Norways first AW101 on its side
 

Norway received it's first AW101 last Friday. Now it's laying on it's side on the Apron in front of the hanger. Do not know the circumstances.

Flipped over during ground testing with the rotor running. D'oh...

Please could someone from Norway translate this paragraph from the news article link into English.

– Helikopteret veltet mens det hadde rotor og motor i gang, og drev det vi kaller bakkekjøring. Rotorbladene har tatt nedi bakken ved velten, sier Stordal.

thanks,

Wil.

"The helicopter flipped over while the engine and rotor were running, and it was performing what we call ground driving. The rotor blades have touched the ground during the incident, says Stordal"

Thanks, "ground driving" is what I would call "ground running" I suppose. Google made a strange translation and called it "back driving" which confused me.

Wil.

Yes, kjøring usually means driving, but could mean running (engines) as well, so I guess they might have been just running the engines while being stationary. Not sure if it was moving on the tarmac or not.

Ouch!

Fortunately only pride seems to have been hurt! Looks expensive though.

Carefully lift it back onto its landing gear and then send it back to Leonardo, they will repair it good as new. They have done similar before (Merlin Mk.3 ZJ133 which fell over in the desert at El Centro in the USA).

Wil.

Boss, you're not going to believe this but....

A three point landing.

Nice bit of design that they aligned the three points of contact three-dimensionally for the beast to land on.

They think of everything when they design these things!

OK, so it also landed on its main rotor, but a boffin can't be expected to think of everything.

No !!!!, Sherlock!

Uuuups!
 

I was thinking of starting a new positive thread here , the other day,about the new Norwegian SAR Helicopter arriving. And its progress!
Was looking forward to some positive news in the Fling Wing department for a change.

Good thing no casualty's, except my national pride and tax money.
Both of which we have plenty off......!

Standing by for a debrief!
( Someone is paying for a long "Wet Brief", good thing its weekend!)
Good luck to all!
Cpt B

And the Nigerians more recently did the same thing. Lot of power in those BERP rotor blades!

According to an Airforce spokesman: " The personnel doing the testing was two experienced pilots.Performing a test program.
Also Stavanger Aftenblad reports Hovedredningssentralen was informed of the incident.( Havari)
Something I suppose they promptly acted on as soon as the awful racket next door stopped! ( SAR HQ Norway, Main Rescue Central, Hovedredningssentralen, HS, is located across from the RNoAF 330 Squad at Sola , SVG).

From his wording it is unclear to me if it was Norwegian officers or factory test pilots behind the wheel!
I am sure they take euros or sterling in the officer mess if the latter.

Memories of the Aberdeen taxying Tiger ?

NEO

Probably a translation from Aftenbladet newspaper.

Actually I believe a "Flygere" could also be construed as Airman or Aircrew. It is common in Norway for mechanics to do ground run on helicopters since pilots are rather expensive to call out there for startups. Ground resonance is a possibility then.

Any native Norwegian speaker care to comment?

I don't know this aircraft, but I'll ask those who do: might this be as simple as the nose wheel not being locked, or in a fore and aft alignment, and the torque being applied a bit too rapidly? If not, sorry for the question out of ignorance.

Such a shame.
I was really very pleased to note that Norway had selected a proven airframe from a European manufacturer for its long-term SAR programme.
Pedro