raymundo:
would there not be less stress on internal g’box components while doing so ?
You need more engine speed/collective to make a helicopter hover = more load/stress.
In forward flight the engine speed/collective are reduced = less load/stress.
^^^this,helicopters are designed to hover but usually as part of the take off/landing,hovering rather than flying uses more engine power and requires more concentration/input from the pilot-more stress on man and machine,hope this helps
There seems to be a rule that helicopters can’t be hovered for longer than the the maximum rated take off power time limit ?.But there doesn’t seem to be any information concerning what that rated time limit is for any type of helicopter that’s easy to find.
Pimpdaddy:
what would have happened for the main rotor to come to a standstill?
For the rotor to stop its almost got to be gearbox failure which can and does happen. The 'copter literally falls out of the sky.
With total loss of engine power for whatever reason and you have a chance of putting it down due to the autorotation muckles refers to. Given that a very limited amount of time & control is available and a very quick decision has to be made, a flat roof could appear to be an ideal (crash) landing spot. Its unfortunate the roof couldn’t support the impact.
In the case of a gearbox failure that takes place gradually,as opposed to instantaneous seizure,then maybe it’s possible to get a combination of the former and the latter ?.
IE something like a vehicle gearbox failure resulting in coming to a relative grinding halt as opposed to instant drive wheel lock up.
We watched the helicopter erect the pylons for the Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, cable car (we live opposite) and the helicopter could only hover for a few minutes and then had to do a flight around the area and try again. The conditions were very windy so the team struggled to get the pylons onto the bases, hence the reason for taking several attempts.
On the radio this week someone said that the 'copter that crashed had two engines and was more than capable to fly and land on just one engine so something strange obviously occoured, no doubt all will be revealed now that the machine is with the experts. Does anyone know if more bodies have been found as there were some people missing, not seen the news for a day or two?
Pimpdaddy:
All bodies are said to have been found & the machine has been recovered.
I saw it on the back of the accident investigation units volvo from Boscombe down heading down the M3 to Farnborough had 4 police cars and a couple of motorcycle outriders escorting it, yesterday afternoon about 17.00 ish
my heart goes out to all the families involved in the tragic loss of life at this time of year,
the guys at Farnborough are the best in the world at getting to the bottom of what caused this tragic accident, hopefully they can get there findings out quickly to give people closure and time to grieve
wildfire:
the guys at Farnborough are the best in the world at getting to the bottom of what caused this tragic accident, hopefully they can get there findings out quickly to give people closure and time to grieve
It seemed to take a long time to get the wreckage from Glasgow to Hampshire. It left Glasgow on Monday around lunchtime and never arrived at the AAIB till late Tuesday evening. Best part of 30hrs I think. I wouldn’t have imagined that they had to adhere to tacho regs plus I remember seeing it was double manned.
wildfire:
the guys at Farnborough are the best in the world at getting to the bottom of what caused this tragic accident, hopefully they can get there findings out quickly to give people closure and time to grieve
+1…#AAIB
I lost any & all respect for the AAIB after Prince Charles ran a BAe 146 off the runway.
The RAF do the recovery of downed aircraft. A specialised section known as Crash n Smash, based at MOD St Athan in South Wales and also at Boscombe Down. They don’t just load, secure and go, they also have other jobs at a crash site, such as manning the edge of the cordoned area, as part of a the search team etc, and are very much part of the search, rescue and recovery teams. They attend all civilian and military aircraft crashes and work very closely with the AAIB. The lorry is double manned but with police escorts, they have to stop periodocally to change the ■■■■■■. They were at Lockerbie and Kegworth and were part of the search for debris and bodies, and recovered some of the bodies at Kegworth working along side the emergency services. The job is very demanding and doesn’t suit everyone. A lad i served with has just left the RAF and his last 10 years were on Crash n Smash.
We used to do that from RAF Bicester back in the 70,s never had police escorts though used to do it ourselves. Could take a couple of days or weeks depending on what had to be done on site and location, last one i helped with we had to extract it from within a wood. No mean feat when you have to get cranes and Queen mary trailers in there without disturbing to much. Only time police ever got involved was when we took big loads through London.
stagedriver:
It left the scene on a DAF not a Volvo? Unless it has been switched somewhere hence the time difference?
it might of been was dark and didn’t realise what it was till level with it, just told by some guys down at Amesbury today that they use a Volvo at Boscombe
My theory is it ran out of fuel there was no explosion or fire on impact, even if there was a fuel cut off switch you would think the impact would rupture the tanks, eyewitnises say it just fell out of the sky… no noise, and there was never any mention during the rescue operation of having to deal with spilt or leaking fuel. The landing site was said to be only half a mile away so maybe they thought they would or could make it .
mrfh480:
there was never any mention during the rescue operation of having to deal with spilt or leaking fuel.
There was, FRS told the media the ‘recovery’ operation would take some time as they had to get access to the fuel tanks and specialist equipment to pump out the remaining fuel before they could safely get near it, and/or remove it.
It doesn’t surprise me that there was no fire, the tanks on these things are well protected for exactly what happened, a high G vertical landing.
If it simply ran out of fuel, then the blades would still be rotating. If the blades were rotating at the time of impact, then the main parts of the blades would not be near the body of the aircraft.
My best guess is that the gearbox suffered a catastrophic failure which led to the seizure of the rotors. I’m told that this wouldn’t necessarily stop the engines immediately !
The Police have a lot of explaining to do with regards to moving the aircraft before recovering all of the bodies
The manufacturers of the aircraft have a lot of explaining to do with regards to the quality of the gearbox.
I think the reason there was no fire or explosion was because of the roof structure of the pub. Apparently it was triple layered. I reckon these layers absorbed a lot of the impact. Had it crashed onto the road, then we might have had an explosion.
I see Trucknet Air Crash Investigation Team are well across this, I do hope someone has had the foresight to inform the relevant authorities of your conclusions.
