columns features - Professional Helicopter Pilots

COLUMNS
14 So that’s how that
works
Solenoids and relays
15 NTSBs
17 Live and learn
Crash course
FEATURES
2 Cover Story—Ditching, Ditching, Ditching!
Learn how to dramatically improve your odds
of escaping from a
drowned, rolled over bird
8 PHPA—an interview
with the president
The who, what, when
where and why of the
Professional Helicopter
Pilot’s Association
11 When turbines
explode.
Hot metal flies as we
take another “turn” with
our resident logging pilot
18 Test pilot
See how you do
Volume 3
www.autorotate.com
Issue 1
3
Cover story“Ditching, Ditching, Ditching!”
N
by Tony Fonze
o sooner are the words shouted out when I see the smooth surface of the blue water rushing up to slam
into the bottom of the helicopter. With a loud “slap” we make hard contact and without a moment’s
hesitation the aircraft begins to sink. Water, not warm, not cold, rises to fill the cockpit. My shoes are
the first to disappear into the roiling flood. They don’t look right underwater. Water swallows my legs and
waist. It continues its inevitable climb towards my face and I take one last deep breath.
Before I can completely grasp what is happening the helicopter begins a sickening roll to the right. We’re going
Publisher:
inverted. My eyes and mind both sting at the initial shock of
The Professional Helicopter
total submersion. Water rushes into my nose and ears and
Pilots’ Association
seems to fill every square millimeter of my head. My insulted
Managing Editor:
sinus cavities ignite a flare of pain at the very top of my brain.
Anthony Fonze
Attempting to move outside of my physical distress I look
Media Director:
around
to quickly assess my situation. The cabin is filled with
John Bosch
tiny bubbles and my disorientation is both instantaneous and
complete. Up and down have no meaning whatsoever. My
Autorotate is owned by the Professional Helicopter Pilots’ Association (PHPA). Autorotate
training takes over.
(ISSN 1531-166X) is published every other
Removing my right hand from the cyclic I place it on my
month for $25.00 per year by PHPA, 1809
right knee. While up and down are impossible references to
Clearview Parkway, New Orleans, LA 70001.
establish, movement in relation to my own body still makes
Copyright © 2002, Professional Helicopter
Pilots’ Association. All rights reserved. Reprosense. I slide my hand to the right and feel the handle of the
duction in whole or in part is strictly prohibited.
206. Simultaneously, my left hand moves to my harness buckle
It is illegal to make copies of this publication.
but I resist the powerful urge to release my restraints. Still
Printed in U.S.A. by union employees.
strapped in, I’m able to maintain my orientation to the aircraft
Subscriptions:
Subscriptions are provided to current memand leverage the additional stability provided by my harness to
bers of PHPA. PHPA membership is offered
push against the door and the water resisting its movement.
at $60.00 per year. Promotional discounts may
It opens.
be offered. For a complete list of membership
benefits go to www.autorotate.com. Single
My left hand releases the belts, then both hands go to the
issue reprints offered, when available, for
door frame and I pull myself through until I’m completely clear
$5.00 each. To become a member of
of the aircraft. I move away a few feet and rise to the surface.
PHPA or to notify PHPA of a change of
My head breaks clear and I instantly suck in a huge breath of
address, contact PHPA at 1809 Clearview
Parkway, New Orleans, LA 70001. Phone
fresh air, water pouring from my nose and ears.
866-367-7472. Fax 504-779-5209. E-mail
“Excellent,” shouts Terry Crownover, Chief Instructor at
publisher@autorotate.com.
the Marine Survival Training Center, as he flashes me the
Article Contributions and Editorial
thumbs up from his position in the pool five feet away.
Comments:
Article contributions, including ideas, free“Alright, load up again. This time we’ll simulate locking
lance stories, an interest in assignment articles,
the pilot’s door and you’ll have to make it out the other side,”
Live and Learn experiences, photographs, and
Terry informs me with a smile.
comments are welcome and should be sent
to autorotate, 3160 N. San Remo, Tucson,
“Oh boy!”
AZ 85715. Phone 520-298-2689. Fax
520-298-7439. E-mail editor@autorotate.com.
Autorotate and PHPA are not responsible for
materials submitted for review.
Notice: The information contained herein
has been researched and reviewed. However,
autorotate and PHPA do not assume responsibility
for actions taken by any pilot or aircraft operator
based upon information contained herein. Every
pilot and aircraft operator is responsible for complying with all applicable regulations.
2
HUET—another word for fun?
So why am I subjecting my sinuses to ancient tortures when
I could be doing something fun like cleaning out the garage?
Because there’s no better place to learn how to survive a
helicopter water crash than here at the Marine Survival Training Center (MSTC) in Lafayette, Louisiana. I am enrolled in
MSTC’s Helicopter Underwater Egress Training, or HUET
course. After spending a full day in training, I’m convinced
that my chances of surviving and exiting a submersed, inverted
helicopter are significantly higher than they otherwise would
Vol 3
Issue 1
Graphic courtesy of MSTC
have been . That attitude stems from the
reality of the training.
MSTC is one of only two civilian survival training centers in the world fully
equipped and staffed to teach helicopter
pilots how to survive a ditching. MSTC
caters to the Gulf area, but trains pilots
from all over the world. A branch of the
University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the
training center has been teaching water
survival skills since the 80’s. According to
Jim Gunter, Acting Director of the center,
MSTC now teaches between 4000 to 5000
souls annually in a broad range of vital
marine survival skills. Originally established at the request and sponsorship of the offshore
industry to teach lifeboat launch and survival skills to
offshore crews, the now fully self-funding institution,
boasts a comprehensive curriculum of over 18 classes.
Those of particular interest to helicopter pilots
include Basic Aviation Water Survival (BAWS) and
Helicopter Underwater Egress Training (HUET).
The class I’ve been invited to attend combines
both BAWS and HUET and has been modified to
include HEED III training. HEED III devices are
small SCBA like systems with tank, regulator and
mouthpiece all included in one, small, stick in a big
pocket, package. A HEED III set up can provide
one to three minutes of air—hopefully, enough to get
you out of a complicated roll over accident. The
hard part—remembering to breathe air through your
mouth instead of water through your nose. Trust
me!
One of the things that makes MSTC unique in
the field of water survival training is ‘The Dunker.’
Officially known as METS (Modular Egress Training
Simulator), ‘The Dunker’ is a highly modified air
frame that can be customized to represent nearly
any helicopter in significant use over major bodies of
water—everything from a B206 to an S76. Doors
and windows can be swapped out to exactly match
those found in the pilot’s or crew’s customary aircraft.
The METS is attached to a large crane and a unique
rollover system that can emulate the sometimes violent actions and motions of a real water landing and
rollover.
The METS allows you to experience and train in
a very realistic simulation. But, before we get wet,
there’s a morning of water survival training to attend
to.
“Be prepared”—not just for scouts
Seven of us gathered early on this May morning to
learn how to survive a water landing. Our small class
included four Petroleum Helicopter (PHI) pilots, an
offshore helicopter crew member, a U.S. Coast Guard
officer, and myself. Surviving any crash, especially
one into the drink, involves an element of luck. The
purpose of the MSTC training is to minimize the luck
factor by putting the ultimate outcome of a water
landing more in the pilot’s control.
There are at least five distinct phases to a ditching,
each with its own keys to survival. They are preflight & preparation, the crash, underwater egress,
water survival, and rescue. A failure in any one
of the phases can drastically change the outcome
of an otherwise survivable water landing. While
the primary focus of the training is the crash and
underwater egress, a reasonable amount of time is
spent in the other three areas as well.
Your best chance of avoiding the ditching altogether or preparing yourself and your passengers
to survive it occurs in pre-flight and preparation.
Being prepared encompasses aircraft pre-flight, clothing, survival equipment, passenger briefing and smart
flying.
Shoes look better dry
Much of my flying is done in the deserts of the
Southwest. So, with occasional exceptions, the only
way I’m going to ditch is if I do an auto into a
shimmering swimming pool in someone’s back yard.
