Washington State aircraft damaged during search and rescue
 

Yakima first responders assist with emergency helicopter landing | KIMA

They hit a rock with their UH-1

Quite a large one and with some force, looking at the damage incurred.

Word on the street is LTE. High commendations were made by other crews that observed it for the pilot for getting it back out without losing the ship.

Mike

Mt. Adams is 12,281 feet high. If they were anywhere near the top of it with that UH-1, it would be pretty easy to get into LTE or power settling. Were they trying to do a one skid/ toe in rescue at the time?

In the case of a heavy Huey above 6000', LTE stands for LACK of Tail Rotor Effectiveness.

Not sure what they were up to up there, but despite the fast fin and strakes the old "wrong direction, wrong side" tail rotor just didn't have enough it seems. Would be willing to bet 212 drivetrain will be requested when the aircraft goes in for repairs.

Mike

actually it is on the correct side, just turns in the wrong direction.

What Twin Huey means is that this machine needs the "flip-flop" modification, so the tail rotor goes onto the other side of the fin, which then lets it rotate up into the rotor downwash.

Hang on aren't we speaking about a 212 here? tractor vs pusher TR. don't think we want to go back to 204 daze.

They are talking about the old Helitrade (now Hillsboro) STC for the 212 hub and blades and going to a tractor tailrotor with 212 blades on the rh side. That may actually not be as effective as a ship with composite Huey blades, fast fin/strakes and Van Horn composite left side tail rotor blades. I'd like to see a fly-off of both styles during hot and high. Might surprise folks.

BTW, I hope they put the pallets under the stinger after the blades stopped turning. Yikes.

What I was referring to is that the "pusher" tail rotor is more effective than a tractor. The problem with the UH-1 T/R is that it rotates in the wrong direction. Bell's solution was to flip it to a tractor to get it rotating up into the M/R downwash without having to redesign the gearbox to change the rotation. The increase in efficiency by the rotation change out-weighed the decrease in efficiency by switching sides.
In mid-1970 an MWO came out for the AH-1G that flopped the T/R to a tractor, the difference in available left-pedal was noticeable. Later during the AH-1S (MOD) program the 212 tail rotor, 42 and 90 deg gearboxes and control system (all part of the AH-1J) was added to increase the efficiency of the tail rotor as part of the ICAM. Although I have no personal experience with it, I believe that this is the modification that is available for the 205 along with L-703 engine and modified transmission.

A pusher is better than a tractor, but the tractor on a H1/205/212 rotates up on the front (vs down in the front on the pusher) which adds more help than which side it's on from what I hear. The 212 drivetrain has bigger TR blades than the stock UH-1D/H and 205 blades. These are available for the UH-1 and 205 with a 212 drivetrain swap, which typically also includes the 212 MR blades paired with a -17 donk. I think they call it a 205A++. If they could have a pusher that rotates up in front, I think it'd be key - not sure this exists though.

The only TR enhancement this bird has (if I remember correctly from seeing it while in WA) is the fast fin and strakes. Northwest Helicopters built it I believe, as well as the WA DNR Hueys, which also have the wrong side/wrong direction tail rotors - but those crews attested to how much the fast fin and strake helped when BLR was first pushing the mod to the market. Before this, the stock fin and tail rotor meant they were routinely holding full left pedal and spinning out of dip spots up in the hills.

Never flew a Huey in the PNW, so this is all hearsay based on working Black Hawks up there. We ran out of tail rotor occasionally, but for completely different reasons!

Mike

Article and photo from the Yakima Herald:

NW Helicopters did not build the fast fin and strakes... BLR did. I habve a Huey with both the fast fin, strakes, the composite TR blades, and the dash 17. We have not switched the TR to the other side as of yet.

It is a beast.....

http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j3...ps7obamc9o.jpg

if you switch sides with the T/R do you go with the entire 212 tail rotor drive train?

Definitely. But NW Heli has a knack for building incredibly clean and very awesome Hueys with every option available... except the 212 drivetrain. Probably a testament to the fact that they have a graveyard of H1s that I assume they use for parts to build and/or support their fleet of completions, especially in the US.

Gordy, can you attest to the power of the stock UH-1 tail rotor setup with the BLR toys on a Huey? Never met anyone that said the stock UH-1 T/R was solid (without BLR) when flown commercially at high GW and DA.

Mike

Not mentioned in this thread is the 703 engine and Van Horn T/R blades that this helicopter has.

And yes we did wait for the rotors to stop before piling the pallets under the stinger.

It impacted snow not rocks. That would have ended differently.

It was a ride that I care to not repeat.

Glad you are here to tell the Tale!

Flying on the Mountains gets a bit tricky at times as they have a way of reminding us who is Boss....but perhaps that is why they are as magnificent as they are.

Care to provide us with the full story of what happened as we might all learn a lesson or two from your doing so.


For a bit of History about Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier and pilots landing on top of them.

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm...m&file_id=8469

The -17 engine is the commercial (type certificated) version of the -703 which is not type certificated. The differences are relatively minor and I believe a 703 can be made a -17 by complying with some service bulletins.
I have to say that in the US where we have public agencies flying restricted catagory or non-certificated Hueys hoisting the public, I am surprised that none of the civil operators have pushed the point that you cannot do any class D loads(non-jettison-able) unless you have a Catagory A Helicopter so why do public use agencies get to do that? The move to twin engine is an expensive one and near as I can tell cost is the ONLY reason to not be using twins for this type of work. An engine failure with people on the hook simply cannot end well unless all are very fortunate.