dude this guy could have crashed he was very lucky to have made an emergency landing im about to fly helicopter my self I hope I never have to go thru a low rpm that shit is fuckin scarey
Ive come back to my video this week and didnt realise I had hundreds of comments to accept and I did for 99% of them. Aussies dont mind strong banter, a joke, some ridicule and fair play. What pi33ses me off are rude and offensive comments, or ones where you just happen to be the world's foremost expert on R44 helicopters, were there at the time and can say from a low res video exactly what went wrong and what should have been done! In Australia we would say 'Good on ya mate!!" If you are a world's expert on R44 choppers then you would have learned what you do from Tim Tucker. Tim has had this video days after it was shot. It is used extensively by Robinson in Torrence CA to show to pilots in their safety course. Some reading this will know that! I dont profess to know anything about choppers, but this is what the experts say to help you understand it better: 10 facts about this video.... 1. This was NOT an autorotation 2. This was not carb ice, or anything to do with the chopper mechanically. 3. The pilot made errors, the first being overriding the governor without realising it in turbulence. 4. These errors continued almost certainly by the pilot lifting the collective when it should have been lowered. 5. Regardless of mistakes made, the pilot made more correct decisions than incorrect ones (overall) and saved us all, even though yes it shouldn't have happened, there were good decisions made in context. 6. We are all exceptionally lucky to be alive. 7. This is not a video game 8. This video isnt fake 9. I didnt film the moon landing and 10. I dont work for the CIA... safe flying to all.... Stumpy
Very good response to all the haters. Glad you all came through OK and EVERYONE has learned something as a result - that, after all is the very best of outcomes.
then you are the man and your video just showed me what if the pilot forced the low rpm would have crashed but the pilot made a safe landing the helicopter is still in one piece nothing damage all safely to the ground no one hurt thank god
Thank you for posting this. It's wild to see RPM decay as developed and real-life as this! I admit, I was afraid the video was going to end in the trees for a second! Glad the crew is ok and safe. Also, tell Australia I'll see them soon ;) One of the places I must fly.
Manifold pressure spikes above what looks like 25/26" just as low RPM starts (over pulling collective beyond engine capability maybe). Interestingly it stays way up there for along time and actually go up - suggesting the pilot did not lower collective as per the recovery procedure but pulled up more... Maybe, we weren't there, but it seems that way. RPM seems to go below 80% - lucky to have walked away from this...
Really horrifying to watch... tach drops down to ~70%, nose goes down, manifold pressure stays high, and the dude keeps passing by all the relatively open areas and flying towards the densest, tallest trees he can find. So ridiculously lucky. I think they pretty much ticked every box for things you can do wrong.
Manifold Press seems to be at 25-26" the whole video, only at the very end looks its goes down. Hard to believe is the pilot pulling up the collective. Would love to know what happend there .. But Julian B is right .. the spot selection was pretty horrible, he was luck the engine didn't quick or the rotor didn't stall ... Again .. would love to know
he definitely had retreating blade stall toward the end there, which means he was about 1-2% from those blades giving up. I'm glad he realized what was happening, would scare the shit out of me.
Good thing he gave aft towards the end as ground approached. That's the only apparent reason he got RPM's back....Manifold pressure stayed spiked through the entire emergency. You wont recover RPM's with the collective up.
Its easy to think you would handle this better yourself watching at home. A total engine stop is easy to handle - you know your landing soon. A partial problem is much more insidious and confusing. My recommendation is this - fly like your engine is about to stop at anytime and keep your energy high at all times.
+andrew jowett Watching this at home gives only 5% of what it was like in that chopper. Its easy to be an armchair critic, thanks for your sensible and educated comment!
I'll add this... Height is nearly always your friend (except when on fire). If you don't have it (like on landing) then the next best thing, in a helicopter, is speed. Making an approach to land in a helicopter with a healthy speed (like the speed profile of a practice autorotation) gives you good options in case of an engine failure. Know your helicopter..when something bad really happens adrenalin can cause your pupils to dilate and you won't be able to read guages. Know the sound and the feel and it will help when it happens.
Did you notice the violent shaking when the rotors got to a low RPM? try reading the gauges. like a fixed wing pilot the natural reaction to fear should be to lower the angle of attack or collective (also AOA lol)
andrew jowett you are so right. I lost a jug in a fixed wing, and it took everything I had to accept that it was really happening. The emergency procedure wouldn't just kick-in like when your CFI pulls the throttle and says, "You lost your engine, now what are you gonna do?" It just doesn't happen like that. If you lived to tell the story, then you did okay.
Thanks for posting and explaining... It really helps a lot to identify the real world risks that we face as low hour pilots. All of us would like to think that we should know better than to grip too tight on the throttle by the time we have reached the solo stage but maybe this had never been an issue for the pilot before.... I hope they got back in the saddle with this lesson learned and are flying safe.... those needles went waaaaay down!!! Im not so nervous about 90% now ;)
I got flown in a helicopter in northern Australia when I was 14. So did my younger sister. A few weeks later, the chopper pilot crashed and died. Turned out they were cutting corners on maintenance and pocketing money. We were visiting an aunt and uncle, and their friends owned a big cattle station. They hired the pilot to do work for them. After that, my aunt was livid with the friends and ended the friendship. I don't know the details of that and whether the cattle station owner was involved (I guess he must have). I do know me or my sister could have died had the maintenance issue showed up a hair sooner. I didn't find out until years later. I do remember the flight seemed very daredevil-ish. My Dad was ATC and into aviation so I got lots of flights as a kid. I had a lot of fun. Little did I know...
As a Vietnam veteran in the United States Army, my MOS was 67N-10 & -20. Helicopter Crew-chief (UH1 Hewy, AH-1G Attack Cobra and of course the OH-58 Kiewa. I remember many years ago staring over my pilots and 1st officers shoulders with the focus of a much younger me, intent on making my bird a "tight flight" for its pilots. It is MY bird when on the ground. I call the shots when it's not prudent to lift. Once in the air the pilots are in full control. However, if my birds flight conditions were to hit the fan and the breakers are popping, warning lights and signals going off, then I call the shots once again and do whatever was appropriate. Sometimes pissing off a few officers here and there. I too was focused on this choppers instrument panel, and I was seeing pretty much the same as you did. Good call! I could tell by the shuddering of the poor bird. Dude.... you should pay more attention to your gauges and understand what different cyclic and collective attitudes can be used to tach the meters and help you find the ground, softly. I kinda miss my birds and their pilots. Just not in Nam!
