Tourist attempts to pull on the rotor brake in flight.
 

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https://supercarblondie.com/tourist-...r-rotor-brake/

Well, t’was not a hot day and with the price she paid for the trip, I quite understand she would want to stop the fan as she is prone to catching colds in drafts… such an « air head »!!!

Monkey see, monkey do, lol.

,...but still, that does seem a rather stupid place to put the brake handle.

Also occurred in the EC130 HAA configuration, unruly patient.

At least it wasn't a medic :rolleyes:

Wonder why the pilot found it necessary to give it a push up? For whatever reason it certainly was the trigger for the pax to grab it.

Isn't the command seat in a helo the RH seat, it was when I flew them, and if so the rotor brake handle would have been infront of the pilot and not in front of the passenger.

Why has there been a shift to the LH seat for chopper captains?

Cheers,
BH.

Yeah, the drain plug and it’s position in your favourite helicopter type is much better….


It depends which type it is. Not “chopper Captains” in general. This is an EC130 (a variant of the AS350 type certificate) which is left hand drive due to its development as a slightseeing machine.
This model is a developed from the AS350 which is right hand drive but which some operators had their machines modified to be flown from the left due to passenger comfort.

The position of the fuel shut off and brake quadrant is mainly due to ibeing the same parts used in the 350, after it was moved from the floor, where it’s location has made a lot more unwanted outcomes.

The advantage of the Robbie drain plug is that it would just come apart if they tried to yank it inflight.
There are benefits when you build an aircraft from bubblegum and duct tape :E

In my experience, a clear instruction during pax briefing to not touch f-ing anything works quite well. Jokes aside, a proper pax briefing would explcitely demonstrate to pax (sitting on the front row) where to hold on to, if they feel the need to hold onto something.

Could it be that this is sometimes ommitted, in the rush and repetitiveness of sightseeing operations?

It looks like the pax did it before, was told and didn't listen/remember/obey. That's probably why it was filmed and why the pilot sounds very cross.

At least the Robby drain plug doesn't look like an "oh ****" handle a passenger would want to grab.

Maybe it was filmed as “stunt” by the pax’s friends to be posted on their preferred social media platform. It’s amazing the lengths these so called “influencers” will go to to get a few hits……. Wouldn’t be the first one to die doing something stupid.

His tone gave me the impression that was not the first time they had touched the lever or had been misbehaving . I could be reading too much into it but it sounded like he had had enough.
Him pushing up the handle might be the giveaway.

The pillot HAD to give a severe warning. but "that would kill us"?
I doubt that, in cruise flight you would loose any RRPM by pulling the brake lever with one hand,

1. The power margin is enough to destroy the brake unit.
2. You would have to pull it all the way aft and keep it there with conviction

The red lever next too it is <Fuel shut off>, that would make a more entertaining story.

With regard to passengers touching things they shouldn’t, from past experience it’s a case of even if you think you’ve made something idiot proof, along comes a better class of idiot.

I was once tasked to fly a small party of civic officials, including the local mayor, in an RAF Gazelle. As part of the safety brief I told them not to touch anything, in particular not any door handles, to stay seated after landing until I had shut the aircraft down and opened the doors from the outside. Upon landing, before I’d stopped the rotors, the mayor pulled the rear door jettison handle, which worked as advertised. The passengers then got into their car and departed, leaving me with a broken aircraft in a field. The mayor didn’t even apologise, he simply pointed to the door lying alongside the skid. This was well before the days of mobile phones so it was a case of either refitting the door myself or staying there until overdue action was taken and someone came to look for me, whereupon they would have to go back and fetch an engineer to come and fix it. I took the first option.

What a ridiculous comment.

Will leave it at that for now.

Are you sure? This has a centre pillar in the windscreen.

Positive
The 130 has a center window, and what you see is the post between the pilot side and the center window.

Not sure what is ridiculous about the statement, a Scout started up with the rotor brake on and went to flight RPM, much smoke ensued and a shut down made, could have taken off as it had the power available. I wonder how a S-76 would fare running at idle with the rotor brake on (legal to do) and then throttle pushed up to fly, how much TQ can the brake hold?

Commentary by John Dixon would be useful.