There have been some 110° F days when I’ve considered this to be an attractive option. Occasionally,
however, even I find myself over a large body of
water. Nearly all of us, at one point or another, will
3
• Signal mirror
• Collapsible radar reflector
• Rope
• Anti-seasick pills
• Plastic garbage bag
(warmth, shelter, waste containment)
• Roll yellow caution tape
• Space blanket
• Sea dye marker
• Chem. lights on a lanyard
(Swing in a circle for larger
target)
42
Talk to your
pax
As pilots in
command of an
aircraft, we’re not
only responsible
for ourselves and
our aircraft, we
bear a huge
responsibility to
those who have
entrusted their
well being into our care—our passengers. The standard passenger briefing of, “put on your seat belt and
don’t get out until I tell you,” does not stand up to the
rigors of over water flight.
Does your passenger know the basic crash brace
position? For that matter, do you? Will they try to
get out while the blades are still turning? Could they
locate and open the door handle if they were severely
disoriented? As PIC, you need to take the time to
understand these points yourself and to explain them
to your passengers.
Your passenger briefing does not have to be a
grueling, scare the crud out of everyone experience.
Demonstrating a brace position, asking people to put
their hands on their door
side knees and locate the
door handle from that position using their own body as
a reference (i.e. towards my
head or towards my feet) is
neither too difficult nor too
frightening. Remind them
that in the event of a water
landing, they are to remain
in their seat belts until the
aircraft has stabilized in whatever position it wishes
to assume. The harness keeps them in constant reference to the doors and gives them leverage to push
them open. Give them an opportunity to ask questions and answer them clearly.
Nobody wants to think about the possibility of a
crash landing. But, better to have a plan explained
and understood than to wish you had in the few
seconds between, “What the…” and “Hang on…”
One more thing. If you’re going to be flying over
a large body of water, or expect to fly over water with
any frequency, invest in life vests for yourself and all
your passengers. They can be had for around $60.00
U.S. and even on a bad day, my wife will tell you that
I’m worth at least twice that. Do not ask my teenage
daughter for her opinion.
Make sure that everyone knows how and when
to use them and put them on before you take
off. Life vests should not be inflated until
you have exited the aircraft. That is, not
unless you want to find yourself firmly stuck
against the floor of an upside down helicopter.
Graphic courtesy of MSTC
end up flying over or near big lakes, rivers and oceans.
Fly higher over water than you might normally
over land. By remaining a minimum of 1000 ft.
AGL, you’ll have a little more time to brief your
passengers and prepare for the landing—water or otherwise. Remain especially alert during takeoffs and
landings. According to a MSTC analysis, more than
50% of water accidents occurred during these highrisk phases of flight. You are more likely to be flying
inside shaded areas of the height-velocity chart and
you will be closer to the ground with little or no time
for last second preparations or reminders.
Take a moment to reflect upon the relatively
inhospitable nature of the surface below and do a
good job on your planning and pre-flight. This
is no time to do fuel management on a piece of
scratch paper and you should be highly intolerant
of marginal or questionable instrument readings or
potential mechanical problems. A noise or vibration
that may seem acceptable until the next 100 hour
when flying over miles of open country, becomes
much more ominous when Davy Jones awaits.
Have your radio tuned to a frequency where you
will be heard in the event of a sudden emergency.
Have a good idea of your location at all times
so you can provide a smaller search area to those
who will come looking for you. And, of
course, file either an internal or actual flight
plan, and provide
regular position
Personal Ditching Kit
updates so people
Even if the helicopter does not
will know where
have an aircraft ditching kit,
you’re going,
consider making a personal kit
where you are
of your own. Here is a list of
and when you
items to consider:
should be
• Strobe light
expected—or
• Mk 13 day/night flares
missed!
• Knife & whistle
Let’s get small
Your chances of exiting an inverted helicopter and
surviving in the water are greatly enhanced if you
Vol 3
Issue 1
remain uninjured in the crash sequence. Believe it or
not, there are things you can do to help.
Crash injuries fall into two categories: acceleration
and contact. Acceleration injuries occur when your
body’s inertia is suddenly changed. You remember
inertia—the tendency of a body in motion to continue in the same straight line unless acted upon by
some external force. Your inertia becomes seriously
hosed when a forward, descending, 60 knot autorotation suddenly stops as you slam into the crest of a
wave. Good piloting technique plays a role here.
Acceleration injuries can be reduced by reducing the
energy of a ditching before it can be transmitted to
the individuals on board. Another way this occurs
The final thing we can do to protect ourselves
from injury during a crash sequence is to assume a
good brace position. Many helicopter crashes involve
forward, downward, and rotational axis forces.
Braces are designed to reduce the body’s movement
and resulting secondary collisions. All braces are
designed to protect the head and face and reduce
flailing of the arms, legs and upper torso.
is through the aircraft design itself. Energy absorbing
equipment, like collapsible seats, dissipate energy
before transmitting it to the pilot or passenger.
Contact injuries occur when either you run into
something or something runs into you. There are
a number of things we can do to make a difference
here. First, stow all loose items located in the cabin.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been in a few helicopters (piloted by someone else, of course) that had
a broad range of projectiles just waiting to receive
launch instructions: pens, flashlights, manuals, sunglasses, screwdrivers. I don’t care what it is, if it hits
you in the face moving about 55-90 miles an hour, it
is going to hurt!
It is also in our best interest to minimize the size of
our strike envelope. Make yourself a smaller target.
This will help protect you against injury from foreign
objects coming at you as well as injuries from you
coming at foreign objects. The first line of defense
against contact injury is a tight harness or seat belt.
Your seat restraints should be as tight as possible,
while still providing at least a minimal level of comfort. The loose ends of any straps should be tucked
in. If left to dangle, they may become hung, prevent
you from finding the release mechanisms or otherwise
interfere with your ability to free yourself and exit
the aircraft.
for the controls to do. This means keeping your
feet on the pedals, your left hand on the collective,
your right hand on the cyclic and your eyes open.
Even so, there are several steps you can take to help
protect yourself. First, protect your thumbs. That’s
right—thumbs. It’s much more difficult to undo a
seat belt and exit an inverted helicopter with one
or two broken thumbs. To give your hands a better
chance of escaping without injury, prior to crash,
bring your thumbs around to rest in a natural position
in line with your other fingers. Your thumb should
be resting on top of your pointer finger. By eliminating the opposable thumb position you’re reducing the
chance of significant hand injury.
Another action available to the pilot is also available to others. Consciously ‘suck’ your head down
deeper between your shoulders—turtle fashion. This
will not only reduce your strike envelope, but it will
also lend additional support to your neck and spine.
(Please do not get me going on where you should
stick your head in the event of a crash…)
Once the helicopter is in the water the pilot
should assume the brace position of the pilot not
in control.
Graphics courtesy of MSTC
Pilot in control
If you are the pilot in control, you are a little bit
out of luck here. You need to continue to fly the
helicopter until contact is made with the water, the
main rotors have stopped and there’s nothing more
Pilot not in control
Because violent inputs can be transmitted back
5
3
Pax
If a passenger has a full harness on, then their
brace position resembles that of the pilot not flying.
If they only have a lap belt they should bend forward
at the waist with their head down against the knees.
2
6
Knees should be held firmly together with the feet
flat on the floor about 4 to 6 inches apart. The arm
closest to the primary exit should be wrapped under
the thighs with the hand gripping the opposite thigh
or pants. The other hand needs to grip the edge of
the seat close to the pant seam. Remember, the hand
wrapped under the knees is used to locate the exit
and the hand gripping the seat is used to release the
seat belt.
Complete disorientation
After completing the morning’s classroom session,
prior to entering ‘The Dunker,’ I remember thinking
two things that proved to be completely wrong. First
wrong thing, “I’ve had water up my nose before, it
can’t be that bad.” Wrong, totally wrong. Second
wrong thing, “I won’t really become disoriented when
we’re inverted. Worst case, I’ll release some
bubbles and watch which way they go.” Ha!
There’s a big difference between a little
water in the nose and a gallon of water filling
your entire head. Worse still, there’s just not
much you can do about it because you need
every molecule of air you’ve managed to suck
into your lungs and frankly, you’ve got bigger
fish to fry right at that moment.
The disorientation I experienced after
crashing, sinking and rolling over 180° is more
complete than I could ever have imagined.
Up and down, right and left became unbelievably abstract concepts. My next breath of air
was about 10 feet away and between me and
it was a closed door, a door latch, pounds of
pressure resisting the opening of the door and
a tightly fastened seat harness. Egress must be
reduced to the basics.