Notice how quickly the RPM returns after they eventually decided to lowered the collective. With all emergencies, one just needs apply the correct recovery action. This is typical of Overpitching, pilot wanting to increase power to arrest the decent rather then initially lowering the collective to first regain RRPM. Just my 2 cents
stumpy3080 well done Stumpy! instead of giving intelligent input on a video that could be used as a training aid you decide to take the low road of correcting a persons grammar on You Tube. Check your lateral C of G next time you go flying I think that chip on your shoulder might be a bit too big....
LONGIRAFFE would it help you to know that both Tim Tucker and Bob Muse from Robinson have this full HD video and have been using it to train pilots in their safety course for nearly 2 years now! Why don't you give either of them a call and ask how many pilots this has benefited. After the chat come back to me and tell me that I have a chip on my shoulder????
looks like an over pull to me, possible longer than the +5min - drop collective pull back on cyclic slightly to load rotor up increasing rotor RPM - enter auto rotation. Controlling at all time the rotor speed with the collective to prevent an overspeed. Certainly a whoopsie moment!! Very lucky. By chance was the pilot also fixed wing? Trying to figure out why a long glide was established
What caused the loss of energy? Too much collective? High density altitude? Loss of one of the drive belts? I appreciate your posting this, as I am a low-time helicopter guy and I also fly the R22/44. Thank you, sir, for your contribution to everyones' Safety.
Based on the last minute recovery I'd imagine it was pilot induced from pulling too much collective. Looks like he drooped the shit out of the rotor and kept trying to maintain forward airspeed rather than dropping the collective to regain Nr. There's a few fundamental connections you should have between man and machine by the time you are rated to fly and this guy seems to be missing them. It looks like he just kept trying to fly along with a massive droop.
At 3:00 the MAP went from about 21-22 up to the red line, and at that point there was about a climb of 300 FPM. Theres one or two times the MAP went over red line, no change in climb, still about 300 FPM indicating the pilot was not minding the MAP gauge. Then when the pilot goes to turn left, the tail shimmy's a bit and from the looks of the MAP, the collective was never dropped to enter an auto-rotation, it actually appears that 30 MAP was used in a time when there was greater than a 1000 FPM decent. The pilot does not lower the collective until 4:14. The engine never shuts off, if it did, the RPM's were well below rotor RPM blade stall and the ship would have never recovered. Just my two cents from a newbie pilot learning as well. My analysis could be completely wrong but that is just my observation. Fly safe...
Low rpm!? Lower collective untill rpm recovers. The pilots were late a bit taking that decision, I understand that since they were facing a "partial" failure, it was not really obvious that they needed to enter auto rotation right away and land, not really by the lake after passing a dangerous terrain, but right on the first available spot the looked adequate when the first symptoms appeared. Thanks for posting, it helps other pilots predict helicopters more in their flying time.
looked as if the Engine had a problem which dropped in engine RPM and then made the Rotor rpm drop. Pilot did a good job. would of been hard to enter a full down auto in those trees.
Is that the low rotor horn I hear going off? I am gad ya'll ok. I am curious why it took so long to recover the rotor speed. Was collective fully down? Enter an auto?
stumpy3080 Carb ice conditions: -4 to 30°C with a 15° temp/humidity spread. Carb ice is a possibility. Unless it was a Raven II which is fuel injected.
I love flying the Robbie, it does not tolerate pilot indiscretion whatsoever and commands the utmost respect, otherwise it will kill you... Vids like these are reminders of why Frank Robinson lobbied the FAA for Special FARs to regulate low time pilots that do stuff like this. No doubt Robinson's efforts to save low time pilots from themselves did not affect this Aussie pilot.. Lesson learned :)
What is it that makes a helicopter vibrate so much ? I don't mean the near miss in this video but in general. Even a helicopter with 5 or more rotor blades vibrate and you hear a lot about vibration damping systems in newer helicopters. It just seems to me that the rotor blades must be very well balanced in manufacturing. ??
The pilot sure s hell should have realised the slow but constant reduction in power, resulting a very good strong vibration that tells ANY pilot that he is approaching a stall. Dead lucky to have made it in one piece.
***** If the blades move too slow (like in a low RPM situation), and the angle of attack is too high (like when the pilot increases collective to compensate), they will stall. Just like every other wing.
+Victor Iliescu He is speaking of stalling the blades. You have to think of the rotor blade like a wing of an airplane, if you slow them down enough the airflow will not remain laminar over the rotor and will aerodynamically stall. So helicopters do stall... the blades.
+Victor Iliescu there is 2 types of blade stall, Low rotor rpm blade stall(not due to high forward airspeed) and retreating blade stall due to high forward airspeed(this would be the one you are referring to), and robinson's helicopters are a serious thing when talking about low rotor rpm, so helicopters are susceptible to stall. (blade stall)
+Victor Iliescu A helicopter rotor blade will stall just like an airplane wing. The only difference is, on an airplane all you need to do to correct the stall is pitch the nose down, build up some airspeed, and boom, you've un-stalled. In the helicopter, the increased drag on the stalled blades drags the rotor RPM down (which further-increases the angle of attack of the blades), and the loss of lift causes you to start a rapid descent (which also further increases the angle of attack of the blades), so you rapidly get into a situation where the blades are very, very stalled and recovery is impossible, even with a running engine (when the RPM drops, you get on the bottom side of the engine's power curve, just to make things even better). Also while this is happening in your two-bladed helicopter, your rotor disk is flapping uncontrollably, possibly sending blades into the airframe to chop off your tailboom. You know, for good measure.
+Jez2008UK I have deliberately left this out because no one knows 'exactly' what happened, its part speculative, and the full story is convoluted. Also chances are by stating what I do know is probably going to lead to more, not less questions. However seeing as you have asked here is what I do know and if it does lead to more Q's so be it. The flight safety team at Robinson have viewed this video in high definition a trillion times, interviewed me (in person at Torrens CA) and have other similar incidents to base a 'most likely scenario', repeat a most likely, not a definite. Here it is..... Pilot has a loaded chopper of 4 adult pax, no luggage, no doors, 1/2 fuel and operating at approx. 1450m density altitude. No weight limits exceeded. Chopper takes off to head south but a strong SE wind creates a bumpy ride. Unhappy with the situation pilot unknowingly overrides the governor by squeezing too hard on the collective. Unexpected wind shear seals the deal by rapidly pushing the cockpit downwards and (here's where it gets speculative) pilot mistakenly lifts the collective to correct the situation, and (if you're a pilot) the rest should make sense. There is one consensus from Robinson however that isn't speculative; the four of us should have met our maker that day but despite making mistakes our pilot kept fighting and did regain control. All comments here about an autorotation are ludicrous, we were never in a position to do one! Pilot may have put us in danger but pilot also saved us, and for that I am eternally grateful, as are my family!
stumpy3080 I'm really glad you're alive as well as everyone else in that helicopter. No, I'm not a pilot, and maybe if you put these comments in your video description you'll help others as well as being hounded by the same questions :). Really glad you made it. Being no pilot myself, I did wonder if that vibration I could hear from the start was normal. All the best :)
So what does Tim Tucker say induced the low rotor rpm in the first place? If the engine was given a clean bill of health later that day (like you said), and the symptoms have not reappeared... I say carb ice or bad fuel. Glad to see you survived.
