Brown Outs

[Blackmac]

NEWS STORY

QuadA/AUSA: Brown Out Toll In Iraq Outlined

Defence Helicopter (Jan 06)

07 January

 

Washington, DC: Brown-outs are a menace in Iraq, causing half of all serious helicopter accidents, the Quad A/AUSA meeting here heard.

 

Some 28 US Army helicopters – fairly even distributed among the fleet of –60s,-64s, -47s and –58s – have crashed since operations began last year.

 

Brown—outs – dust blowing up to obscure pilots’ view is staggering towards some type of technical solution – but it’s not moving fast.

 

Gen **** Cody, the Army’s G3 said, in fact, he doubted a really effective solution could be obtained until aircraft go to digital ‘fly by wire’ flight systems.

 

‘We could have invested in it and the cost would have been saved by not having these accidents,’ he said.

 

Currently, no Army aircraft have fly-by-wire flight control systems – and none are planned. Comanche will be the first when it’s introduced later this decade.

 

But others say existing flight control systems are adequate to deal with the problem.

 

‘What you’ve basically got is a training problem,’ an attendee said.

 

- David S. Harvey

 

 

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This item was compliments of Rotor Hub and Defence Helicopters.

 

My personal preference was treat every landing as pinnacle landing when operating in dustyand /or snow conditions. Zero airspeed and minimum collective at touchdown.

 

I've flown 500C,500D,206A,B,111, 204B and 212 under those conditions and never had a problem. Training and common sence helps .

 

Cheers Don

[MINI]

Havent had one of those since the last time a buddy of mine put a ton of ExLax in my birthday cake.

[Heli Ops]

Has anyone got info on that Max Viv system that is out there, apparently supposed to be great in Brown Out conditions.

 

Heli Ops

[Hover-Pig]

Ah my poor American friends. Saw them try and land in snow up in Petawawa back in 1985, they brought six cobras into a hover in formation on fresh snow after we pre-briefed them in Kingston ON before flying up to Pet for that very reason.

 

Then in Sinai desert they rolled up three UH1s in dust, same conditions we flew in all the time without goggles?

 

Seems the concept of no-hover landing and take-off still not being grasped my all pilots in US Armed Forces. If you get to watch them live or on film, you will notice that they seem to, most of the time, insist on coming into a hover and hoping the cloud will clear so they can land??? They also seem to insist on hover taxiing in these big dust clouds??

 

I wish them all the best but they have a history of not flying too well in snow/dust/sand/dirt balls.