Graphic courtesy of MSTC
into the cockpit via the controls, the pilot not in control should remove his or her hands and feet from the
controls prior to landing. Feet should be placed flat
on the deck with the knees squeezed tightly together.
Fold your arms across each other with your hands
grasping the shoulder harness or shirt high up on the
shoulders. If you have a headrest, press your head
back into it. If not, lower your face into the cradle
provided by your folded arms. This position helps
keep your limbs from flying about and gives added
protection to the chin and face.
Basic one
Keep your safety harness or seat belt system
on until the helicopter is submerged and
rolled over. The only frame of reference you
can possibly keep in your mind during a roll
over is the original relationship you had with
the door or exit when you first strapped yourself in. The only way to preserve that relationship is to keep yourself strapped in. If the
door was on your immediate right when you
took off this morning, then it is still on your
immediate right.
Staying belted in is counter intuitive. You
will want to unbuckle and get out immediVol 3
Issue 1
ately! But, you won’t be able to fight the in-rush of
water, nor will you be able to force the door open
against the sea, assuming you can find the door, unless
you have the additional leverage afforded by your
harness. If you become nearly weightless, floating
about the cabin, and the door is securely weighted by
ocean—who do you think is going to win that tug of
war?
Five or six turns in ‘The Dunker’ will convince you
of this.
Basic two
Reference the location of the door handle or exit
release in relation to your body not in relation to
notions of up or down. For example, the door handle
is along my leg, half way towards my body from my
right knee. Or, the emergency window is about an
arm’s length forward from my left shoulder. During
the pre-flight, you will already have memorized these
locations and the operation of the release mechanisms. Learn to find and operate the release by feel,
not with your eyes.
Basic three
Escape by the numbers. (1) Remove your hands
from the brace position, finding the door handle with
the appropriate hand and placing the other on the
release for the seat belt. (2) Release the door handle
and push the door open with the one hand. (3) Then,
release the seat belt with the other. (4) Put both
hands on the door frame and forcefully pull yourself
through.
One of my escapes involved pushing out the emergency exit window on an S76. This was the only time
that I felt the beginnings of panic. I pushed, slapped
and pounded on that window and it refused to budge.
I was rapidly running out of air and seriously running
out of confidence. I had one last try left in me and
my brain screamed inside my head, “Open that &%$
*# !% window!” With one final furious push it was
out, and so was I.
When I got to the surface, more than a little
relieved, Terry said to me, “When you’re using
an emergency exit, don’t play patty cake with it.”
Get mad!
We’re out, now what
Once out of the aircraft, hopefully with life vest
inflated, there are a number of general rules to follow.
The details depend upon many factors: temperature
and sea conditions, likelihood of a quick rescue,
T
itle 14 of the Code of Fed-
equipment availeral Regulations (14 CFR)
able, etc.
has a lot to say about flight
If there is fire
over water. Parts 91, 121, 125
on the surface,
and 135 provide detailed rules
you may have
for passenger briefings, electo swim undertronic equipment requirements,
neath it. As you
emergency equipment lists and
rise to the surmore. We’re neither attempting
face, push your
to circumvent nor supplement
arms over your
those regulations. As pilots,
head and splash
we’re responsible for knowing
aggressively as
and complying with the applicable regs. Rather, we’re trying
you break the
to present actual water survival
surface. This
skills learned from experience.
should temporarily push the
flames and any
harmful liquids away from the immediate location
while you grab a breath.
If you don’t have a life vest, you can artificially
create one using a shirt or overalls. First, button the
top button on the shirt, then unbutton the next one
down. If possible, tuck the shirt into your pants.
Then put your mouth down to the unbuttoned opening in the shirt and place several breaths of air into
it. A bubble of air should form in the back shoulders
greatly adding to your buoyancy. Gather and hold the
shirt front tightly to prevent air from escaping around
the back of the neck. By continuing to form a tight
band around your neck, the shirt can hold air quite a
while. I did this and it works like nobody’s business.
Take inventory of what you have available that
may be useful and throw nothing away. If you are
in a group, stay together. Preferably, huddle together
by interlocking arms or waists. You’ll present a larger
target. If someone in the group is injured, form a tight
circle and put them in the middle. This will help keep
them buoyant and with the group. If the water is cold,
everyone will be warmed by forming a tight group with
someone in the middle.
Remember, you must be BIGGER, BRIGHTER or
dIfFeReNt to be seen.
Not til the fat lady sings
Surviving in the water for a long period of time is
determined by will almost as much as training and
equipment. It is frequently more agonizing and difficult to be a survivor than it is to be a victim. Both
Terry and Senior Instructor Kathryn Pumford, an 11
year MSTC veteran, continually remind us, “Your
emergency is not over until you have been picked up
73
and are safely on board a rescue vehicle.” Sighting a
potential rescue vehicle is not cause to abandon the
plan that has held you together so far. Do everything
you can to make yourself seen, but neither let down
your guard nor surrender your plan until you are completely out of danger.
deep inside a reclusive sinus cavity. Deftly raising my
napkin to my nose while scanning the nearby tables to
see if anyone noticed that I had a faucet in my head—
I just had to smile. A little embarrassment, a wet
napkin, and a two-day headache were a small price to
pay for the invaluable skills acquired at MSTC. +
The nose knows
Later that evening, after a hard day of near drownings, I treated myself to a nice dinner in an exceptional Italian restaurant in town (Bella Figura—I
highly recommend it). I was sipping on my espresso,
eating my last bite of Tira Misu, when all of a sudden
the flood gates opened and I was surprise attacked by
about a half cup of water that had been lying in wait
We covered a lot in this article, and hopefully, you’ll find it of
value. But, there’s nothing like a day at MSTC and a tour
of duty in ‘The Dunker’ to really prepare you for the rigors of
underwater egress and water survival. If you have a chance
to attend the MSTC training, you’ll find the costs reasonable,
and I highly recommend it. You may contact MSTC at 337262-5929, or e-mail them at mstc@louisiana.edu. For more
information go to http://www.louisiana.edu/infotech/MSTC/
PHPA–an interview with the president
S
o, who or what is PHPA?
To answer that, I’ve turned
to the source, the President of PHPA, Butch Grafton.
I sat down with Butch in the
bar of the Mariner’s Hotel one
cloudy, drizzly, cold afternoon in
Stavanger, Norway, a key city in
Norway’s offshore operations,
and asked him all of the questions I had about PHPA. I think
they’ll be the same ones most of
you will have.
Tony: “Butch, what exactly is
the Professional Helicopter Pilots’
Association?”
Butch: “The Professional
Helicopter Pilots’ Association,
let’s just call it PHPA, is a nonprofit organization of helicopter
pilots working for the good of all
helicopter pilots. For as long as I
can remember, helicopter pilots
have been a rugged group of
individuals going about their own
business quite independently.
There’s nothing inherently wrong
with this and it suits the personalities of most helicopter pilots
I know. Our independence, if
you will, is also fostered by the
way we work. We are clustered
2
8
into a dozen or so very different
industries and very little crosspollination occurs across industry
boundaries. But, there’s a price
to pay for all our independence.”
Tony: “For example?”
Butch: “Many lessons go
untaught because we don’t share
what we do and what we’ve
learned with other pilots. Our
collective voice goes unheard
in many areas where we
should have a lot to say: safety
issues, regulatory issues, and
equipment issues.”
Tony: “That may have something to do with the fact that we
don’t have a collective voice.”
Butch: “Exactly right!
PHPA is creating a place where
helicopter pilots at all levels from
all industries can share what they
know and pool their interests
and voices into one that can be
heard—one that can make a difference. And, it’s really very
interesting to swap stories with
peers from around the world—
people doing similar things, but
yet, doing them very differently.”
Tony: “Exactly how did
PHPA get started? I understand
the idea was conceived in
Madrid.”
Butch: “Here’s how I ended
up in Madrid. I was standing
in the hall outside my office at
Ft. Rucker, flight bag in hand,
having just returned from a training flight with a couple of Army
students when I looked into our
office and saw a friend on the
phone. He looked at me, lowered
the phone and asked, ‘Butch, do
you want to go to Madrid?’ To
which I replied, ‘Is it all expenses
paid?’ He said, ‘yes.’ And off I
went. I soon found myself representing the pilots at Ft. Rucker,
attending an international meeting of helicopter pilots. There
were a number of other U.S.
pilots there: Bill Blume, John
Bosch and Marco Cordon from
Air Logistics and Al Duquette
from PHI.”
