When it all goes wrong

[kungfuman]

Definitely not funny to me, but sickly mesmerising:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7Ms1yzPgdI

found it while doing some research into Indian Air Force.

[nickblack423]

Feck me.....I was trying to see but couldn't but I hope that guy who got thrown out got out of the way before the propellors came down. God knows what was going through the minds of everyone on board through that whole thing.

Nick

[kungfuman]

Its impossible to tell. The guy may have been lucky that the tail boom hit the ground before it got round to him, but more than that who knows?

I guess that it'll have been caused by some failure in the control of the tail-rotor blade pitch.

I know its a bit sick, but I still had to replay a few times.

[nickblack423]

Well got to the bottom of it by examining the Clip. I knew it wasn't Indian by the markings and the fact that the Indian Air Force don't have Puma's. Here's a little bit about the crash. No-one was hurt apparently.
http://www.airwarriors.com/forum/showth ... p?t=132787

[tango234]

I'm wondering why they didn't just stut off the power instead of rising back into the air...

[nickblack423]

I'm wondering why they didn't just stut off the power instead of rising back into the air...

In the miliseconds it took to occur I doubt that was the first thing they thought of.

Nick

[Victory103]

In the miliseconds it took to occur I doubt that was the first thing they thought of.
Nick

Exactly, it takes a few long seconds to realize you have a tail rotor issue, by that time the aircraft will be in the spin. Low altitude/hover is one of the worst places to lose tail rotor authority.

[kungfuman]

I can't imagine there being any convenient time to suffer that sort of failure. Just out of interest, how do you deal with such a failure at altitude/non-hover mode of flight? Are there means by which a pilot can still maintain some sort of control?

[Victory103]

Really depends on altitude and airspeed, in cruise flight it may take a few moments, but one will eventually continue to accelerate the spin. In the UH-60, we generally deal with total loss of control or a jammed (fixed pitch) situations. In the total loss, it's pretty much autorotate and hope for the best. In the Blackhawk, this is one of the few emergencies that worries me, as we have had a rash of tail rotor issues and required a procedure change...oh and fires!

[CelticWarrior]

There are a number of possible tail rotor failure scenarios. Loss of drive to the tail rotor (including loss of the tail rotor, seizing of the gearbox and shedding a blade), jamming of the controls and loss tail rotor pitch control being the main ones. With the former the handling is relatively straightforward, but with loss of pitch control it all depends on the design of the tail rotor controls and with jamming it depends on the pitch position at which the jam occurs.

In the vast majority of 'conventional' helicopters the vertical stabiliser is an aerofoil designed to oppose the torque effect of the main rotor. Therefore, with forward speed the tail opposes torque, as IAS reduces this effect reduces and this is where the probelms occur. The advice on handling this depends on the trials conducted during testing. One method is to conduct an engine(s) off landing, another is to assess the IAS at which the tail 'breaks away' (at altitude) and, dependant on this IAS, to conduct a fast running landing, closing the throttle as the aircraft touches down, or it may even be possible to establish the hover and close shut down the engine(s) at this point.

Loss of tail rotor control is one of a few of the worst possible scenarios for a helicopter pilot. This happened to one of my colleagues flying a Lynx some years ago and the result was horrific with him sustaining severe injuries.

[tango234]

In the miliseconds it took to occur I doubt that was the first thing they thought of.

Nick

Fair enough