I'm not a pilot, just a wannabe. So definitely an arm chair pilot only. I'm trying to figure out the gauges: Upper left is manifold pressure, yes? And lower left is altimeter? What are the three on the right? The upper right is hard to see, looks like two needles. Is that rotor and engine rpm? What are the other two? And the buzzer that keeps sounding- is that the same functionally as a stall warning buzzer in a fixed wing craft? Is the severe buffeting caused by rotor stall? Thanks!
I love reading all the "pilot's" commentary on this kind of stuff... I know exactly what happened and what should have been done even though I wasn't there. Don't I sound impressive?
Joe this is without a doubt the most sensible comment on here. You should see the crap that I filter, its full of what we should have done etc etc. The net is full of armchair critics, thanks for not being one of them!!!
+stumpy3080 although reading them can give insight for those trying to learn, but whatever. seeing the many possibilities helps those of us learn from it. I would also recommend showing videos like these to your instructor or CP and definitely mechanic and inquire what may have happened.
totally agree with you on this, the fact is that the pilot made a safe landing, he choose a spot that worked and had access where it can be seen from the river. Personally I dont see the issue, after all safer to be at a land mark like a river than next to that big gum tree
Hi I fly H-60s for the US Coast Guard and from what I could see your fuel injectors seemed to pass some chunks of crud I would replace all filters flushed the lines and replace the fuel! Did you do anything like that??Commander John Ehrhart RN, USCG Retired
Seems like no attempt to lower collective and roll on throttle, he was still pulling 24 inches of MAP. Quickest way to recover from low R/RPM, lower collective, roll on throttle and aft cyclic. Lucky to have survived that..
Ive lost 3 friends in 3 separate Robinson helicopters who were all simply flying in the cruise when disaster struck. All three were experienced pilots 3000hr+. The stats may show they are as safe as other types but cruise should be the safest mode of flight. I can accept accidents from poor piloting or under the HV curve but Im not going to play Russian roulette. Hence I refuse to fly in Robinson helicopters.
Because Frank Robinson designed a helicopter with him in mind and not the typical aviation enthusiast. Robinsons are actually excellent helicopters but they are 'NOT' for inexperienced pilots.
Glad the landing turned out OK. But most R22/R44 'incidents' are pilot errors. The Robinson POH states "To restore RPM, immediately roll throttle on, lower collective and, in forward flight, apply aft cyclic". Did the pilot do this?
POH are written to simplify thing for aircrew. Incidents often get ahead of crew because they fail to react quick enough and often fail to follow POH procedures or manufacturers guidelines - choosing their own options.
I could guess vortex ring state and the pilot is trying to fix it by pitching down (therefore start to increase speed and returns the RPM back). But for sure I don't hear no alarm /warning lights( I could have missed it). If you are interested in VRS, check out "settling with power" problems.
The airspeed indicator is reading 90 knts at the time of loss of power which is plenty to stay out of VRS. You can hear the rotor RPM Warning come on at 3:28. Looks to be an engine issue.
If there was still enough power, I personally think he would've crossed over to the other side of the water and not land on the nearest clearing. I'm curious to know what was going on in the pilots head. In fact, it seems to me the pilot doesn't have any plans of landing AT ALL. What a daredevil.
I'm just a student but, since he was having severe vibrations, this should be an indication of the failure of the drive system which, me thinks should have made him move immediately into an auto rotation. Sure makes me nervous knowing that everything can always go wrong at any moment (thank you Murphy the law giver). I'm gonna go read my POH again. :)
Helicopters with low inertia main rotors like the Robinson are prone to this there small made of a light composit they flex quite abit and there is only 2. you take a Bell 47 with wooden mains other then the needles splitting it take a couple of seconds to notice that you lost the engine. Auto's are also much hairier in a low inertia rotor system.
I've always thought about this. In actuality, I don't think downdrafts can go "into" the ground, as they hit the ground, then disperse outward. So, I think "30 feet lower" is improbably as the downdraft doesn't exist 30' lower. (I have been caught in an uncontrollable updraft, once. Looked down to change freqs, looked out at the houses and thought dang they look small, looked at my VSI and it was pegged. Even in max decent configuration in an R22, it was still showing 1500' per minute climb and I was getting in to somewhat bad turbulance. I understand how underving this stuff can be. I was a student pilot at the time. At least the ground was getting further away, not closer) thoughts?
I am not a pilot of any kind but did take Cessna 150 flying lessons 50 years ago, so understand a little. So what is your description of what happened?
R22/R44 are as safe, if not safer than any other helicopter on the market. It is proven. Unfortunately they are popular in training and personal operations where more mistakes are made due to PILOT ERROR. As everybody has said, this pilot handled it pretty well. Proper training is key.
Robinson's do not pass my "wife and family test" Flying one felt like walking on a razors edge. They are so unforgiving of turbulence. Flying something which has your heart in your mouth day in day out is not good for you! Of the last 26 fatal R22/R44 helicopter crashes in NZ 11 involved midair breakups...need I say more!
Number of crashes doesn't really matter when it's by far the most common helicopter. However, I would agree with you that if you spend $10M and buy a Sikorsky S76 with two pilots you are safer.
You've got to be a real man to go "The wing is almost stalling...however, that landing spot over there has a nice, coastal view. Let's try to stretch this glide!"
+BrassPhoenix you are right, no wing, but man you are wrong with your glide statement, in autorotation you glide towards your LZ, without glide you don't have airspeed, need airspeed, energy management.
Wow at 3:41 the rotor rpm is below horizontal at about 78-79% rpm along with engine RPM. And the manifold pressure is at or above red line of 26.1inHg. That's really not a good spot to be in at all. The only good thing is you have is 100kts of airspeed and about 1000ft AGL. If it was much less you would not have been able to post the video. Happy days.
Lucky to be alive pilot freezing up while having an engine failure I have heard of this before there was a mosquito video of engine failure very hard landing he even posted in the commits that he had done many auto rotations just like that and had no issue landing, but in a real engine failure said it was just took him by surprise he just flared too soon. I think situations like this some just freeze up they have been flying for years never had an suprise engine out then it happens their minds can't accept what is going on. If your only a few 200-300 feet AGL not much time to think about it.