“So there we were, in the
middle of Spain, listening to
pilots from all over the world
talking about things that were
important to them: flying experiences, safety issues, job security,
Vol 3
Issue 1
regulatory
quandries...
And guess
what, those
are the same
things that
are important to all of
us. We all
immediately
thought, we
really should
be doing this on a much broader
and regular basis. There needs to
be an organization of helicopter
pilots that promotes the views of
the pilot and provides a platform
to give them a voice. Shortly
after returning home, we came up
with the name, Professional Helicopter Pilots’ Association, and
we’ve been running full steam
ahead ever since.”
Tony: “Profile the founders
for me. Who are these people
and why are they willing to put
their time and energy into this?
What’s in it for them?”
Butch: “Bill Blume, from
Air Logistics was key in putting
the idea together. John Bosch,
also with Air Logistics, has been
pushing for our own magazine
since day one and he got his
wish with the purchase of autorotate. John now heads the Media
Committee. Al Duquette from
PHI chairs the Safety Committee
and works with Jeff Smith from
LSSI at Rucker on a number of
our Flight Ops areas. All of us
share a vision for the future of
helicopter piloting. That vision
is compelling and worthy of our
time and energy. That’s why
we’re all here.”
Tony: “Tell us more about
the vision. What does PHPA
“Early meeting of PHPA founders and organizers”
hope to accomplish and how will
they go about it?”
Butch: “PHPA’s goals focus
around the needs of the helicopter pilot. Some of these we
know about. We want to help
facilitate the sharing of information so we can all learn from each
other. PHPA wants to promote
an atmosphere of professionalism.
We are all highly trained, skilled
people doing important, often
dangerous work. A high level of
professionalism is key.”
“Our industry is relatively safe,
but it can be safer. We want
to gather information and data
regarding safety issues and present that data where it needs to
be heard—to other pilots, to the
manufacturers, the operators, and
the regulators. We also want
to promote the opportunity for
helicopter pilots to have satisfying and rewarding careers—this
means working with each other
and with the operators. We
expect our pilot members to tell
us what is important to them.
We’ll follow their lead.”
“PHPA’s ability to accomplish
all of these things grows as our
membership grows. The more
pilots that choose to become part
of PHPA, the more momentum
we’ll have to be an agent of
change and improvement. It’s as
simple as that.”
Tony: “My experience with
helicopter pilots tells me that
we’re usually not big on joining
things. I also have seen, among
my peers, a great reluctance to
part with money. Why are
people going to join PHPA?”
Butch: “It would be mighty
presumptuous of me to say that
pilots are going to join PHPA.
Pilots will make that determination for themselves. But, I
am happy to say that early statistics from our website indicate
that pilots are signing up in significant numbers and there are
important reasons why I think
they should.”
“PHPA membership provides
an opportunity to improve our
industry, our jobs, and our lives.
We should all be interested in
that. I don’t know a single helicopter pilot who is not proud to
be doing what they do. Let’s put
a little bit of that pride and honor
we share into something larger
than ourselves. PHPA membership also provides some immediate tangible benefits as well.
Each member receives an annual
subscription to autorotate. You’re
proud of autorotate and we are
too. It speaks to the pilot. As
you know, we’ve also put the
archives of autorotate on line so
member pilots can do a search
and receive information from
over 100 articles.”
93
“Members also receive an
annual subscription to Heli-Ops.
It’s a great looking publication that
pilots enjoy reading. There’s also
a $1,000 Life Insurance Policy; a
half hour of aviation legal consulting; and a very cool Professional
Helicopter Pilots’ Association hat
and bumper sticker. There’s
an opportunity to participate in
important committees and to share
information with each other on
our forum. One of the most
important benefits is our resume
service where we help pilots get
their resumes out to prospective
registered employers.”
not make sense for everyone.
Making a decision whether or
not to organize is something
strictly determined by the
pilots involved. If some pilots
are interested, we have a link
on our website so they can find
out more information.”
Tony: “Who is eligible for
membership?”
Butch: “PHPA welcomes
and encourages all helicopter
pilots to join from every country and every walk of life. That
includes military, students,
private pilots, instructors and,
Tony: “Quick change in
of course, commercial pilots
subject. Is PHPA a union organifrom all industries. We also
zation?”
encourage retired pilots to join.
They have a lot of experience
Butch: “No, not at all. PHPA to offer.”
is a pilot organization. Some pilots
are organized and belong to locals.
Tony: “What about pilots who
Most do not. We represent both
already belong to other organizaunion and non-union pilots.”
tions.”
Tony: “If you don’t
mind, what are your personal
feelings about unions in the helicopter industry.”
Butch: “As an instructor pilot
at Ft. Rucker, I belong to Local
102. I would not say that I
was pro-union when I arrived at
Rucker, but for certain situations,
I am now. However, I am emphatically pro-pilot. In some environments, Ft. Rucker being one,
organizing the pilots has resulted
in much improved safety conditions and career satisfaction for the
pilots. By the way, Ft. Rucker has
been organized for 28 years.
The helicopter industry is a
strange duck. Many operators
are very small businesses with the
owners doing a lot of the flying
themselves. Unionization may
2
10
Butch: “Membership in PHPA
is not mutually exclusive with participation in any other organization. We welcome pilots who
belong to H.A.I., A.L.E.A. (Airborne Law Enforcement Association), and anywhere else.”
Tony: “One more thing. You
probably need to say something
about Norway.”
Butch: “Right. We are in
Norway at the invitation of the
International Federation of Airline
Pilot’s Associations, also known
as IFALPA. IFALPA represents
pilots from most of the world’s
major carriers, but also has a helicopter sub-committee, the same
committee meeting I attended in
Madrid in 2000. Helicopter pilots
from Spain, Norway, the U.K.,
A
utorotate is back and we’re
delighted to be here. There
are some important differences and some important nondifferences I want to tell you
about. Let me confuse things
just a bit more by addressing
these in reverse order. First, what
hasn’t changed. Autorotate, one
of the few publications written
exclusively for the pilot, remains,
exclusively for the pilot. The content of the publication, as always,
focuses on issues of interest to
all of us: safety in flight, shared
learning experiences, flying in different industries, extreme conditions, etc. We’ll continue to
use a content rich, pilot friendly
format. In short, we’ll continue
to be autorotate.
Switzerland, the U.S., literally all
over the world, get together to discuss and recommend solutions to
shared issues.”
Tony: “In fact, I’m doing
a story in the next issue that
explains more about this. I think
that’s about it Butch. We’ve
covered some important ground.
If someone reading this has
some additional questions, how
should they go about getting
some answers?”
Butch: “Probably the fastest
way is to go to our website,
www.autorotate.com, go to Contacts and send me a message. I’d
be happy to get back to them on
it.”
Tony: “Autorotate.com—
sounds familiar. Alright, enough
work for now. Let’s go get something to eat. Did you bring an
umbrella?” +
Vol 3
Issue 1
Back in the right seat again
What’s different about
autorotate? I’m very happy to
say we’re now part of something
momentous—something with the
potential to positively impact helicopter pilots everywhere. Autorotate has become the publication
of the Professional Helicopter
Pilots’ Association, PHPA. So how
did this come about?
When autorotate ceased production in August of 2001, we
received well over 300 phone
calls, e-mails and letters from
friends and well-wishers. I was
very touched and moved by these
and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank those of you who
took the time to let us know how
much you appreciated the publication. But, life goes on.
In my case, I took on some
flight instruction responsibilities
at a local flight school while I
probed my options. It was a constructive break that I used to
catch up with friends and family
and regroup for the next phase
of what has always been an
interesting life.
Then, one day last February,
I got a call from Butch Grafton,
representing the Professional
Helicopter Pilots’ Association.
Butch told me that PHPA was
a new non-profit organization
attempting to pull helicopter
pilots together in much the same
way AOPA has united general
aviation pilots. And, he adds,
they want to have a publication
of their own. Would I be inter-
When turbines explode
I
t was my first day back in my loggin’ helicopter
following a ten-day break, and I was a bit worried about what I might find (or might not find,
in this case) lying on the hillside. I had left over a
dozen overweight logs lying there, but they were
gone! I deduced in my Okie brain that either a
UFO had come along and hoisted them away (for
some deranged cellulose experimentation, perhaps)
or they had been bucked (re-cut) and flown to the
landing. Or, worst-case scenario, my relief pilot had
done what I couldn’t do, in this very aircraft. And at
7000 msl in the dog days of summer...Yikes!
