Ahhh. Me thinks my leg is being pulled. Traffic came to a stop on the interstate one night in bad weather for about an hour. The guy was air lifted. The copter landed right on the road and off to the hospital. Didn’t have to worry about slippery roads and snow drifts. Really? Need to watch the ground for a place to land if they have to? Like at night? That’s kinda silly.
When I was in paramedic training, we.re to fly on Fright-for-Life. Even though the sky is crystal clear above the clouds, the pilot must be able to see the ground. Apparently this is so s/he can see where to land if an engine failure.
Gee tell that to Vietnam Helicopter pilots…this was before the general use a night vision goggles.
(They can autorotate where descending through air spins the rotor. Just before reaching ground, the rotor pitch is changed to create downward thrust and land gently.)
There is no such thing as a “gentle” auto-rotation landing. It is nothing more than a controlled crash.
Chopper pilots that try to land in unfamiliar spots without some ability to determine the condition of the ground, either by sight or by night vision are risking their lives. I cannot imagine any chopper pilot willingly trying to do so. Except perhaps on water with pontoons.
Unfortunately, part of fighting a war is at times risking one’s life. If you’re goin’ down, you do your best to soften the blow and pray hard. Autorotating at least helps if the spot under you isn’t too bad a terrain. If you hit the trees, it might slow you enough to end up suspended in the canopy rather than slamming into an unforgiving ground that helps not at all. Autorotating is an emergency maneuver only, not an optional landing procedure. Very much analogous to ejecting from a fixed-wing aircraft.
Really? Need to watch the ground for a place to land if they have to? Like at night? That's kinda silly.Thelicopter has lights to illuminate the LZ (Landing Zone). Fire department is to locate and clear the LZ and mark it with five fusees (my fire department has strobing red LED "pucks"). The LZ should be 100x100 feet and away from hazards such as trees and power lines, etc. Pilot is also to be notified of hazards. (We shine spotlights on hazards if they will not be in line with the landing approach and blind thelicopter crew.) Vehicles should be positioned facing into the wind witheadlights illuminating the LZ. Highway surfaces are often a clean LZ.
A well-executed autorotation descent allows a soft enough landing thathelicopter is not damaged.
OK, I get it. You have a problem and need to make an emergency landing. Because you are so low, you turn the landing lights on and find a spot. Then you call the fire department so they can come out and clear a 100x100 patch and put out the strobes. Then instead of doing a normal landing, you autorotate and crash, but the fire department is there so no harm no foul.
I guess that was the problem with the helicopter I was in that crashed. He was just up too high and couldn’t float down gently. Luckily he crashed after I got out.
Why did I insert myself?
^ Helicopter pilots practice and are proficient at autorotate.
Higher is better if the engine fails. More options and more time before landing.
Yes, night is more of a problem. If you can’t make an airport, there are many little airports around!, you try to get to a lighted parking lot or street.
What caused the crash you missed?
I don’t know, I missed it. It was in the Black Hills so who knows?
I Was Skiing At Either Snow Bird Or Alta Utah (Skied Both, Fuzzy Memory) And When I Got Down The Mountain I Came On A Helicopter (Apparently Used To Haul Skiers Up Beyond Where Lifts Service) That Had Just Made A Very Hard Landing (Controlled Crash).
It was sitting on an angle, broken up a bit. It had just happened and as we watched from nearby, the main rotor (Or what was left of it) was still spinning fairly fast and a panicked passenger started to exit the right side, where because of the angle of the trashed helicoper, the rotor was brushing the ground very near the helicopter.
The passenger would have been injured or killed had the pilot not grabbed him and yanked him back into the machine and sent him out the high side. Scary episode.
CSA
I know this is a very small sample but it is all I could find.
http://www.helicoptersafety.org/genericaccident.asp?keyword=Engine%20Events
Of the 19 accounts of engine failure, which to me means an autorotation landing was the only option. Only 5 reported minor or no damage, 14 reported substantial damage and/or injuries/death.
Yet Mr. Gift claims auto-rotations are practiced so much that they are routinely gentle landings.
Interesting. In ground school, in 1969, carburetor icing was discussed at length. Do they still use carbs in helicopters and small planes? Seems to me fuel injection should be the standard now.
I really can’t see a practical way to “practice” auto-rotation, given the glide ratio of a helicopter is about the same as a drunk man falling off a roof.
Of the 19 accounts of engine failure, which to me means an autorotation landing was the only option. Only 5 reported minor or no damage, 14 reported substantial damage and/or injuries/death. Yet Mr. Gift claims auto-rotations are practiced so much that they are routinely gentle landings.
You want to be proficient at autorotation should it ever be needed.
Just as my flight instructor emphasized proficiency at getting out of a spin and also knowing the best glide angle to reach an airport or a road or field on which “you’re gonna land”.
Consider the maple tree’s samara which “helicopters” so that it may be carried farther away from the tree. The spinning rotor also catches air and slows descent. Then at the last moment its momentum can be converted to thrust to land the helicopter gently.
I still read about carbuerator icing issues. Perhaps too co$tly to convert older engines to fuel injection.
Did Tom & Ray not have a Puzzler about WW-II pilots purposely causing carburator “back fires” to remove ice?
The passenger would have been injured or killed had the pilot not grabbed him and yanked him back into the machine and sent him out the high side. Scary episode.
That is why watching thelicopter land or take off, I coward behind our fire apparatus with hose at the ready. Something can happen and stuff goes flying.
(Ever since a young boy, mine has been a worst case scenario life.)
"(Ever since a young boy, mine has been a worst case scenario life.)"
Plan for the worst, hope for the best.
CSA
OH MY GOD !!! Please tell me you did not get a pilots licence! Based on your previous posts, questions and theories, I wouldn’t let you fly a kite. Please go back to putting flood lights under your oil pan. Leave emergencies to those who can figure out how to warm their vehicle, when and where to install chains, and know what they are doing lest you become or cause said emergencies.
“(Ever since a young boy, mine has been a worst case scenario life.)”
Yeah, I’ve gotta say that if you drive 110 on snow covered mountain roads with chains, the adverse impact is pretty much guaranteed. Add a helicopter and wow.
Just back from a delivery of blood platelets.
Open, straight, dry, vacant interstate highways in the plains is snow-covered mountain roads?
The floodlights heat well!
Hope the new chains are not needed, but I have been on enough closed highways where they almost were.
Would a second pair on back wheels produce enough additional traction to be worth the co$t?
Would a second pair on back wheels produce enough additional traction to be worth the co$t?
I don’t think the cost is an issue, if you had the chains would they be worth the effort of installing? If the wind is blowing 40 MPH will you take the time to install the chains or get back into your warm vehicle and drive 25 MPH without rear chains.
The value of these items is sometimes up to the individual, sure they help but will you take the time and effort to use them?
^ Thank you. It is the co$t vs additional effectiveness.
Is front chains 90% effective and rear, riding in front wheel tracks, 10%?
So far we have always managed to get through. Have had to dig drifts at 1 a.m. in blizzards.
Was sweating inside my jumpsuit from exertion.
These chains install quickly, no need to roll onto them and hook them up, and supposedly need no retightening a mile down the road.