With helicopter fails it seems Robinsons are over represented. And after the fuel tank gang fuck, I would not go near one again. Yes, they are cheap compared to some but is it worth it? There are lots of alternatives today. Lots of them are used for mustering support in outback Australia, and the strain that puts of the aircraft is huge. Not what they were designed for. I would rather buy something older and safer, even if the running costs are higher.
-Péssimo piloto. Com certeza excedeu a PA. Teve sorte de recuperar o rpm. Quando a buzina toca com queda de rpm, vc tem 3 segundos para baixar o coletivo e entrar em auto rotação. -Lousy pilot. Certainly exceeded a PA . We were lucky to recover the rpm. WHEN a horn plays with rpm drop , u have 3 Seconds paragraph Down the collective and ENTER in auto rotation .
Je pense qu'il s'agit d'un givrage du carburateur, on voit bien le régime moteur varier avant de perdre des tours rotor jusqu'à 80% et même en dessous pour le régime moteur ... ils ont eu beaucoup de chance de ne pas faire "décrocher la pale" ... impressionnant !!!
Not an helicopter pilot but he had chances to land sooner. Why try to push to the limits where auto rotation can't do it. Something go wrong so get down a fast as possible. At 3:50 over the trees if transmission break, it is a great good bye !
that vibration would drive me nuts. The compass bracket is a bit loose. Was that an autorotation down or did you he regain control and land it successfully?
Stumpy you're being very magnanimous, I'm afraid I might have punched the bloke hard on the nose after landing.. that guy nearly killed all of you because he wasn't switched on. Yes he 'saved' you.. but only by the skin of his teeth and a very large dollop of luck, it seems. To say the least, I would never fly with such a pilot again, or let my family fly with him. He needs training, training, training and then rigorous flight checking. If only there was something like, oh I don't know, like a rotor speed dial to keep an eye on... would that have helped a decent pilot?
Chris England agreed - further if you listen to the audio there's discussion of weight issues by the pilot. But the aircraft was carrying half fuel and no luggage.
You don't want to fly up north. All boring and dry. Go to the southern parts of Australia, interesting sea line, snow-capped mountains and vast green lands.
IMHO? Zero or negative G main rotor loading due to wind action (you can hear the pilot talking about 'that damn wind' at landing) or sudden pitch over for other unknown reason. Accompanying loss of forward motion and hence torque due to loss of main rotor lift causes action of tail rotor to start to predominate, resulting in a roll and pilot instinctively applying hard right cyclic to correct.. approaching if not actually achieving mast bumping. Correct procedure drop the collective and gentle aft cyclic to take main rotor back to >0.5G and off you go - this guy seemed to ride the collective almost all the way to the grave. This should never have been a near fatal.
Well. he didn't lose manifold pressure, bottom right gauge, and his needles didn't split, top right gauge, which tells me that the engine was still running. Plus he rolled it down to idle once on the ground. Had he lost power, you would have heard it, the nose would have yawed to the left with an engine out horn. But, he did pick up a huge vibration, and did the right thing and put it down immediately. In the middle of the desert, I'd rather have an engine out than feel like I'm braking apart in the air. I hope he had plenty of water and a cell phone to have that thing towed out of there.
Well looked like a loss of power in some way of another. The pilot made the decision that he could make it to the beach which was by far the safest place to land with the power he had available so great props to the pilot for being calm safe and secure in his decision making. Keep in mind this was not an autorotation since the engine was still providing power. just not enough power to maintain level flight safely.
Nice to see you were able to land near water and clean your shorts.
Hahaha! =D
dude this guy could have crashed he was very lucky to have made an emergency landing im about to fly helicopter my self I hope I never have to go thru a low rpm that shit is fuckin scarey
Ive come back to my video this week and didnt realise I had hundreds of comments to accept and I did for 99% of them. Aussies dont mind strong banter, a joke, some ridicule and fair play. What pi33ses me off are rude and offensive comments, or ones where you just happen to be the world's foremost expert on R44 helicopters, were there at the time and can say from a low res video exactly what went wrong and what should have been done! In Australia we would say 'Good on ya mate!!"
If you are a world's expert on R44 choppers then you would have learned what you do from Tim Tucker. Tim has had this video days after it was shot. It is used extensively by Robinson in Torrence CA to show to pilots in their safety course. Some reading this will know that!
I dont profess to know anything about choppers, but this is what the experts say to help you understand it better:
10 facts about this video....
1. This was NOT an autorotation
2. This was not carb ice, or anything to do with the chopper mechanically.
3. The pilot made errors, the first being overriding the governor without realising it in turbulence.
4. These errors continued almost certainly by the pilot lifting the collective when it should have been lowered.
5. Regardless of mistakes made, the pilot made more correct decisions than incorrect ones (overall) and saved us all, even though yes it shouldn't have happened, there were good decisions made in context.
6. We are all exceptionally lucky to be alive.
7. This is not a video game
8. This video isnt fake
9. I didnt film the moon landing and
10. I dont work for the CIA...
safe flying to all....
Stumpy
Very good response to all the haters. Glad you all came through OK and EVERYONE has learned something as a result - that, after all is the very best of outcomes.
Lol. Nice reply.
Thank you very much for the detailed explanation!
then you are the man and your video just showed me what if the pilot forced the low rpm would have crashed but the pilot made a safe landing the helicopter is still in one piece nothing damage all safely to the ground no one hurt thank god
Thank you for posting this. It's wild to see RPM decay as developed and real-life as this! I admit, I was afraid the video was going to end in the trees for a second! Glad the crew is ok and safe. Also, tell Australia I'll see them soon ;) One of the places I must fly.
Manifold pressure spikes above what looks like 25/26" just as low RPM starts (over pulling collective beyond engine capability maybe). Interestingly it stays way up there for along time and actually go up - suggesting the pilot did not lower collective as per the recovery procedure but pulled up more... Maybe, we weren't there, but it seems that way. RPM seems to go below 80% - lucky to have walked away from this...
Really horrifying to watch... tach drops down to ~70%, nose goes down, manifold pressure stays high, and the dude keeps passing by all the relatively open areas and flying towards the densest, tallest trees he can find. So ridiculously lucky. I think they pretty much ticked every box for things you can do wrong.
Manifold Press seems to be at 25-26" the whole video, only at the very end looks its goes down. Hard to believe is the pilot pulling up the collective.
Would love to know what happend there ..
But Julian B is right .. the spot selection was pretty horrible, he was luck the engine didn't quick or the rotor didn't stall ...