To put my dilemma in perspective, the average
Bell UH-1 can dead-lift 4000 pounds at sea level on
a cool day. More if the wind is blowing 20 knots
or so and the fuel cells hold mostly fumes. More
if you simply toss the operator’s manual out the
convenient hole in the bubble window, slide your
brain into a bell jar, and put your spurs on. Does the
term “Wenatchee Snatch” ring a bell? Not for the
faint at heart! I actually had an owner operator tell
me once that such a Bell could “pull six [thousand]
pounds if you’ve got the guts!” Mondo guts, poquito
brains, my friend!
This particular Huey was my favorite. It had been
ested in talking to them about
autorotate? Duh?!
And here we are. Well,
not exactly. There were dozens
of phone calls, a trip to New
Orleans, a trip to New York and
yes, even a trip to Norway before
we got here. But the good news
is, we got here.
My thanks to Butch and PHPA
for allowing me to continue the
dream—providing a high qualilty
publication dedicated to helicopter piloting. But, even more
importantly, I thank them for
offering a new vision—helicopter
pilots from around the world,
across different industries learning from each other and working
together for the betterment
of all. +
By Dorcey Wingo
in the capable hands of an ace mechanic during this
work rotation, and I trusted him. When it came to
matters of go or no-go, “Steve” (not his real name)
had always given it to me straight since our first
assignment together on an Aerospatiale Llama over
15 years before this assignment.
Steve had a big smile waiting for me when I
drove up early that morning, but he quickly relaxed
his welcome face and dropped the other shoe. Our
Bell’s engine was drinking turbine oil. Just under one
quart an hour was technically within limits, but the
oil was also running darker than usual. I reminded
Steve that the big Lycoming had been consuming
less than a quart per day when I went on break!
Steve also remembered that I had declined to fly the
big logs, leaving them for the sawyer to buck up.
Steve had been on the phone to our maintenance
chief many miles distant from our central Idaho
location, sharing the day-to-day progress of the helicopter’s T53-13B engine. The chief assured us that
another 13 engine was “in the can and arriving in
two days, so watch that oil consumption and keep
on loggin’!”
Watch the consumption—unnecessary advice
from a guy who flies a desk for a living.
113
The engine started up just fine and the cool morning air was delicious. But the low temps promised
to burn away by ten o’clock and by then we’d be
“suckin’ mud,” as they say. Too hot to be productive.
Unless the wind came up, in which case we had a
reprieve and could probably get in a complete day of
logging—around eight hours of flight time.
As I worked my way through the hooker rotation, taking three or four turns from each man on
the fire salvage sale, I knew eventually I’d be coming
to “Toby” (not his real name), the very hooker who
had once hooked me up to a few of the big logs, back
when. Toby was finally 150 feet below me, cramming choker eyes into the 80 lb remote hook, sending out beautiful three-to-six log turns. I eventually
asked, “Hey Toby, I see the big pickles made it to the
log landing, how many did you have to buck?” And
to my amazement, he responded, “Not a one, pal!
Dick [not his real name] flew ‘em all to the landing,
no problemo!”
I’m getting a bad feeling here. Each time I had
tried to pull one of those big logs into the air, the
engine gas producer raced to 101.5% N1, the exhaust
gas temp (EGT) needle kissed the red line, yet all of
this turning, burning, and body English produced only
40psi torque. (I needed 50 psi to get the big wood up).
The rotor rpm quickly drooped, and the heavy turn
settled to the ground a little closer to the log landing,
but no cigar. And the wind was blowing pretty good
that day!
“Time for a chain saw,” I had advised Toby, and
off I clattered in search of turns the aircraft would fly
within limits.
To have the peace of mind necessary to make a
living logging with single engine helicopters, a pilot
must believe that his logging-pilot peers with whom
he shares the aircraft adhere to the same rules that
he does. Rule Number One would go something like
this: “Keep the Damned Thing within Limits!” So I
had to tell myself that Dick simply was a better pilot
by getting those big logs to the log landing.
“Now wait just a danged minute!” my Okie brain
hollered back at me! I’ve been doing this for quite a
while! I probably had around 9K hours by then and
well over half of that was long line work, heavy loads.
I had loaded hundreds of log trucks. I knew the score.
A spade was a spade.
The day grew hot, as expected, and soon the ol’
bird was laboring. A flickering master caution light
caught my eye suddenly and I noticed the engine
oil pressure gauge was a blur. Oil temp was okay,
but I called out the problem over the Wulfsberg and
212
headed to Service LZ, about 1/2 mile distant, dividing
my attention by scanning the panel and searching for
a spot to put the bird down. Made it to the LZ and
Steve was waiting for me.
After shutdown, Steve pulled the engine oil filter
screens and found them to be fairly coked up.
Another call was made to the desk wizard, and based
on Steve’s description, the wizard directed Steve to
blast out the screens with solvent, replace them and
run the engine for several minutes, which we did. No
flickering oil pressure gauge? “You’re probably good
to go,” advised the wizard. Remembering that we had
had some small paychecks recently, off I floundered
back into the sticky air, the 150-foot line dangling
between my skids. I made a note to myself at that
point that Steve’s deodorant was beginning to fade.
Check that. It was me!
A little over a half hour later, after gently dropping
a turn at the log landing and radioing “Coming to
Toby,” there was the flickering oil pressure gauge
again! Rats! “I’ve got the problem again,” I radioed,
“Heading for Service!” I stole a peek at the bubble
door panel while I had a second, and the large amber
master caution light glared back at me. I reset it. It
was dark for a second, then came right back on. Not
a good sign.
Before I could scan right to verify the problem
segment on the master caution panel, something I’d
never seen before caught my eye! The EGT needle
was climbing past the 610 degree C red line and
headed straight for the peg! It was around then that
I noticed a distinct odor of burnt oil and a new
sound growing in volume behind me, a distinctive
rumble that made the hair on my neck raise up several degrees. My Okie ancestors were trying to tell me
that the durned turbine was about to take a crap.
I keyed the mike again, “I’m gonna have to put her
down right here!” To which the little blonde lady at
the log landing radioed back, “You’re on fire!”
Now I know she meant well, but I was still two
hundred feet in the air, over rough terrain and was
trying to sort out the best route around some tall
snags and find a place to plant the ship...and she had
to go and say that!
Punching off the long line just outside the loglanding perimeter, I hastily descended for the sloping
hillside ahead of me, snags, stumps, boulders, and all.
I’m pleased to tell you that the engine held power all
the way to terra firma, although she was rumbling and
must have looked mucho unairworthy to the observers on the log landing. The left skid barely missed a
stump on the down-hill side and the right skid kissed
Vol 3
Issue 1
a boulder uphill, but no rotor strike!
So there I was back on the ground and it was
beginning to look like I was gonna make it home to
Momma one more time when the little blonde lady
radioed, “Get your ASS OUT of that thing, you’re on
FIRE!” But I still had hold of a wounded Huey that
was trying to slide sideways down a 15% slope. I had
a throttle to turn off, likewise the fuel and battery
switches and the steepness of the left-skid-low slope
was pulling my upper body into the bubble door,
making up-slope house-cleaning chores difficult.
Imagine my dismay when, with the throttle rolled
to the cut-off position and the fuel switch flipped
to OFF, I heard the unmistakable sound of the compressor dramatically sucking air into the engine...the
engine rpm began to accelerate toward oblivion!
[Blondie ain’t seen nothin’ yet]
The rotor systems for all my stuck-wing friends,
is mechanically linked with the engine for this mad
dash to hell, so I quickly began to fear that main
rotor break-up was imminent! I recall involuntarily
pulling my head into my shoulders like a turtle as
the incredible sound of the out-of-control enginerotor system screamed upward to a crescendo that
could only end in a violent explosion. Ear plugs in
place, everyone?
KAAAAAAAAA-BLOOEY!!!!!
