MPA
Elite Veteran
Location: Australia
| Hi Pat
The forum here provides many good examples to learn from, but unfortunately what is moslty other peoples misfortunes.
It always pays to learn from your own mistakes and also from those of others.
One day you may find yourself down the same hole they are and will perhaps be able to see impending doom and maybe avoid it before you get snagged.
"Do you see approaching danger grasshopper ?"
You mention the tail rotor grip flicking off.
A recent video I posted of a tail blade shooting of my Ergo and the crashing result after it broke a skid and fell over, yeah landed it OK as it was close to the ground already but then a foreseeable fault caused it to fall and do the_nasty on itself to the tune of $120 in parts.
1 x blade and holder, bearings and pivot shaft all decamped in the direction of Tasmania over the ocean (it happened at the beach), and was not to be seen again.
A pink flash zipping towards the ocean and that was all I saw of it as I was watching the tail yaw severly from it.
The whole event was forseeable.
#1 I knew the rear skids where old, more flexible than the front meaning likely fractured somewhere but didnt fix it.
I paid the price when it came to hard landing and it broke off.
Why the hard landing, well that was the tail rotor flying off.
One component failure may have been OK as it did land and was spolling down, 2 was enough to bash my heli up and cost me $120 in parts.
This is a risk I took because this particular heli is very old I dont want to spend more than I have to on it and skids was considered fittings not a safety issue, but now I have to spend the money anyway and more so I now learn myself the full potential of weak skids I was not aware of before.
Im not about to tell everyone here to go out back and check their skids now but there is a point to be aware of there if you know they are a bit old or damaged that they are more important than you perhaps would imagine..
More to the point, any part that is worn or not quite right may as well apply and there is little point in being selective about what should be fixed and what left to fall off.
The tail rotor holders where not real tight which was not so bad for other Ergo's but this one is so old it had and old style hub and the whole pivot shaft flies out which is why JR modified it after that.
So in my case I need to check the tail rotor more often, but for others the same may not apply and there are far more sturdy and dont suffer a root flaw in construction.
You mention safety eyewear and I would not totally agree on that, it is not advisable to hover or fly over dust anytime, if you are forced to because of where you live you may need some eye protection, or a mat to take off and land on so you dont suffer it.
More the reason I dont agree is Im ceraint no-one is going to wear safety goggles at the flying feild if any eyewear at all.
Regarding bits flying off the heli, most importantly you only need to be aware of two planes of rotation being the main rotors and tail rotors and simply dont put yourself or other in the path of them.
I abide by this and so my tail rotor didnt hit me it flew off to an angle because I never fly with tail pointing at me.
A simple rule such as dont stand on rotational plane of tail or main rotors can save you in many conditions where all other mistakes were made or failures occured.
As in the case of my tail rotor where I had a failure that caused more disaster because of un attended faults in the skids, but then saved being hit by anything by sticking to one underlying basic rule at all times regarding rotational plane of rotors and not being in it at any time.
It also a fairly common sense rule that most would be aware of already regarding spinning parts on anything so all you need do is confirm it to people as a rather important rule to apply.
Anything over about waist height hover and I take it up to skids above head height but I dont sit in between looking end on to the rotors any time, like not pointing the tail to myself or others.
If it is head height and something comes of I dont you think you will get much time to do anything but pucker up and kiss the flying part as it hits you in the face.
It may surprise you to know Im not one for rules and regulations and beleive they are whipped up with vigour and little forethought and then thrust in the waiting hands as the golden solution to a given danger.
I beleive that safety is a personal state of mental awareness and up to all individuals to determine for themselves and help others see the light to determining themselves: what is safe and unsafe and how many risks at one time is too many.
If rules are to be made to show people they way then the rules should do just that and not go around gradually culling bad things because rules like that wont ever keep up with the expansive imaginations of incompetent people who are yet to develop such sense of awareness and come up with new and imaginative ways to wreak havoc, almost every day.
People who make rules for others need to guide others to a sense of awareness if they share the same flying space and some are just not aware of danger, and or create it for others by their lack of awarness.
Less rules that are better formulated will result in less confusion about safety.
A few very good basic rules are easy for most to cope with rather than some great checklist that is too expansive to be mindfull of at all times for everyone.
My advice to anyone reading all the disaster stories given about injury and such then look for as many factors that are common to all the stories that are the underlying issues and not look to surface issues of one incident as isolated to others and unlikely to happen to you.
Cheers
Dave
www.polecam-systems.com |
