hi VF
here and there they mentionned that the tail boom "was hit by" or "hit" an object on the ground.

which is not exactly the same as an hard landing. no?

anyhow fly safe up there!

Mad Dogs &
 

Hey Pali........the never ending deaths on Sagarmatha. Sad to hear of Slovak's demise. The Mountain wins again. May Slovak Rest in Peace
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Evening Groquik.......Hmmm interesting??? I can tell You from first hand; with the crease & crumbling around 2/3's of the tail-boom there was no impact to the boom just a bloody heavy landing. Claimed cause was from a downdraught just on arrival at EBCH. After inspection the Pilot elected to fly the machine to Lukla :=:yuk::=
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/...3/IMG_3681.jpg

Good god! :ooh:

There are a surprising number out there, who have no fear or imagination

As the weight was low and the flight downhill, maybe it was a reasonable gamble.
I don't know what pressures the pilot/operator was under.
In any case a tribute to the resilience of these machines, they even work when busted.

Hey whoknowsidont.....exactly :ooh:
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Morning 500e............not me :hmm:
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Hi etudiant..........doubt anyone is under that sort of pressure :confused: yep damn tough, nearly as tough as a Bell ;)
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/...G_3690%201.jpg

Reasonable game? To take off with the tailboom's structural integrity so severely compromised? Your line of thinking just boggles my mind. :confused:
The only pressure that could justify that take-off in my book would be something like a rapidly approaching tsunami or pyroclastic flow with no other possible means of evacuation.
No wonder the insurance premiums are as high as they are... :*

No argument that this was very risky, but think tail boom is pretty overengineered just for manufacturing convenience. If the pilot was not able to pay for a repair at altitude, he may have felt compelled to chance the flight. With passengers, he'd be criminally liable, but by himself, he's rolling the dice.
Hope he made it alright and is back in the air.

"rolling the dice" no I think he would have been spinning all the prayer wheels down the valley and hoping!

I'd rather think, the motivation came from the perspective of spending one or weather related even more nights on the mountain camp in a freezing tent....

looking through this thread brought back some memories!I spent 7 weeks trekking in the solo khumbu in 1995,towards the end of the trip we were in the gokyo valley when it started to snow,after a day or so the snow must have been 5 feet deep,the next village down from us was wiped out by an avalanche-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_India_cyclone-there was no way out for us as it was too dangerous due to further avalanche risk,after a few days a helicopter came to check out the situation and they day after they started airlifting us all out.there must have been 150 locals and tourists so it took several days.It was interesting to see how different people react to situations like that,there was no real danger to our village and there were plenty of supplies available,a kiwi guy organised everyone by number so you had a decent idea of when your evacution on the helicopter was,families,sick first etc but the number of panicked people that ignored this and forced there way onto the first helicopters was surprising.

Hey there whoknows idont, etudiant, SRFred & Flying Bull....as I understand it; (not being an Engineer nor Designer) once the boom has lost it's shape the strength is gone? Only for the risk of being swallowed up in an Avalanche, Land slide or an massive Earthquake would I have picked up a Bird with such damage....miracle it came back with all the Fling bits & boom still attached :eek: hmmmmmm := :yuk: :=
Happy landings :ok:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/...G_3695%202.jpg

Well, it is surprising, what a bird can take sometimes...
i.e. https://de.slideshare.net/1st_TSG_Ai...-kiowa-warrior
but on the other hand, to get such a dent in the tailboom means, that it had a considerable movement towards the earth - while the drive shaft for the tail rotor on top of the boom must have experienced a stretching force.
Without checking every flexiable coupling and the correct allignement of the shaft it is quite risky to fly such a bird....
About the dent - just yesterday I saw the last or one of the last episodes of the Mythbusters.
They tried to crunch a tanker train car by heating the inside - closing it up and cooling it down.
It worked nice with cans and fuelbarrels, which they used for miniature testing.
With the real thing - they couldn´t get it to crumble ...
Then they droped a weight on the tanker train to get a dent into it.
After that.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9bpUfWy8Wg
That in mind, it was a gamble of russian roulette - this time with an empty chamber while pulling the trigger.....

Peace, Love & Vegetables
 

Hey Flying Bull......Yip them thar Bell's are Tonka tough :ok: but sure as sheet I wouldn't be flying them, in that condition :ouch:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/...3062011198.jpg
Wanna bitta Hooch then? :O Naaar she'll be right :=

Weather to bug out, or whether not
 

Hoy there deedledeedle....Yip, it's a wild & crazy place here, no doubt :mad: Hope to see You back here one day for a Vesper pizza ;)

https://aviation-safety.net/database...?id=20170527-0

Goma Air crash: Co-pilot succumbs to injury (Update) - National - The Kathmandu Post

For Fvk sake...don't push weather beyond Your skill level, or machine limits :{

& again.........Rest in Peace
 

Yip Mountain Workx
 

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/...G_3716%201.jpg
Namche Bazaar lower Helipad :cool:

VF, love your pics! Does the 206 have the standard Bendix FCU? Whats it start like at those heights?
Thanks!