The explosion sent about twenty hookers, cutters
and other woodsmen (mushroom pickers, tree huggers, & little blonde ladies) running from a mile
around in my direction. I was still getting my harness
unbuckled and you could probably have seen hundreds of little question marks hovering over my head
like a cartoon as I scrambled out the door and down
the hill, taking giant strides, wondering what the
heck...and relishing the relative quiet of the rotors
swirling behind me. (They were whistling weirdly for
some reason!)
Once I had run a hundred feet or so, I spun
around to see an oil fire raging on the engine deck
while more flames were dripping over the side of the
fuselage, catching the paint on fire. I yelled to the
landing crew to grab some fire extinguishers and I
raced back up to the ship, thinking how stupid it
might appear, but I wasn’t about to watch this bird
burn after bringing me safely back to earth! In seconds, the ship’s little 5-lb extinguisher was played out
but just in time came the landing crew, two of them
carrying 10 lb Halogen fire bottles, which did the job.
Five full minutes passed as my old loggin’ buddies
came running up, swapping expletives and staring in
wonder at the football sized smoking hole atop the
engine, where the turbine wheels had exited straight
up into the rotor system!
I was hacking up my third Halogen hairball when
I noticed that down between my sneakers and the
woods boss’s corked boots, a wisp of smoke had just
popped out of the forest duff!
At about the same instant, we were almost run
over by a group of around ten woodsmen lugging
backpack water sprayers, who were headed uphill
and totally ignoring us. We looked over the tops
of their hard hats, past the distorted remains of my
engine, the rotor blades pierced completely through
numerous times by turbine wheel fragments. Several hundred feet up the hill, smoke was billowing
up into the tall Douglas fir. I had started a damned
forest fire!
The rest of us began stomping out five or so littler
smokes that had popped up near the Huey in the
last thirty seconds, started by tiny shards of red-hot
turbine wheels.
Then came the water-dropping helicopter! Piloted
by none other than the afore-mentioned relief pilot,
who happened to be logging with our sister crew
nearby. Dick had heard the commotion over his
Wulfsberg. He and his mechanic did a quick job of
converting his K-model Bell from a logging-ship-tofire-fighter, flying a 300-gallon Bambi bucket down to
a deep blue lake only a minute away.
Now Dick was the hero, putting bucket after
bucket of cold mountain lake water right on the
money, plus a little mist wafting our way to help
cool us off. I was feeling the irony of the situation,
big time. I looked up and gave him a thanks-now-goaway gesture as he blathered off down the hill. He
didn’t come back. End of story.
Well almost: an analysis was months in coming
from the desk guy, but common sense and a good
friend who really knows his engines had long before
determined that the turbine blew an internal seal,
allowing engine oil to flood directly into the red hot
burner section. The oil instantly converted into tremendous energy and sped the gas producer and turbine wheels on their way to a catastrophic break-up.
Epilogue: Lucky me! I’ve since made a promise
to my significant other that I will never ever fly
any helicopter that Dick has so much leaned
up against. +
13
3
So that’s how that works
2
14
a solenoid for the remote or automatic switching of
current in one circuit, using a current from another
circuit. In other words it’s a switch.
Relays are used throughout a helicopter’s electrical system to provide over voltage protection,
reverse current protection and to simply open and
close electrical circuits.
The significance of these two electromechanical devices as they pertain to the design
of helicopters is the fact that they save
significant weight over simple mechanical devices that are commonly used
on other machines to do the same
job where weight is less of a factor.
Where this becomes really evident is
in the use of relays. It is my experience
that most helicopters employ another
weight saving practice when it comes to
the electrical system. Electricity, to be useful
to us, must have a circuit or in other words a path
to and from each electrical device. In most helicopters a single wire is used to bring electricity to
a component and the fuselage is used to bring the
electricity back to the source completing the circuit.
The fuselage would be referred to as the ground.
Now we know that the majority of switches that are
used to turn on and off most of the equipment in
the helicopter are in the cockpit within the pilot’s
reach. In many helicopters the engine and primary
electrical compartment are located some distance
from the pilot’s station.
Many components we use such as starters and
generators require heavy gauge wire to carry their
large currents. Since like we said, the switches to
control these things are in the cockpit, one could
assume that these large heavy wires run all the way
to the front of the helicopter to the switch and then
to the device. But, if you have ever had the opportunity to look behind your panels you would have
noticed that in fact this is not the case. You probably noticed tiny little thin white wires running to
the back of all those switches. These switches only
need handle the small amount of electricity used to
open and close the big heavy-duty switches back in
the electrical or engine compartment, which we said
earlier, are relays. In this way we are able to reduce
the weight of the wiring harness of a helicopter.
Heavy cables required to carry large electrical loads
are kept as short as possible by using relays to open
Graphic courtesy of
Encyclopedia
Britannica
I
n 1480, Leonardo Da Vinci wrote in his Codice
Atlantico; “...I have discovered that a screwshaped device such as this, if it is wellmade
from starched linen, will rise in the air if turned
quickly...”
Yet it would not be until 1907 that Frenchman
Paul Cornu would take off vertically in a machine
we would recognize today as a helicopter. There
were many necessary technological advances
that needed to take place for the dream of
hovering flight to become reality. Many
would argue that the most significant
invention that made helicopter flight
possible was the invention of the
internal combustion engine during
the late 1800’s. Although the power
to lift a machine and a pilot into the air
became possible, this was a long way from a
flying platform that would prove useful for anything more than amazing on lookers. In actuality,
there are numerous unique materials and devices
that would be brought together to produce the first
useful helicopter.
As a helicopter instructor pilot I routinely point
out individual parts and pieces to my students
during our daily preflight. Admittedly, my knowledge of what some things do is at times rudimentary
at best. So it is my intent to look at a few of the
“gizmos” and “thing-a-mabobs” that are installed in
most helicopters and try and understand what they
do and how they help us do what we do better.
I would like to start my discovery tour by
looking at an electro-mechanical device known
as a solenoid.
A solenoid is made up of a coil of wire and
a cylindrical plunger. When a current is passed
through the coil a magnetic field is created which
produces an electromotive force on the plunger.
The movement of the plunger may be used for
numerous purposes throughout your helicopter. For
instance, solenoids are commonly used to open and
close fluid valves as in the case of a fuel or hydraulic
solenoid. Solenoids are also often used as remote
switches and to open and close relays, which brings
us to our next topic; relays.
What exactly is a relay? I know my electrical
compartment is loaded with them, but what do they
do? Interestingly enough, relays employ solenoids.
A relay is an electromagnetic device which employs
by Andrew Palmer
Vol 3
Issue 1
and close the circuit close to the device. We control
the relay by running a lightweight wire for the small
electrical load to a switch located in the cockpit.
So there you have it folks. By passing a little
electricity through a coil we can make something
move. We package it up in a little canister and we
call it a solenoid. Solenoids come in many shapes
and sizes and can be used to open close valves, to
prevent your throttle from being closed inadvertently
in flight and to open and close relays, in addition
to many other nifty things. Relays are big powerful
switches controlled by little lightweight switches.
Without the use of relays and solenoids, the helicopters we fly would be much heavier. In our business additional weight means fewer passengers, less
cargo or less time we can stay in the air, which in the
end means less capability to get the mission done.
Thank goodness for the inventiveness and genius of
men like Da Vinci, that each day technology takes
another step forward. +
NTSBs
T
he following information was
extracted from the NTSB files.
This information was edited
for available space and is subject
to change as investigations continue.
Reports were selected based on importance of the information to the broader
helicopter industry.
Schweizer 269C; Phoenix, AZ
May 13; No Injuries
On May 13, 2001, about 1040
MST, a Schweizer 269C made a hard
landing on the desert floor, and rolled
over on its side, while practicing
autorotations near the Phoenix Deer
Valley Airport (DVT).
On the way back to Scottsdale
Airport (SDL) [the instructor] took
the flight controls from the student to
demonstrate an autorotation. During
the autorotation the CFI stated that
he was unable “to get enough rpm
during the flare.” He attempted to
recover from the autorotation by leveling the helicopter; however, the
helicopter landed hard. He stated
that because of the uneven terrain the
helicopter flipped onto its side after
touchdown. According to the student; they were headed back towards
SDL when the CFI took the controls
from the student. The CFI then did
a “quick stop” (no forward airspeed)
and dropped the collective. The student remembers the CFI simultaneously stated, “watch this” after he
lowered the collective. He noted that
they were about 400 feet above the
ground (agl) when the CFI started the
maneuver. The student stated that
because of the weight and density altitude the airspeed bled off and the
helicopter started to turn in a circle
and “dropped like a rock.”