Again .. would love to know
nothing like scaring noobs
that made his day and stained your pampers
Franjaver Ariza I have been in R22's a bunch, I thought you were expected to go into emergency auto immediately?
he definitely had retreating blade stall toward the end there, which means he was about 1-2% from those blades giving up. I'm glad he realized what was happening, would scare the shit out of me.
Holy hell my heart is racing just watching. Glad you guys were able to come out of it without issue.
To all of you who have asked, this was filmed in Northern Australia.
cool where i live
so you landed in amongst the crocs? Just punch them if the come near you aye ; )
I guessed right! Thanks.
Good thing he gave aft towards the end as ground approached. That's the only apparent reason he got RPM's back....Manifold pressure stayed spiked through the entire emergency. You wont recover RPM's with the collective up.
Its easy to think you would handle this better yourself watching at home. A total engine stop is easy to handle - you know your landing soon. A partial problem is much more insidious and confusing. My recommendation is this - fly like your engine is about to stop at anytime and keep your energy high at all times.
+andrew jowett Watching this at home gives only 5% of what it was like in that chopper. Its easy to be an armchair critic, thanks for your sensible and educated comment!
I'll add this... Height is nearly always your friend (except when on fire). If you don't have it (like on landing) then the next best thing, in a helicopter, is speed. Making an approach to land in a helicopter with a healthy speed (like the speed profile of a practice autorotation) gives you good options in case of an engine failure. Know your helicopter..when something bad really happens adrenalin can cause your pupils to dilate and you won't be able to read guages. Know the sound and the feel and it will help when it happens.
Did you notice the violent shaking when the rotors got to a low RPM? try reading the gauges.
like a fixed wing pilot the natural reaction to fear should be to lower the angle of attack or collective (also AOA lol)
+TheProPilot ***meant to say fear or controllability
andrew jowett you are so right. I lost a jug in a fixed wing, and it took everything I had to accept that it was really happening. The emergency procedure wouldn't just kick-in like when your CFI pulls the throttle and says, "You lost your engine, now what are you gonna do?" It just doesn't happen like that. If you lived to tell the story, then you did okay.
Thanks for posting and explaining... It really helps a lot to identify the real world risks that we face as low hour pilots. All of us would like to think that we should know better than to grip too tight on the throttle by the time we have reached the solo stage but maybe this had never been an issue for the pilot before.... I hope they got back in the saddle with this lesson learned and are flying safe.... those needles went waaaaay down!!! Im not so nervous about 90% now ;)
The natural reaction from every helicopter pilot when something inordinate happens is, lower the collective. It is almost never the wrong move.
I got flown in a helicopter in northern Australia when I was 14. So did my younger sister. A few weeks later, the chopper pilot crashed and died. Turned out they were cutting corners on maintenance and pocketing money. We were visiting an aunt and uncle, and their friends owned a big cattle station. They hired the pilot to do work for them. After that, my aunt was livid with the friends and ended the friendship. I don't know the details of that and whether the cattle station owner was involved (I guess he must have). I do know me or my sister could have died had the maintenance issue showed up a hair sooner. I didn't find out until years later. I do remember the flight seemed very daredevil-ish. My Dad was ATC and into aviation so I got lots of flights as a kid. I had a lot of fun. Little did I know...
Oh man! I was like "Put it down! Put it down!" Amazing recovery.
As a Vietnam veteran in the United States Army, my MOS was 67N-10 & -20. Helicopter Crew-chief (UH1 Hewy, AH-1G Attack Cobra and of course the OH-58 Kiewa. I remember many years ago staring over my pilots and 1st officers shoulders with the focus of a much younger me, intent on making my bird a "tight flight" for its pilots. It is MY bird when on the ground. I call the shots when it's not prudent to lift. Once in the air the pilots are in full control. However, if my birds flight conditions were to hit the fan and the breakers are popping, warning lights and signals going off, then I call the shots once again and do whatever was appropriate. Sometimes pissing off a few officers here and there.
I too was focused on this choppers instrument panel, and I was seeing pretty much the same as you did. Good call! I could tell by the shuddering of the poor bird. Dude.... you should pay more attention to your gauges and understand what different cyclic and collective attitudes can be used to tach the meters and help you find the ground, softly. I kinda miss my birds and their pilots. Just not in Nam!
Mister Tibbs YOU sir are my hero ... thanks for what you did for our country !!
Notice how quickly the RPM returns after they eventually decided to lowered the collective. With all emergencies, one just needs apply the correct recovery action. This is typical of Overpitching, pilot wanting to increase power to arrest the decent rather then initially lowering the collective to first regain RRPM. Just my 2 cents
They? Whilst you may be right in your assumption of overpitching there was only one pilot. They is plural!
:)
stumpy3080 well done Stumpy! instead of giving intelligent input on a video that could be used as a training aid you decide to take the low road of correcting a persons grammar on You Tube. Check your lateral C of G next time you go flying I think that chip on your shoulder might be a bit too big....
LONGIRAFFE would it help you to know that both Tim Tucker and Bob Muse from Robinson have this full HD video and have been using it to train pilots in their safety course for nearly 2 years now! Why don't you give either of them a call and ask how many pilots this has benefited. After the chat come back to me and tell me that I have a chip on my shoulder????
stumpy3080what a shitty flying. good everyone is ok at least
@@LONGIRAFFE wanker
Not a rotorhead. That rough period was a problem with the blades not flying efficiently due to low rpm or what?
Man it looks like those needles were horizontal which is well below the bottom of the green, so lucky so lucky
far out you dont realize how fast the ground approaches i had to watch it twice
"We'll head for the water, that's the safest place to crash!"
That's the worst place to land there are probably crocs in there.
looks like an over pull to me, possible longer than the +5min - drop collective pull back on cyclic slightly to load rotor up increasing rotor RPM - enter auto rotation. Controlling at all time the rotor speed with the collective to prevent an overspeed. Certainly a whoopsie moment!! Very lucky. By chance was the pilot also fixed wing? Trying to figure out why a long glide was established
What caused the loss of energy? Too much collective? High density altitude? Loss of one of the drive belts? I appreciate your posting this, as I am a low-time helicopter guy and I also fly the R22/44. Thank you, sir, for your contribution to everyones' Safety.
Based on the last minute recovery I'd imagine it was pilot induced from pulling too much collective. Looks like he drooped the shit out of the rotor and kept trying to maintain forward airspeed rather than dropping the collective to regain Nr. There's a few fundamental connections you should have between man and machine by the time you are rated to fly and this guy seems to be missing them. It looks like he just kept trying to fly along with a massive droop.
