth would you even post that? Armchair expert probably with no knowledge of what happened. Be interesting to know if you have actually any idea of the circumstances. You claim reasonably “heavy”. Did someone tell you that? Along with all your theories, your speculation and trying to sound knowledgeable makes you look like a prize dick.
That the aircraft ended up in the state it did due to mismanagement is quite a reasonable thing to speculate. Plenty of R44 accidents follow a wearisome pattern of running out of power or overpitching whilst doing something - like a wedding job or a photo job - which involved lots of traps for the unwary. And it is very easy to run out of power 4 up in an R44 if you start making steep approaches/downwind approaches/low airspeed approaches. Plenty of the time folk fly them 2 up and have oodles of power in reserve. Then they add a pax or two and a few items in the seats and more than half a tank of fuel and.. hey presto: accident waiting to happen.
I’d bet the farm on user error.
Confirm her brother e86, 817.
How it can happen, starts at 00:47
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhtNm1IGwQc
How it can happen, starts at 00:47
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhtNm1IGwQc
But the escape maneuver from my standpoint is "land", back of Walmart parking lot if you need or anywhere flat.
will get you in trouble a little bit, but everything will be forgiven when come to understand that you are still alive.