About 200 feet agl, the student
stated that he realized they were
going to crash and went to raise the
collective. He stated that the collective was in the full up position. He
also noted that the airspeed was at
zero and the rpm needles were joined
and read 2,000 rpm. The student
reported that the helicopter made a
360-degree turn prior to hitting the
ground. The helicopter bounced into
the air and then came to rest on its
right side.
R-22 Mariner; Merlin, OR,
May 23; 2 Fatal Injuries
On May 23, 2002, approximately
1545 PDT, a Robinson R-22 Mariner
was destroyed after it collided with
service lines and terrain near Merlin,
Oregon. The commercial pilot and
passenger were fatally injured. Visual
meteorological conditions prevailed
and no flight plan was filed. The flight
originated from Grants Pass, Oregon,
approximately 15 minutes prior to
the accident. A witness reported that
the helicopter was traveling northwest bound over the Rouge River.
He reported that as the helicopter
was transitioning the area, it collided
with a series of pole-mounted service
lines that traveled perpendicular the
river corridor. Shortly after contacting the services lines, the helicopter
impacted terrain.
Bell 47G-4A; Yauco, PR
May 25; Injuries: 1 Fatal, 1
Serious, 1 Minor
On May 25, 2002, at 1240 EST, a
Bell 47G-4A, helicopter collided with
two parked automobiles and burst
into flames as the pilot attempted
a precautionary landing in Yauco,
Puerto Rico. The helicopter was
destroyed. The owner/passenger was
fatally injured, the center-seated passenger received serious injuries, and
the private pilot received minor injuries.
According to the pilot, while
enroute to the destination he noticed
a reduction in engine power and a
reduction in engine oil pressure. At
this point the pilot decided to make a
precautionary landing... He selected
a landing area near a restaurant. The
pilot reported that after touchdown in
the parking lot, the helicopter started
to slide rearward. The pilot stated
that as he attempted to position
the helicopter away from the automobile, the main rotor blades struck
the parked vehicles and the helicopter and the vehicles burst into flames.
Examination of the accident site
showed that wreckage debris was scattered over an area approximately 100
feet long and 40 feet wide. The examination also revealed that the initial
touchdown point was on a steep
upslope in a confined area. Further
examination revealed that one main
rotor blade was torn from the main
rotor head and was not fire damaged.
The fuselage sustained extensive
fire damage.
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Bell 206L-1; Meadview, AZ
May 28; 1 Minor Injury
On May 28, 2002, approximately
1045 PDT, a Bell 206L-1 was
destroyed when it impacted terrain
while on landing approach in the
Grand Canyon approximately 15
miles east of Meadview, Arizona. The
commercial pilot, the sole occupant
aboard, received minor injuries.
According to a Federal Aviation
Administration inspector, the accident occurred on the third flight of
the day. The helicopter had been
operating as a non-scheduled domestic passenger flight. “Papon 10” transported three passengers to the bottom
of the Grand Canyon and returned.
Two more passengers were then
transported to the bottom of the
Canyon, and the original three passengers boarded and were brought
back. The helicopter returned to
get the other two passengers. On
its landing approach, the helicopter
struck a hillside, bounced on its skids
for 60 feet and cartwheeled, coming
to rest on its left side. According to
the aircraft loader who witnessed the
accident, there was no change in the
engine or rotor sounds.
OH-6A; Angola, NY
May 29; 2 Minor Injuries
On May 29, 2002, about 1000
EDT, a Hughes OH-6A helicopter
was substantially damaged while
landing at a private airstrip near
Angola, New York. The certified
flight instructor (CFI) and student
pilot received minor injuries.
According to the CFI, the helicopter departed the Sheriff’s Heliport
in Hamburg, New York, about 0930,
with the student pilot at the controls.
The CFI instructed the student to
perform a high “recon,” followed by a
low “recon” while in a left hand pattern, in order to inspect the intended
practice field. On the last circle over
the grass strip, the CFI requested the
student to gain altitude from 1,100
feet msl, to about 1,500 feet msl, due
to terrain. The CFI then requested
that the student conduct a normal
216
approach to the runway midfield,
and terminate to a hover. The CFI
recalled that the gauges were in the
normal green range as the student
setup for the normal approach.
The approach was into the wind,
at an airspeed of 65-70 knots. At
the decision height, approximately
75-100 feet above the ground, the
CFI observed the student starting to
bleed off the airspeed by pulling aft
on the cyclic. The helicopter then
abruptly made an uncommanded yaw
to the left, and began to roll. The
CFI observed the rotor tachometer
“ bleeding off,” and did not see the
engine needle on the left hand side of
it’s gauge. The CFI assumed control
of the helicopter. He proceeded to
lower the collective just enough to
try and maintain glide, while applying
forward and right cyclic to counter
the left roll. About 30 feet above the
ground, he applied aft cyclic to flare,
and then forward cyclic to level the
skids. The helicopter touched down
on the skids, level with the ground,
on the side of the grass strip. The
helicopter skidded forward about 50
feet, into a culvert ditch, where it
came to rest.
Inspection of the wreckage by
a Federal Aviation Administration
inspector revealed that the tail boom
separated from the fuselage, and substantial damage was sustained to the
rotor blades.
Bell 206; Columbus, OH
May 30; No Injuries
On May 30, 2002, at 0930 EDT, a
Bell 206 helicopter was substantially
damaged during a practice touchdown autorotation at the Ohio State
University Airport (OSU). The certificated flight instructor, and airline
transport pilot were not injured.
According to the pilot receiving
instruction, he and a Bell Helicopter employed flight instructor were
scheduled for a training flight on the
day of the accident. The two pilots
completed the preflight, and then
boarded the helicopter. Once airborne, the pilot climbed the helicop-
ter to 2,000 feet agl, and completed
three autorotations. All three autorotations terminated at altitude with
a power recovery, and during the
maneuvers, rotor RPM remained
within normal operating limits.
Satisfied with the autorotational
characteristics of the helicopter, they
returned to the airport to continue
the training. The pilot first performed
a normal approach and progressed to
autorotations. The pilot had completed approximately eight hovering
autorotations, and six touchdown
autorotations prior to the accident.
The accident autorotation started
with the pilot executing a normal
approach. During the approach,
while the helicopter was descending
through 300 feet agl, the instructor
rolled the throttle to idle. The pilot
lowered the collective and entered
an autorotation. At first, he did
not think he was going to make
his intended touchdown point, and
wanted to increase airspeed, but the
instructor told him to slow the helicopter to 50 knots. The pilot applied
aft cyclic, and airspeed decreased to
about 40 knots. The pilot was now
sure he would not make his intended
touchdown point by maintaining 50
knots, so he lowered the nose. As
airspeed increased, the pilot realized
he was going to overshoot, so he
initiated a left, and then a right
turn to lose altitude. The pilot initiated a flare, applied initial collective,
and then used additional collective
to cushion the landing. Rotor RPM
decayed during the landing sequence,
and the helicopter touched down
hard on the aft part of the skids.
The pilot then instinctively applied
aft cyclic, which the instructor was
unable to prevent. The helicopter
came to rest upright, and the pilots
exited under their own power. Examination of the helicopter revealed
substantial damage to the tailboom,
and main transmission mounts.
Rotorway 162F; Tampa, FL
June 03; 1 Minor Injury
On June 3, 2002, about 2130
Vol 3
Issue 1
EDT, a homebuilt Rotorway International 162F crashed onto the roof of
a house near Tampa, Florida.
According to one witness, she first
heard a helicopter then observed the
helicopter circling and observed what
she thought was the pilot lose control
of the helicopter. She reported seeing
the helicopter spinning quickly
around the axis of the main rotor,
and when that happened she heard
the “blade” noise increase to a very
deep loud pitch. The helicopter
then lost altitude but returned to a
slow circle. She reported that the
described events occurred twice
and it appeared to her that the pilot
would regain control but would lose
altitude. The helicopter disappeared
behind trees and she heard a sound
associated with an impact.
