AS350 hitting a tree
 

Hello all,

just came across this preliminary accident report happened 10 days ago in Spain (link in Spanish):

9 de enero de 2018. Airbus Helicopters AS-350-B3, matrícula EC-JEA. Vall de Ruda (Lleida). REF. A-002/2018 - 2018 - Investigación - CIAIAC - Órganos Colegiados - Ministerio de Fomento

"After the pax where offloaded during heliskying the pilot descended down the valley, performed a high and low recon to a landing spot to identify obstacles. On landing the main rotor blades came in contact with some tree branches."

Blades were removed, tail number and logos taped up and recovered with a 212.

I fail to understand how one blade suffered damage on it's trailing edge and not all three on it's leading edge, how could this happen??

Any thoughts on this are greatly appreciated to understand it.

Luckily he didn't try fly it home like the Swiss 350 not too long ago...

If he came down on to the top of a tree it is possible or if some debris was thrown up by another blade.

Enough collective pitch applied when trying to avoid hitting the tree, its possible only the trailing edge hit the obstacle if the margin was small. So nearly missed the strike perhaps.

At first it just seemed odd... but it makes sense and could have been.

Thank you very much for the replies!

High power demand...high blade pitch angle....very slow rate of descent or something thrown up into the rotor path. Pretty interesting bit of damage for pine tree limbs I would say as my experience is they are pretty soft.

The rotor blades on the 350 are light weight rubbish like the gazelle. A hughes 500 has stronger blades.

HAHAHA!!!, funny, but uh....no.:ugh:

A unique operating technique used on the Gazelle was rather than determine the strength of the main rotor blades, we simply avoided the trees. Radical but popular.

Two's In - :ok::ok::ok::D

Hardly think so....I’ve seen the result of one clothcock peelot do a nose in to the side of a rocky slope only to hit the ground with 2 of three blades, Fvking frightening as he then proceeded to fly 20mins after that, back to base...3 blades replaced & inspections yada yada. Surprising how little the damage was :eek:

Thank's again for all the answers, it's always nice to hear from experiences from everybody else.

VF, that is exactly what happened with the swiss 350 I alluded to earlier. Only problem was he decided to head back down the mountain with pax on board and after getting down, with home in sight he levelled off from his descent, loading the disc and the blades failed thereafter. Wood cutting with helicopters is the least dangerous activity when compared to drone ingestion and ye' olde wires - cables & high tension.

Is it possible that the leading each made contact and bent the blade rearward causing over-stress fractures in the trailing edge which led to further cracking and chunks flying off as he put it down?

No one in their right mind should fly once there's been any serious impact with a rotating blade :ugh:

315B sez - That would be this one then?

Operated in that area for a time. Learnt a lot about "swiss culture".

Interesting, if it's the same incident that VF & 315B are referring to then it wasn't the main rotor blades which failed, it was the tail rotor driveshaft output. It is not a very good failure analysis but from the evidence they do provide I assume the impact & resultant shock loads through the drive train over torqued the tail rotor driveshaft output.
Supports my opinion that the AS350 MR Blades are pretty tough, can't say the same for the rest of the drive train or cabin though.
Landing without hydraulics is not fun, landing without hydraulics or a tail rotor would definitely present a challenge.