Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Helicopter crash - anyone have any idea what was done wrong here? Looks like a loss of lift from too sharp a turn at low altitude.

13 comments:

  1. I'd agree, CW, at the 4:05 mark, the bird is turning right, and drops vertical in the turn, then tries to recover but crashes.

    Then again, reality shows being what they are, maybe they deliberately crashed the helo. Just saying.

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    1. helicopter crashes are unpredictable ....no one would do it intentionally with people inside or near it. the blades often enter the cockpit and kill the occupants as well as parts flying off and killing nearby people.

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  2. Pilot error, as the pilot expected more performance than the heli was capable of.

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  3. Pilot error, as the pilot expected more performance than the heli was capable of.

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  4. Replies
    1. According to some liberal friends it was Trump's fault.

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  5. pilot error. gravity of the situation was not factored properly by the pilot.

    he initiated his turn while downwind (as noticed by the direction of dust after crash) and was too close to the ground to make the turn given his weight speed and wind conditions.

    it is a stupid challenge since no helicopter pilot would think he could win such a race.

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  6. No, no, no, and also no.

    The pilot was conducting either a torque or anti torque turn (can't tell from the quality of the video), and a little over halfway into the turn either lost the engine (losing the torque) or lost the tail rotor (losing the anti-torque). The turn stops, the aircraft has not completed orienting itself to recover from the unnatural attitude, and the lift Vector is pointed in the wrong direction (horizontally instead of vertically) so the helicopter comes out of the sky.

    Helicopter flight is unbelievably dangerous even when you're flying in very boring, normal circumstances. On the other hand, if you're flying in boring normal circumstances you probably didn't need a helicopter. Helicopters only advantage is the ability to hover, take off vertically, turn tightly, fly backwards, fly slow, at cetera. Helicopters, per hour, suffering an order of magnitude higher mechanical failure because they are insanely complicated) and another order of magnitude higher flight characteristic failure because they're always in dangerous positions. There's a reason that I flew helicopters long enough to solo, and then said, "You people are nuts!" and went back to fixed-wing aviation.

    FormerFlyer

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    1. you are incorrect. I have been flying helicopters for decades. the pilot crashed because he was flying downwind and made a turn at too low an airspeed for his height and power setting and wind conditions.



      what the f ... is an torque or anti-torque turn. it is not a term used in helicopter flight.

      pilot error.

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  7. Loss of tail rotor power = auger it in

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  8. deliberate "crash" hard set down, and pyrotechnics, drama for the reality show

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