Auto rotation from Hawaii

[GroundPounder]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Absolutely wild footage, this is a real world engine failure in a MD500 (Think Magnum P.I. helicopter) over Kauai, Hawaii out on a tour flight. <br><br>You’ll probably have to watch this a few times but the video starts out with the helicopter under power and then the engine sound goes… <a href="https://t.co/tFVGhqypzx">pic.twitter.com/tFVGhqypzx</a></p>&mdash; Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) <a href="

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1765212131505348673

">March 6, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


As I've never been anything other than a helicopter passenger, I shouldn't offer any comment on how well the pilot in this case did. It seems like he did well, though.

 

[Meyerkord]

As I've never been anything other than a helicopter passenger, I shouldn't offer any comment on how well the pilot in this case did. It seems like he did well, though.

If your engine fails and you crash your helicopter and no one dies, you did a damn good job.

 

[Griz882]

I can tell you from experience flying the -500 that when the engine quits you are landing pretty much where you see out of the chin bubble at that moment.

 

[GroundPounder]

I can tell you from experience flying the -500 that when the engine quits you are landing pretty much where you see out of the chin bubble at that moment.

Then he was in the right spot. Looked like a lot of ocean and mountainside, with a pinch of cove in the middle.

 

[sevenhelmet]

Impressive! That pilot nailed it. Wonder what happened with the engine? Seems like it went out abruptly- fuel starvation?

 

[KODAK]

Impressive! That pilot nailed it. Wonder what happened with the engine? Seems like it went out abruptly- fuel starvation?

Possibly, but in my fuel exhaustion experience (all on deck and part of an FCF/ planned maintenance evolution) it’s a little more gradual. My guess is a sudden failure of some dynamic component but in due time I’m sure we will know. Well done to the pilot and an incredible training video for the rest of us to enjoy and learn from..

 

[Brett327]

This is about 10 miles from my house. It's tough to truly appreciate how rugged this terrain is, and that little strip of beach is a lot smaller that it appears. Kauai has a tremendous volume of tour helo traffic, and we seem to lose one every few years. These folks were lucky to walk away.

 

[JTS11]

This is about 10 miles from my house. It's tough to truly appreciate how rugged this terrain is, and that little strip of beach is a lot smaller that it appears. Kauai has a tremendous volume of tour helo traffic, and we seem to lose one every few years. These folks were lucky to walk away.

As a former helo pilot, I still hated to ride in the back. I at least wanted to be hooked into iCS. Hence, I will never do a HI or Grand Canyon helo tour, without them allowing me to do a thorough logbook and NATOPS jacket examination. 😄

Kudos to this dude for handling this emergency successfully, it appears. Looks like not a lot of good options in front of him/her.

 

[Hotdogs]

This is about 10 miles from my house. It's tough to truly appreciate how rugged this terrain is, and that little strip of beach is a lot smaller that it appears. Kauai has a tremendous volume of tour helo traffic, and we seem to lose one every few years. These folks were lucky to walk away.

That aircraft was lucky to take off, considering the size and weight of that pilot’s cajones.

 

[Griz882]

End product shown here. Comparing the video to the photo it appears the pilot had to do a 180 auto to hit the narrow spit of kind-of level beach. The terrain rises quickly from there. As others have noted…great job.

 

[JTS11]

 

[Gatordev]

That looked pretty damn good. You can hear (and see with the shutter speed) how long it takes him to get the turns back, too. Obviously it's tough to tell from the camera moving back and forth, but it looks like he started the flare a little early, probably because he saw the terrain on one side and the rock to the other and was trying to make it more vertical. I wouldn't be surprised if one or the other hadn't been there, it would have stayed upright.