Post accident examination of
the helicopter revealed that one
of the two main rotor blades was
bent down; the other blade was
fracture separated approximately 6
Live and learn
O
n April 19, 2002, a broken aircraft, offshore
in the Gulf of Mexico, was waiting on me
to bring Pete, a mechanic, and a part to
complete repairs. I was to fly from Houma, LA to
Fourchon, LA and then offshore to South Timbalier
145 where the other aircraft was waiting. My aircraft that day was a Bell 206L1, N3195P. We made
the flight from Houma to Fourchon in 24 minutes
with no problems.
We picked up a part for the broken aircraft,
added some fuel and hovered for takeoff. Fourchon
has recently undergone significant expansion and
has so many cranes, new buildings, and large boats
that you can’t see daylight until three hours after
sunrise. Takeoffs and landings in this area require
heightened awareness to negotiate the obstacles.
As we hovered out to depart, I paused and made
the remark to Pete that due to the recent expansion
we’d be “screwed” if we had an engine failure on
takeoff. Mistake! Never tempt fate. I’m certain
a gremlin heard my comment and began scheming
against us.
We departed Fourchon and leveled at 1000 ft.
headed southwest and successfully left the labyrinth
behind. We had flown about 4 miles from Fourchon, and had already crossed the beach outbound
when I heard a bang. The aircraft yawed hard
left. The engine out audio sounded (unpleasantly).
The rotor plummeted to the bottom of the green,
and then I caught it by entering an autorotation.
During the auto, I quickly glanced at the gauges
and saw that all the significant ones were pointed
left—that’s not right! I maintained b.r.o.c. airspeed
with the rotor in the low green to keep the descent
rate low until I was ready to flare for landing. We
were 200 lbs. under gross weight, and had less than
feet outboard from the attach point.
The separated piece of the blade
was recovered. One of the tail rotor
blades was separated and was not
recovered with the helicopter; the
remaining blade exhibited damage
on the blade tip. Following recovery
of the helicopter, both main rotor
blades were removed and the engine
was started and operated with no
repairs made to the engine. +
Crash course
by Dave Lewis
5 knots of wind and the landing went well. It has
been said by some, who fly a great deal, that recurrent training is useless. If so, it is the most helpful
uselessness I practiced last year.
Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. It
gives you the test first and the lessons afterward.
We landed safely, so I suppose I passed the test.
However, now that I’ve had some time to think
about it, there are a few lessons that I learned
as well.
First—communicate by the book. During the
auto, I made 3 initial radio calls to our flight following facility. Not three mayday calls, three radio
calls. Therein lies a lesson. Ever wonder how
you’d react during your first engine failure? Everyone I’ve talked to so far has said that they reacted
very calmly during their emergency…time slows
down…you reflect on what happened afterwards. I
also remained calm (-ish)…call it…urgent casualness. I took the event in stride. I established the
auto, and then I calmly notified flight following:
“95Papa has an engine failure.”
Answer: “Say again.”
“95Papa has an engine failure.”
Answer: “Say Again.”
“9-5-Papa…Has…An…Engine…Failure.”
Answer: “Roger.”
The significance of my message was not getting
through. I only had 1000 ft to use, so out of frustration I used my other radio to notify local traffic that
“95Papa had an engine failure.” Another aircraft
understood my radio call. Somewhere during the
173
other aircraft’s response I heard flight following
asking about my location (“Ah! Now they get
it!”). I told them my location and then completed
the auto.
There was a communication problem—I was
too casual. Flight following receives thousands of
radio calls per day. They often get overlapping calls
on the same or different frequencies. The flight
following personnel were having difficulty understanding my transmission. From the time we’re old
enough to watch television we’ve all been able to
understand “mayday.” All pilots are taught to say
it. Well, somewhere along the line I started mentally practicing my engine failure radio calls as just
plain “aircraft such-and-such has an engine failure.”
Even if flight following understood my message the
first time, they would not automatically know that
I was flying in a single engine aircraft. How would
they know the gravity (pardon the pun) of the emergency? I’m thinking, what if I had been in a remote
area with no time to make additional radio calls,
and flight following wasn’t able to understand me?
Next time I’ll say “mayday.”
Second—one six pack isn’t always enough.
Many Gulf pilots carry a “six-pack” with them to
help during a water landing. A “six-pack” is the
term Gulf pilots use for the six float packs attached
to the skids of the aircraft. I had envisioned that
in relatively calm water, like the 2 ft. sea state we
landed in, one could land and float for hours waiting to be rescued. As it turns out, even if all of the
floats inflate before landing (which doesn’t always
happen), the floats are only intended to give you
enough time to safely exit the helicopter. Even with
the calm water we had that day, the back right float
took a continuous battering for about 20 minutes
and then decided to deflate. The aircraft slowly
overturned in about a ten minute period of time. A
higher sea state or a float pack that never inflated
could have made our situation considerably worse.
Now I know to anticipate the unexpected.
Third—A little experience often upsets a lot of
Test pilot
1. What services are provided for aircraft operating within Class C airspace?
a) Sequencing of arriving aircraft,
separation of aircraft (except
between VFR aircraft),
and traffic advisories.
b) Sequencing of arriving aircraft
(except VFR aircraft), separation
between all aircraft, and
traffic advisories.
c) Sequencing of all arriving aircraft,
separation between all
aircraft, and traffic advisories.
2. When advection fog has developed, 4. What does the tri-color VASI
what may tend to dissipate or lift
consist of?
the fog into low stratus clouds?
a) Three light bars; red, green, and
a) Temperature inversion
amber
b) Winds stronger than 15 knots
b) One light projector with three
c) Surface radiation
colors; red, green, and amber.
c) Three glide slopes, each a differ3. What feature is normally associated
ent color; red, green, and amber.
with the cumulus stage of a
thunderstorm?
5. How can a pilot identify a lighted
a) Beginning of rain at the surface heliport at night?
b) Frequent lightning
a) Green, yellow, and white beacon
c) Continuous updraft
light
b) White and red beacon light with
dual flash of the white.
c) Green and white beacon light
with dual flash of the white.
For additional Test pilot questions,
go to our website, www.autorotate.com
2
18
Vol 3
Issue 1
theory. I had always envisioned landing, quickly
deploying the life raft, and safely exiting the aircraft in record time. What happened to us? We
tossed our raft out the door, pulled the lanyard and
presto; the raft inflated—upside down! (According
to Murphy’s Law, the likelihood that your life raft
will inflate upside down is directly proportionate
to how urgently you need the raft.). The raft then
proceeded to drift to the front of the aircraft, and
the lanyard became entangled under the left-front
float bag. Pete worked diligently for several minutes to recover the raft, and another few minutes
to flip it over, allowing us to exit just a few minutes
before the aircraft overturned. Again, I learned
“prepare for the unexpected.” Incidentally, I never
inflated my personal life vest—I was afraid of what
might happen.
Fourth—salt water may not be a better conductor. While Pete was working on flipping the raft I
made a few radio calls. After a short time, I decided
to make another call. I turned my radio back on,
keyed the mike and……..silence. I really hadn’t
considered this before, but there’s no law that says
the radios must work for an extended period of time
after a water landing. So, we were without the
aircraft’s radios, though I still had an emergency
radio in my life vest. Somebody later brought up the
question, “What if there are no aircraft around and
you must rely on the boats in the area for assistance?” “What if you end up waiting overnight for
a rescue?” With all this in mind, it would be nice to
have a marine radio. Personally, I’m checking into
buying a handheld waterproof marine radio that I
can carry in my life vest.
This experience has equipped me for future emergencies by demonstrating that many unexpected
events may take place after a successful emergency
landing is completed. A safe emergency water landing may be the beginning of the entire event—not
the end. +
Quiz answers
1. a). AIM Para 3-13
2. b). Advection fog forms when moist air moves
over ground or water. It deepens as wind speed
increases to about 15 kts. Winds stronger than 15
kts. lift the fog to a layer of low stratus or stratocumulus.
3. c). During the cumulus stage of a thunderstorm
the cumulus cloud is building, and there are severe
updrafts.
4. b). Tri-color VASIs normally consist of a single
light unit projecting a three-color visual approach
path.
5. a). AIM Para 2-8
Next Issue
Many hats,
many missions!
Fly with the pilots of
the Arizona Dept. of
Public Safety.
Who makes
the rules?
You may be surprised
to learn where all
those 14 CFRs come
from.
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