Bell 204B VH-EQW ditching at Tarome Australia 20 Sep 2023

[helispotter]

As no new thread appeared following this Bell 204B accident at Tarome in Australia earlier in the week, I decided to create one now that the identity of the helicopter has been indicated on the ATSB website (https://www.atsb.gov.au/publications...rt/ao-2023-044). Here are a pair of the early news reports on the incident:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-...qfes/102880658

https://7news.com.au/news/gold-coast...im--c-11960951

It sounds like pilot Grant Schultz was lucky to have escaped the accident with only a few scratches even though he had previously completed HUET. Here are a pair of items with the pilot's report of his escape from the helicopter after it ditched and sank in a farm dam while refilling its bucket to fight a bushfire at Tregony in Queensland:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-...-rim/102885712

You Tube

[Bellicose]

The ABC report is interesting for the way in which it turns a helicopter accident into a another scare about climate change/ global warning.
How I long for the days when media organisations used to report facts instead of prophesying the end of the world.

[Copter Appreciator00]

Keep the 204s safe

I dont know how many of the Bell 204 copters are remaining, I am aware that some place in Australia uses one for loading and firefighting, BELL 204 - McDermott Aviation
There was a UH-1B/204 that crashed, CFIT in the Southeast US a year or two ago, i think the pilots were hot-dogging and carelessly crashed. They're getting fewer in number (not like the plentiful 205s and 212s), hopefully these early-build 60-year old Hueys will get museumed or made into static displays before the last one gets wrecked.

[megan]

hopefully these early-build 60-year old Hueys will get museumed or made into static displays before the last one gets wrecked.

We've still got one in a Oz museum that flies on occasion, one I learnt my trade on. We had a sister ship have a governor roll back while hovering over the ocean 1970, rebuilt but had corrosion problems with the honey comb later, served for another 18 years nevertheless, sits now on a pole in the city.

You Tube

[KiwiNedNZ]

Few 204s here in NZ. Alan Beck has about three of them I think.

[RVDT]

Of the 200 Bell 204B's (not to be confused with a UH-1 which is a different animal) that were made maybe 25 can be accounted for and most in Canada or Australia?

[megan]

Of the 200 Bell 204B's (not to be confused with a UH-1 which is a different animal)

This is the data plate from one of our military UH-1B, note the 204 model designation, not sure what you mean by "different animal".

[Blackhawk9]

Originally Posted by megan

This is the data plate from one of our military UH-1B, note the 204 model designation, not sure what you mean by "different animal".

Interesting , all the ID plates I've seen for Mil Helo's have the Mil designator in the Customers model location, like these UH-1F, UH-1E and UH-1H's

[Ascend Charlie]

Maybe the "different animal" post was confused because the UH-1H is certainly different from the B205.

[SASless]

Which model of 205 and which version of the UH-1H?

What are the differences?

[megan]

the UH-1H is certainly different from the B205

Blackhawk's posting shows the data plate stating both 205 and UH-1H, having flown both the only noticeable differences were avionics, battery placement, luggage in tail boom, oh, and guns.

[Ascend Charlie]

Interesting, the 205 I flew in the mid 80s had dual hydraulics and a flip-flop tail rotor.

[megan]

Hi AC, no idea what a flip flop tail rotor is but dual hydraulics was an available option.

[Ascend Charlie]

Flip-flop was the tail rotor flipped over to the other side of the boom so it was rotating upwards into the downwash instead of downwards with the flow like a Huey.

[megan]

The tail rotor change was something that some operators took up when it became available.

[Bellicose]

I don't think it was an in service option: with the control cables and chain running up different sides of the fin?

[megan]

One organisation I worked for had the second 205A built, it had been upgraded to -1 standard with the tail rotor swap, perhaps to have commonality with our 212 and -1 that were above the 39 serial number.

[Ascend Charlie]

One organisation I worked for had the second 205A built,

I'll see your Second and raise you with a First - I flew the first B412, serial number 1, up on Horny Island. Sadly it has gone to the junkyard in the sky since then.

Sorry, thread drift.

[Salusa]

I'm presuming Bell would and have pulled a 204 off the production line and allocated it to the military.

Many years ago the outfit I was with at the time found a low time project AB212 with Agusta Serial Plate.

After some research we discovered that it was an original Bell machine pulled off the production line and allocated to Agusta you supplied it to a paramilitary outfit with thier own Serial Plate.

After some negotiation and inspections Bell reissued the Bell Data plate. Really the only proviso was that everything had to be original Bell not Agusta.

Apart from one lower panel which was Helicomb was all good.

Very low hour machine.

[megan]

I don't think it was an in service option: with the control cables and chain running up different sides of the fin

Hi Belli, just for interest I looked up the serials of the four 205's we had, three 205A modded to -1 standard (serials 2, 5, 34) and a -1 serial 81. When modded no idea but before I joined in 1977.

I'm presuming Bell would and have pulled a 204 off the production line and allocated it to the military

It comes from one of a bulk buy (31) by the Air Force and Navy, presumably they all have identical plates, you can see the plate carries a USA military serial which is usual for supply to an overseas military.