The reason why helicopters scare me...

[Red Baron]

So I'm sitting here at work today, and find out that the helicopter I fly in on an average of two days a week crashed today SW of Salt Lake City while shooting a movie. No one got hurt, and it may have been pilot error (they hit a power line) - but still it sucks seeing the pictures of N130JH with no tail boom, no rotors and a broken turbine.



(oh, and to make it ski-related, the same bird is used occassional for heli-trips at Park City Powder Cats in the Uintas, it's a yellow and white JetRanger)

[boarderline]

Creepy. Glad that everyone is OK.

You plan on skiing tomorrow or anytime next week at the Bird?

[mr_gyptian]

how does it go?

"Two kinds of helocopters, ones that have crashed, and ones that are going to"

they are cool as hell to fly in, but not too many good exit strategies.

[Buzzworthy]

Time for hazard pay for work?

[Lurch]

At Least a heli can coast to the groud if you are below 50ft or above 200ft as long as the blades stay intact. The same can not be said for a plane.

[Trackhead]

I used to fly air medical fixed and rotorwing. Not anymore for that specific reason. Clipped a 'fixed' object on landing in Phoenix a few years ago. Nothing happened, but the ground crew woke up fast with the flying projectile. Enough of that.

[Red Baron]

Yeah, the risk factor has always troubled me a bit, but with our viewing area being as big as it is, there's really no other practical way to get around. Trust me when I say we'd rather not pay $750 an hour to fly the thing.

A pic of her in a finer day...

http://web.archive.org/web/200008230...om/WEBHELO.gif

Like I said, it looks the same today, minus the rotors, tailboom, and a good portion of the back half.

[The General]

At Least a heli can coast to the groud if you are below 50ft or above 200ft as long as the blades stay intact. The same can not be said for a plane.

and what happens to a plane.............

does it just roll up into a ball and fall out of the sky?

[zion zig zag]

At Least a heli can coast to the groud if you are below 50ft or above 200ft as long as the blades stay intact. The same can not be said for a plane.

And what happens between 51 and 199 feet?

[Lurch]

And what happens between 51 and 199 feet?

Then you are screwed.

Below 50 feet you the blades will still be spinning fast enough to lower you to the ground safely, above 200 feet the air speed will spin the blades up fast enough to slow your fall enough to land safely. In between is called the dead zone because you will be going to fast to survive the landing but not fast enough to spin the blades up enough to slow your fall.

[Lurch]

and what happens to a plane.............

does it just roll up into a ball and fall out of the sky?

Ask John Denver

[Jumper Bones]

Then you are screwed.

Below 50 feet you the blades will still be spinning fast enough to lower you to the ground safely, above 200 feet the air speed will spin the blades up fast enough to slow your fall enough to land safely. In between is called the dead zone because you will be going to fast to survive the landing but not fast enough to spin the blades up enough to slow your fall.

This is all true...however your original post is off as airplanes don't exactly need to be able to autorotate, the definition of the actions you just described (motor quits, so jam collective straight down, which reverses the pitch of the rotor blades so that your fall propels your blades like a windmill and preserves/increases their rotational speed...then, at the proper aboveground altitude, you reverse the collective again and use the built up energy to slow your descent, and cushion your landing/impact).

In a fixed-wing aircraft, you can glide down to a hopefully smooth landing. The factors limiting this are your airspeed and altitude, and the gliding coefficient of the aircraft (how far it can glide for altitude lost). The times gliding won't help you much is when the aircraft you're in has a very, very poor gliding coefficient and falls like a brick; and when you don't have much altitude to trade for airspeed to begin with, such as immediately after takeoff.

However the biggest difference between fixed-wing gliding and rotary-wing autorotation, is that in an airplane you can glide out for a sizeable distance to find an optimal place to land, whereas in a helicopter the only option you have is whatever terrain is directly underneath you. If it's steep or otherwise unsuitable to landing on, you're fucked.

One of the most impressive things I've ever seen was Marine CH-53E helicopters practicing autorotations off of Hawaii. Something the size of a greyhound bus plumetting from the sky, to land safely. Amazing.

[Buzzworthy]

On the news tthat thing was facked up, walked away, wow

[wookalar]

At Least a heli can coast to the groud if you are below 50ft or above 200ft as long as the blades stay intact. The same can not be said for a plane.

If you're below 200 feet in a plane, you're doing something wrong anyway.


If you're flying like you're supposed to, you should be able to coast to at least a probable landing in most areas of the world.

Just my .02

[The General]

This is all true...however your original post is off as airplanes don't exactly need to be able to autorotate, the definition of the actions you just described (motor quits, so jam collective straight down, which reverses the pitch of the rotor blades so that your fall propels your blades like a windmill and preserves/increases their rotational speed...then, at the proper aboveground altitude, you reverse the collective again and use the built up energy to slow your descent, and cushion your landing/impact).

In a fixed-wing aircraft, you can glide down to a hopefully smooth landing. The factors limiting this are your airspeed and altitude, and the gliding coefficient of the aircraft (how far it can glide for altitude lost). The times gliding won't help you much is when the aircraft you're in has a very, very poor gliding coefficient and falls like a brick; and when you don't have much altitude to trade for airspeed to begin with, such as immediately after takeoff.

However the biggest difference between fixed-wing gliding and rotary-wing autorotation, is that in an airplane you can glide out for a sizeable distance to find an optimal place to land, whereas in a helicopter the only option you have is whatever terrain is directly underneath you. If it's steep or otherwise unsuitable to landing on, you're fucked.

One of the most impressive things I've ever seen was Marine CH-53E helicopters practicing autorotations off of Hawaii. Something the size of a greyhound bus plumetting from the sky, to land safely. Amazing.

Well said!