At 3:00 the MAP went from about 21-22 up to the red line, and at that point there was about a climb of 300 FPM. Theres one or two times the MAP went over red line, no change in climb, still about 300 FPM indicating the pilot was not minding the MAP gauge. Then when the pilot goes to turn left, the tail shimmy's a bit and from the looks of the MAP, the collective was never dropped to enter an auto-rotation, it actually appears that 30 MAP was used in a time when there was greater than a 1000 FPM decent. The pilot does not lower the collective until 4:14. The engine never shuts off, if it did, the RPM's were well below rotor RPM blade stall and the ship would have never recovered. Just my two cents from a newbie pilot learning as well. My analysis could be completely wrong but that is just my observation. Fly safe...
in other words he was flying as if never had any training at all.
Low rpm!? Lower collective untill rpm recovers. The pilots were late a bit taking that decision, I understand that since they were facing a "partial" failure, it was not really obvious that they needed to enter auto rotation right away and land, not really by the lake after passing a dangerous terrain, but right on the first available spot the looked adequate when the first symptoms appeared. Thanks for posting, it helps other pilots predict helicopters more in their flying time.
looked as if the Engine had a problem which dropped in engine RPM and then made the Rotor rpm drop. Pilot did a good job. would of been hard to enter a full down auto in those trees.
Is that the low rotor horn I hear going off? I am gad ya'll ok.
I am curious why it took so long to recover the rotor speed. Was collective fully down? Enter an auto?
Those low rpm warnings scare you when your flying.
i think you guys just wanted to fish there, but you made the video to fool your wives...
looks like carb ice maybe. The manifold pressure is fluctuating the whole time. Pilot doesn't seem to notice.
in Australia? cab ice?
No chance Angela. It was 30c (about 75F) outside on this day.
stumpy3080 Carb ice conditions: -4 to 30°C with a 15° temp/humidity spread. Carb ice is a possibility. Unless it was a Raven II which is fuel injected.
Scr Face Raven 1 but I'm almost certain it wasn't carb ice!
stumpy3080 Carb Ice can happen at that temperature if humidity is right. It's almost always a possibility, seen it on a summer day in MA.
I love flying the Robbie, it does not tolerate pilot indiscretion whatsoever and commands the utmost respect, otherwise it will kill you... Vids like these are reminders of why Frank Robinson lobbied the FAA for Special FARs to regulate low time pilots that do stuff like this. No doubt Robinson's efforts to save low time pilots from themselves did not affect this Aussie pilot.. Lesson learned :)
What is it that makes a helicopter vibrate so much ? I don't mean the near miss in this video but in general. Even a helicopter with 5 or more rotor blades vibrate and you hear a lot about vibration damping systems in newer helicopters. It just seems to me that the rotor blades must be very well balanced in manufacturing. ??
The pilot sure s hell should have realised the slow but constant reduction in power, resulting a very good strong vibration that tells ANY pilot that he is approaching a stall. Dead lucky to have made it in one piece.
Ian Turner Ok, but helicopters don't stall, unless you're flying way too fast. Are you confusing this with an airplane?
***** If the blades move too slow (like in a low RPM situation), and the angle of attack is too high (like when the pilot increases collective to compensate), they will stall. Just like every other wing.
+Victor Iliescu He is speaking of stalling the blades. You have to think of the rotor blade like a wing of an airplane, if you slow them down enough the airflow will not remain laminar over the rotor and will aerodynamically stall. So helicopters do stall... the blades.
+Victor Iliescu there is 2 types of blade stall, Low rotor rpm blade stall(not due to high forward airspeed) and retreating blade stall due to high forward airspeed(this would be the one you are referring to), and robinson's helicopters are a serious thing when talking about low rotor rpm, so helicopters are susceptible to stall. (blade stall)
+Victor Iliescu A helicopter rotor blade will stall just like an airplane wing. The only difference is, on an airplane all you need to do to correct the stall is pitch the nose down, build up some airspeed, and boom, you've un-stalled. In the helicopter, the increased drag on the stalled blades drags the rotor RPM down (which further-increases the angle of attack of the blades), and the loss of lift causes you to start a rapid descent (which also further increases the angle of attack of the blades), so you rapidly get into a situation where the blades are very, very stalled and recovery is impossible, even with a running engine (when the RPM drops, you get on the bottom side of the engine's power curve, just to make things even better). Also while this is happening in your two-bladed helicopter, your rotor disk is flapping uncontrollably, possibly sending blades into the airframe to chop off your tailboom. You know, for good measure.
Why did the helicopter shake so much? and its engine sound so bad, all starting at about 3:30?
To avoid a heap of questions - why not educate us all and tell us what the problem was ?
+Jez2008UK I have deliberately left this out because no one knows 'exactly' what happened, its part speculative, and the full story is convoluted. Also chances are by stating what I do know is probably going to lead to more, not less questions. However seeing as you have asked here is what I do know and if it does lead to more Q's so be it. The flight safety team at Robinson have viewed this video in high definition a trillion times, interviewed me (in person at Torrens CA) and have other similar incidents to base a 'most likely scenario', repeat a most likely, not a definite. Here it is..... Pilot has a loaded chopper of 4 adult pax, no luggage, no doors, 1/2 fuel and operating at approx. 1450m density altitude. No weight limits exceeded. Chopper takes off to head south but a strong SE wind creates a bumpy ride. Unhappy with the situation pilot unknowingly overrides the governor by squeezing too hard on the collective. Unexpected wind shear seals the deal by rapidly pushing the cockpit downwards and (here's where it gets speculative) pilot mistakenly lifts the collective to correct the situation, and (if you're a pilot) the rest should make sense. There is one consensus from Robinson however that isn't speculative; the four of us should have met our maker that day but despite making mistakes our pilot kept fighting and did regain control. All comments here about an autorotation are ludicrous, we were never in a position to do one! Pilot may have put us in danger but pilot also saved us, and for that I am eternally grateful, as are my family!
stumpy3080 I'm really glad you're alive as well as everyone else in that helicopter. No, I'm not a pilot, and maybe if you put these comments in your video description you'll help others as well as being hounded by the same questions :).
Really glad you made it.
Being no pilot myself, I did wonder if that vibration I could hear from the start was normal.
All the best :)
+stumpy3080 is that mast bumping?
Definitely not!
+stumpy3080 How long did you guys end up waiting out there?
I've been a private pilot over 40 years and you would never, I repeat never, get me in a helicopter.
So what does Tim Tucker say induced the low rotor rpm in the first place? If the engine was given a clean bill of health later that day (like you said), and the symptoms have not reappeared... I say carb ice or bad fuel.
Glad to see you survived.
Over-riding the govenor. Def not carb ice or bad fuel.
when you say "over-riding the governor" you mean turning off the governor?
