• Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?

    Go here:

    Edit Account Details and Profile

The Great, Constantly Changing Picture Gallery...part DEUX

Status
Not open for further replies.

bert

Enjoying the real world
pilot
Contributor
Funny you say that, I thought the exact same thing.....

I asked an Army aviator what happened to those two guys, apparently the other guy (the one of little faith) was acutally the CO if I understood correctly and well, they both got hammered for it. I'll have to ask my friend again, as they were briefed on that incident regarding how it relates to CRM.

Not true.
 

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
How "durable" are helo blades to object strikes? Say a bird strike or if you accidentally clipped some trees.

Fairly strong. A bird isn't too big a deal. Clipping trees (which happens quite often...and recently, actually) will usually destroy the tip caps but the blades do okay. I've taken a soda can through the arc on a ship(non-event, left some green on the blade from the paint on the can) and a kids baby blanket through the arc. Fortunately, the baby blanket ripped up and some of it went back out while the rest of it blew down onto the ground after a few passes from the blades. We couldn't shut down until a couple hours later, but everything was fine when we did.
 

wlawr005

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
1) Had a SEAL team drive their Hummer into the rotor arc to load some stuff (while shutdown of course). They had a .50 pinned pointed upwards and destroyed a tip cap, trim tab, and about 6" of blade. Pulled up into a hover later to see if the bird was stable enough to fly back to Mx and you couldn't tell the difference.

2) Destroyed two tip caps when we hit some trees on the edge of a river, didn't even know it till we shut down.

3) Heard about a 60 losing TR authority while conducting HA/DR in Pakistan around '05-'06. They kinda slid down the side of the mountain and took some softball sized rocks through the arc...flew that one home too.
 

Pags

N/A
pilot
Fairly strong. A bird isn't too big a deal. Clipping trees (which happens quite often...and recently, actually) will usually destroy the tip caps but the blades do okay. I've taken a soda can through the arc on a ship(non-event, left some green on the blade from the paint on the can) and a kids baby blanket through the arc. Fortunately, the baby blanket ripped up and some of it went back out while the rest of it blew down onto the ground after a few passes from the blades. We couldn't shut down until a couple hours later, but everything was fine when we did.
The ole Sikorsky Hedge trimmer is pretty tough. I know a couple of guys who have lost tip caps.

PhrogLoop can probably provide better stories, but I've heard of Phrogs taking messenger lines for the RAS through the arc and rappel lines that have gotten wrapped up on the pitch change rods (or links or whatever the phrog called the connections from the swashplate to the blades).
 

Jim123

DD-214 in hand and I'm gonna party like it's 1998
pilot
H-60 tip caps might as well be sacrificial (except for the part where the pilot gets in trouble and the fact that replacing them takes some effort and an FCF).

Rotor blades in general can survive some pretty amazing hits. The most extreme case I can think of was a Bell 206 hitting high tension powerlines (the big kind that come out of powerplants to power a whole city). Granted, those blades were a writeoff afterward but immediately following the wire strike they held on long enough for the helo to land (as opposed to crashing). Anecdotal, but impressive.
 

Brett327

Well-Known Member
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
H-60 tip caps might as well be sacrificial (except for the part where the pilot gets in trouble and the fact that replacing them takes some effort and an FCF).

Rotor blades in general can survive some pretty amazing hits. The most extreme case I can think of was a Bell 206 hitting high tension powerlines (the big kind that come out of powerplants to power a whole city). Granted, those blades were a writeoff afterward but immediately following the wire strike they held on long enough for the helo to land (as opposed to crashing). Anecdotal, but impressive.
Do you even know what a write-off is, Kramer? :D

BTW, how in the fuck does a rap rope get all the way up in the rotor head?

Brett
 

bert

Enjoying the real world
pilot
Contributor
The ole Sikorsky Hedge trimmer is pretty tough. I know a couple of guys who have lost tip caps.

PhrogLoop can probably provide better stories, but I've heard of Phrogs taking messenger lines for the RAS through the arc and rappel lines that have gotten wrapped up on the pitch change rods (or links or whatever the phrog called the connections from the swashplate to the blades).

The case I know of the rope wrapping around the aft head resulted in a class "C".

For Brett, the HAC was a known issue - it wasn't even the worst incident he had that FY.
 

Pags

N/A
pilot
Do you even know what a write-off is, Kramer? :D

BTW, how in the fuck does a rap rope get all the way up in the rotor head?

Brett
My passdown sea story knowledge of it has the RAS event occurring off of USNS Mt Baker. The Phrog happened to be flying between the two ships before the RAS when a deckhand popped off a messenger line earlier then expected. The line went into the rotor arc and tightened up around the rotor systems.

I still have no real clue how the rappel incident happened. I've rappelled guys a couple of times and the line has never made a move towards the rotor.
 

BACONATOR

Well-Known Member
pilot
Contributor
The flight attendants would never let you sit in first.....

That's why living OCONUS is so nice. Between all the TAD and govt travel, I have elite status and tons of miles. Those traspac flights are MUCH mo better in Business Elite/first. :D
 

Alpha_Echo_606

Does not play well with others!™
Contributor
Moon.jpg

120207-N-DR144-915 ARABIAN SEA (Feb. 7, 2012) An SH-60F Sea Hawk helicopter assigned to Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron (HS) 15 launches from the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). Carl Vinson and Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 17 are deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class James R. Evans/Released)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top