What Happens When Choppers Bump Rotars

I have only ridden in a chopper once.
My palms were sweating the whole time.
I lacked confidence in the mechanical reliability of the contraption.
My father suffered serious injuries in a helicopter accident in Korea.
Here is small view of how bad things can quickly go very wrong.

a reply to: skunkape23

I went on a helicopter tour many years ago of the grand canyon, it was the same company that had a crash a couple years ago. Likewise the whole time my palms were sweating but it was a once in a lifetime experience I am glad that I had the opportunity to take.

a reply to: threeeyesopen

It was once.
Luckily not a lifetime.

I flew every day for a year in Vietnam in a Bell UH-1 Iroquois, a 'Slick'. I was a doorgunner, and we flew chase for B52's, inserted and extracted Rangers, Rain or shine. It was exciting, scary and intense quite often. Having done that much flying without incident has given me an appreciation and subtle hint. Perhaps I had never fly again, lest calamity do find me, and perhaps all my 'get out of jail cards' are all used up. The next time might indeed be calamity.

Video 1 is stupidity, not even pilot error, stupidity.

I remember we got a lift in a British Royal Marines Sea King on an excercise once and the last words from the crew was "... and if we happen to go down, boys, it's every man for himself..."

Then they flew low and fast and there was much sweating and probably not a few prayers being offered silently...

I suspect they did it a bit on purpose..

BT

Bad things happen when just about anything goes wrong with a chopper. It's a giant, spinning blade with a passenger compartment. What could possibly go wrong?

originally posted by: beetee
I remember we got a lift in a British Royal Marines Sea King on an excercise once and the last words from the crew was "... and if we happen to go down, boys, it's every man for himself..."

Then they flew low and fast and there was much sweating and probably not a few prayers being offered silently...

I suspect they did it a bit on purpose..

BT

Ah, airdales do like their jokes. Arriving for a trap on a carrier in a COD, one of the pilots will undoubtedly shout "we're gonna crash, we're gonna crash" right before they catch the wire. Great fun.

It has been almost 50 years since I last unassed a slick and have generally compartmented that time in my life experiences. Occasionally, it revisits me and I wake up in a sweat. I haven't had the opportunity to fly in a copter again, but would if I had to. Adapt and cope.

a reply to: pteridine

Hehe. Yeah. It was all in good spirits though, and although the Sea King isn't the most nimble thing ever to grace the air, they sure managed to drain the blood from the faces of quite a few of us "grunts" in the back.

But we were deposited safely in the middle of nowhere, and then (this being the army) had to hump back...

BT

Back in the 80s I was at Diego Garcia up on the wings of my C-141 when a heavy lifter chopper came in to land and the blades caught the blast fence. Talk about blades going everywhere, pieces flew in all directions cutting through anything they touched, we even ducked across the ramp not knowing where all this flying metal was going. We became an emergency transport very quickly as we took about 5 people badly injured to the PI.

originally posted by: BrianFlanders
Bad things happen when just about anything goes wrong with a chopper. It's a giant, spinning blade with a passenger compartment. What could possibly go wrong?

BrianFlanders and Xtrozero, bear in mind the main and tail rotor have lifespans in hours too, at which they are required to be replaced. The stress they endure is phenomenal.

Uncontrolled landing pad. No markings on the pad even as far as I can tell.

How about a signal man with wands to clear the bird for touchdown.

Budget cuts and all...

The departing helicopter looks like it was moved two meters away from where the H would be. Landing helicopter pilot follows procedure and ends up with a collision.

Decades ago, there was a charity jump next to an airport where some mistook an active helicopter pad for the parachute landing zone.

a reply to: skunkape23

"Luckily" I think that sums it up pretty darn well.

a reply to: skunkape23

I have ridden in a number of helicopters when I was stationed at Fort Campbell. Went to air assault school, did some rappelling among other things. I was always taught by the instructor to keep your head low and your wits about you when you are around a chopper.

a reply to: skunkape23 A couple years back I was attending a Oktoberfest in Oklahoma. So as you guessed it I and all my buds besides the dad were wasted. And then there it was. Two freshly retired airforce pilots waiting for someone to brave the unknown. Then I turned to my friend with fear in my eyes! I said “dude”. And they knew what the next words out of my mouth would be. Then their faces turned from huge smiles to the same look I had just a moment before. But they knew just as well as I that this must be done at this very moment. We chugged our stein and walked up to these pilots and god damn we looked cool doing it. The pilots looked to one another and chuckled. And I told them “we want a damn ride”! The pilot asked me if all of us were ready for such an event. We said hell ya. One of the pilots wife’s strapped us in and explained how the headsets works and told us what to do in an emergency and then went to shut the doors. The husband asked us if we wanted the doors open? I said yes before my friend could interject. They flew so low I thought I could grab the trees. I don’t know how fast he was going but FAST! I will never forget that day and I even have a picture of us walking up to the pilots hanging over my PC.

originally posted by: threeeyesopen
a reply to: skunkape23

I went on a helicopter tour many years ago of the grand canyon, it was the same company that had a crash a couple years ago. Likewise the whole time my palms were sweating but it was a once in a lifetime experience I am glad that I had the opportunity to take.

I took that tour in 1991. I wasn't sweating at all. It was rather civilized compared to some of the things I experienced in the USMC...SPIE rigging, for an example.

a reply to: intrptr

Someone needs to take some paint out to the pad and draw some lines for those bozos. Reminds me of drivers who take their half of the road out of the middle.

a reply to: skunkape23

the second video is scary....

that guy is soooooooooo lucky

This was clear human error. The mechanic or whoever pulled the chopper out on the landing pad didn't place it on the "H" as marked. Somebody got fired. That was just pure laziness and stupidity.

a reply to: Edumakatednaw

Naw it was the rooky on approach ....shoulda put it in the parking lot.......too close on a small pad and any wind around the trees would push him around.......or it did.......put a chopper down on the front lawn.......in a outer parking lot.....but not five feet from a craft with his rotating beacon going...