I'm not a pilot, just a wannabe. So definitely an arm chair pilot only. I'm trying to figure out the gauges: Upper left is manifold pressure, yes? And lower left is altimeter? What are the three on the right? The upper right is hard to see, looks like two needles. Is that rotor and engine rpm? What are the other two? And the buzzer that keeps sounding- is that the same functionally as a stall warning buzzer in a fixed wing craft? Is the severe buffeting caused by rotor stall? Thanks!
Look at that rotor RPM needle. Way below 50% before the pilot takes action. You're a very lucky passenger.
way below 50%? no, otherwise they would stalled the blades
Thanks for sharing! A great reminder of how important it is to stay current with the emergency procedures. Lady luck won't always be there.
Great video, I'm assuming nothing was found to be mechanically wrong with the heli and it was put down to pilot error?
I love reading all the "pilot's" commentary on this kind of stuff... I know exactly what happened and what should have been done even though I wasn't there. Don't I sound impressive?
Joe this is without a doubt the most sensible comment on here. You should see the crap that I filter, its full of what we should have done etc etc. The net is full of armchair critics, thanks for not being one of them!!!
+stumpy3080 although reading them can give insight for those trying to learn, but whatever.
seeing the many possibilities helps those of us learn from it. I would also recommend showing videos like these to your instructor or CP and definitely mechanic and inquire what may have happened.
Bad fuel?
totally agree with you on this, the fact is that the pilot made a safe landing, he choose a spot that worked and had access where it can be seen from the river. Personally I dont see the issue, after all safer to be at a land mark like a river than next to that big gum tree
Hi I fly H-60s for the US Coast Guard and from what I could see your fuel injectors seemed to pass some chunks of crud I would replace all filters flushed the lines and replace the fuel!
Did you do anything like that??Commander John Ehrhart RN, USCG Retired
Robins the Chrysler of the aircraft world.
Someone explain please... To much collective? Lost Power? Was that an Auto? Either way great job to the pilot
seeing the rpm needle that low made me cringe. very very lucky escape. Would love to know what caused this.
ratodoesgato looks like pilot overriding the governer by accident
I'm guessing a rotor stall.
Seems like no attempt to lower collective and roll on throttle, he was still pulling 24 inches of MAP. Quickest way to recover from low R/RPM, lower collective, roll on throttle and aft cyclic. Lucky to have survived that..
If you are still in touch with the pilot tell him I said great landing!
And piloting!
Looks like the governor was overridden unintentionally by pilot (maybe because of turbulence?)
Charles despite every comment here, let me tell you that is exactly what happened!!
As a helicopter pilot, Ive seen so many videos/incident reports of R44 crashes I cant believe they're still allowed to fly.
Ive lost 3 friends in 3 separate Robinson helicopters who were all simply flying in the cruise when disaster struck. All three were experienced pilots 3000hr+. The stats may show they are as safe as other types but cruise should be the safest mode of flight. I can accept accidents from poor piloting or under the HV curve but Im not going to play Russian roulette. Hence I refuse to fly in Robinson helicopters.
Because Frank Robinson designed a helicopter with him in mind and not the typical aviation enthusiast. Robinsons are actually excellent helicopters but they are 'NOT' for inexperienced pilots.
Glad the landing turned out OK. But most R22/R44 'incidents' are pilot errors. The Robinson POH states "To restore RPM, immediately roll throttle on, lower collective and, in forward flight, apply aft cyclic". Did the pilot do this?
you're massively over simplifying what happened
Bally46 Perhaps...but Im still here to type this reply Bally and the pilot got us down!
POH are written to simplify thing for aircrew. Incidents often get ahead of crew because they fail to react quick enough and often fail to follow POH procedures or manufacturers guidelines - choosing their own options.
I could guess vortex ring state and the pilot is trying to fix it by pitching down (therefore start to increase speed and returns the RPM back). But for sure I don't hear no alarm /warning lights( I could have missed it).
If you are interested in VRS, check out "settling with power" problems.
deestilo flying to fast for VRS. Gotta be at speed lower than etl
The airspeed indicator is reading 90 knts at the time of loss of power which is plenty to stay out of VRS. You can hear the rotor RPM Warning come on at 3:28. Looks to be an engine issue.
ummmmmm no
VRS and “settling with power” are two totally different things.
So what happened exactly? As a student pilot I want to avoid whatever it is that happened.
Can your aircraft carry more altitude ? I've heard most crashes occur because the aircraft runs out of this.
Helicopters can glide better than planes or are safer when there engines fail
If there was still enough power, I personally think he would've crossed over to the other side of the water and not land on the nearest clearing. I'm curious to know what was going on in the pilots head. In fact, it seems to me the pilot doesn't have any plans of landing AT ALL. What a daredevil.
I'm just a student but, since he was having severe vibrations, this should be an indication of the failure of the drive system which, me thinks should have made him move immediately into an auto rotation. Sure makes me nervous knowing that everything can always go wrong at any moment (thank you Murphy the law giver). I'm gonna go read my POH again. :)
So what mechanically went wrong? What caused low RPM's
Helicopters with low inertia main rotors like the Robinson are prone to this there small made of a light composit they flex quite abit and there is only 2. you take a Bell 47 with wooden mains other then the needles splitting it take a couple of seconds to notice that you lost the engine. Auto's are also much hairier in a low inertia rotor system.
I've always thought about this. In actuality, I don't think downdrafts can go "into" the ground, as they hit the ground, then disperse outward.
So, I think "30 feet lower" is improbably as the downdraft doesn't exist 30' lower.
(I have been caught in an uncontrollable updraft, once. Looked down to change freqs, looked out at the houses and thought dang they look small, looked at my VSI and it was pegged. Even in max decent configuration in an R22, it was still showing 1500' per minute climb and I was getting in to somewhat bad turbulance. I understand how underving this stuff can be. I was a student pilot at the time. At least the ground was getting further away, not closer)
thoughts?
A little bit of carb ice will do that..
Nice recovery bro that's how you do it,I'm looking at getting my license so this was a good video to learn from.cheers
Start watching at 3:30.
I am not a pilot of any kind but did take Cessna 150 flying lessons 50 years ago, so understand a little. So what is your description of what happened?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand....cue the pack of crocs streaming out of the water when you land...
damn man I was looking to invest in a R22 or A R44 but after seeing this do you think i should change my mind?
R22/R44 are as safe, if not safer than any other helicopter on the market. It is proven. Unfortunately they are popular in training and personal operations where more mistakes are made due to PILOT ERROR. As everybody has said, this pilot handled it pretty well. Proper training is key.
Very True
Robinson's do not pass my "wife and family test" Flying one felt like walking on a razors edge. They are so unforgiving of turbulence. Flying something which has your heart in your mouth day in day out is not good for you! Of the last 26 fatal R22/R44 helicopter crashes in NZ 11 involved midair breakups...need I say more!
Number of crashes doesn't really matter when it's by far the most common helicopter. However, I would agree with you that if you spend $10M and buy a Sikorsky S76 with two pilots you are safer.
obese1konobe Then buy a bus. And make it a short one. Have A Nice Day.
You've got to be a real man to go "The wing is almost stalling...however, that landing spot over there has a nice, coastal view. Let's try to stretch this glide!"
***** Except, the rotors are your air foils (wings) and you DO glide. Just not anywhere near as far as a plane.
+BrassPhoenix you are right, no wing, but man you are wrong with your glide statement, in autorotation you glide towards your LZ, without glide you don't have airspeed, need airspeed, energy management.
+BrassPhoenix Technically, hes right, it is called a rotatory wing aircraft.
+MaxRideAE Yea, I was thinking, ok, now thats a good place to set down.... or, ok, maybe there, ok, uh....... HMMmmmm
Wow at 3:41 the rotor rpm is below horizontal at about 78-79% rpm along with engine RPM. And the manifold pressure is at or above red line of 26.1inHg.
That's really not a good spot to be in at all. The only good thing is you have is 100kts of airspeed and about 1000ft AGL. If it was much less you would not have been able to post the video.
Happy days.
I think he had magnetis problem safe landing
good thing you guys landed well
Nicely done - congrats
What was the cause of the low RPM? Is it because you did not lower the collective when the RPM came down?
glad you made it home safe brother
Really nice landing, respect for the pilot !!! was this a autorotation ?
omg the needles were joined and pointing at each other. lucky to be alive!
Not everyone has common sense or mechanical understanding of limitations.
Good catch, or rather, nice save. Too lazy to read the comments - what happened?
Uh.... scan your gauges.......duh
Lucky to be alive pilot freezing up while having an engine failure I have heard of this before there was a mosquito video of engine failure very hard landing he even posted in the commits that he had done many auto rotations just like that and had no issue landing, but in a real engine failure said it was just took him by surprise he just flared too soon. I think situations like this some just freeze up they have been flying for years never had an suprise engine out then it happens their minds can't accept what is going on. If your only a few 200-300 feet AGL not much time to think about it.
Glad you guys made it ok. Why was there so much trouble recovering?
With helicopter fails it seems Robinsons are over represented. And after the fuel tank gang fuck, I would not go near one again. Yes, they are cheap compared to some but is it worth it? There are lots of alternatives today. Lots of them are used for mustering support in outback Australia, and the strain that puts of the aircraft is huge. Not what they were designed for. I would rather buy something older and safer, even if the running costs are higher.
-Péssimo piloto. Com certeza excedeu a PA. Teve sorte de recuperar o rpm.
Quando a buzina toca com queda de rpm, vc tem 3 segundos para baixar o coletivo e entrar em auto rotação.
-Lousy pilot. Certainly exceeded a PA . We were lucky to recover the rpm.
WHEN a horn plays with rpm drop , u have 3 Seconds paragraph Down the collective and ENTER in auto rotation .
Je pense qu'il s'agit d'un givrage du carburateur, on voit bien le régime moteur varier avant de perdre des tours rotor jusqu'à 80% et même en dessous pour le régime moteur ... ils ont eu beaucoup de chance de ne pas faire "décrocher la pale" ... impressionnant !!!
Not an helicopter pilot but he had chances to land sooner. Why try to push to the limits where auto rotation can't do it. Something go wrong so get down a fast as possible. At 3:50 over the trees if transmission break, it is a great good bye !
that vibration would drive me nuts. The compass bracket is a bit loose. Was that an autorotation down or did you he regain control and land it successfully?
Just like airline pilots pull back on a stall it seems professional pilots forget their training and get too used to their easy gigs
What was it a clutch failure or something?
Stumpy you're being very magnanimous, I'm afraid I might have punched the bloke hard on the nose after landing.. that guy nearly killed all of you because he wasn't switched on. Yes he 'saved' you.. but only by the skin of his teeth and a very large dollop of luck, it seems. To say the least, I would never fly with such a pilot again, or let my family fly with him. He needs training, training, training and then rigorous flight checking. If only there was something like, oh I don't know, like a rotor speed dial to keep an eye on... would that have helped a decent pilot?
Chris England agreed - further if you listen to the audio there's discussion of weight issues by the pilot. But the aircraft was carrying half fuel and no luggage.
roll on throttle and lower collective good save
I want to fly in Australia! This seems like fun! (Except the almost crashing part).
i can assure you its a great place to fly :-)
You don't want to fly up north. All boring and dry. Go to the southern parts of Australia, interesting sea line, snow-capped mountains and vast green lands.
IMHO? Zero or negative G main rotor loading due to wind action (you can hear the pilot talking about 'that damn wind' at landing) or sudden pitch over for other unknown reason. Accompanying loss of forward motion and hence torque due to loss of main rotor lift causes action of tail rotor to start to predominate, resulting in a roll and pilot instinctively applying hard right cyclic to correct.. approaching if not actually achieving mast bumping. Correct procedure drop the collective and gentle aft cyclic to take main rotor back to >0.5G and off you go - this guy seemed to ride the collective almost all the way to the grave. This should never have been a near fatal.
Could have been a magneto failure
Bell 47 the rotor is 115 pounds ...
Thst was a good vid... I don't fly helis but it looks alot harder than fixed wing
Oh my God!!! Like, maybe he left the handbrake on or something
I'm most certain that he forgot to disable MCAS, which he should know by now, that, that is the FIRST thing you do...Don't ever forget that...OUT
Lucky, glad you were not hurt.
Any armchair helicopter pilots that can tell me what happened?
Well. he didn't lose manifold pressure, bottom right gauge, and his needles didn't split, top right gauge, which tells me that the engine was still running. Plus he rolled it down to idle once on the ground. Had he lost power, you would have heard it, the nose would have yawed to the left with an engine out horn. But, he did pick up a huge vibration, and did the right thing and put it down immediately. In the middle of the desert, I'd rather have an engine out than feel like I'm braking apart in the air. I hope he had plenty of water and a cell phone to have that thing towed out of there.
Nope.
Well looked like a loss of power in some way of another. The pilot made the decision that he could make it to the beach which was by far the safest place to land with the power he had available so great props to the pilot for being calm safe and secure in his decision making. Keep in mind this was not an autorotation since the engine was still providing power. just not enough power to maintain level flight safely.
wow!! That was a damn good landing, despite the situation!
This is why we train on autorotations! Glad all were safe.
Never second guess that bird until you get it on the ground. You did well.
The poor Lycoming has to be a mess.