Man Survives Plunge Over Niagara Falls, Helicopter Assists In Rescue

[Guest SidewallPuncture]

Should the Forestry guys with the Longranger not have tried to rescue the woman in the icy river in the Potomac crash, or should they have waited for a twin?

 

Phil

 

had the forestry guys run out from the building to the tarmac to a waiting longranger, or a waiting, oh lets say, 212.....and they chose the longranger....I'd say they made a foolish choice. if they were already airborne, you're right, they did what they did, although with risk involved, and it worked out for them. next time it may not.

 

Ruedi has the coin to put a twin to work on his gig in the tourism biz, he had a 412 at one time....it'd be easy for him to put a light twin online and dedicate it to rescues as required.

Would you not choose the equipment with the best advantages all around as well if you had the choice?

 

[helicopterjim]

Would you not choose the equipment with the best advantages all around as well if you had the choice?

 

Better get a Cormorant!! Three engines!

 

 

 

 

[Black Mike]

is alpine working in a gorge with fast flowing water routinely with literally zero places to land when something goes wrong? If they are, then yeah....

Sidewall,

What about all of us guys that make a living water bucketing with single engine machines- over the water a good percentage of the time? Your thoughts on this? I believe that the light twins similar to the Twinstar have water buckets about the size of the container that they use to wash the windows in the morning.

Come to think of it, maybe this is a good idea- job security as the fire gets bigger. I now agree with you.

 

B.M.

[Skids Up]

Ruedi has the coin to put a twin to work on his gig in the tourism biz, he had a 412 at one time....it'd be easy for him to put a light twin online and dedicate it to rescues as required.

 

 

SidewallPuncture,

 

Well that would be nice, just drop a huge chunk of change to have a "twin" rescue machine just in case some idiot decides to do something stupid...

 

Pretty easy to spend his money I guess.

[gwk]

I don't know Rudy at all. Does this accurately describe him? Or are we just lumping all people that don't have the training we want (or think they need) into this category?

 

 

I was not describing Ruedi when I made that comment. Ruedi obviously has the training and was part of the organized rescue.

My comment was aimed at the well intentioned, but untrained in rescue, who attempt to help, but create a worse situation because they are operating out of their league.

I too, in a previous life was a Paramedic, and it was there I initially learned the danger in exceeding ones training. It,s never easy to step back and observe when you want to help, but sometimes that is the wisest move.

 

 

[Mark_]

Reudi knew the risks and risked his hide to save another...I say well done.

 

Mark

[maxtorqe]

1 engine, 2 engines does it really matter? I think all you need sidewall is a little confidence in the machine(s) you fly. what good does a second engine do in a fully loaded 212 anyways?? Or the fact that a C-box is needed with 2 engines, thats just more parts to possibly fail isnt it??

[Freefall]

I think if you don't have the confidence in your machine to make a rescue once in awhile, especially during a life or dead situation, then you shouldn't be flying it anyways. We aren't talking about extended periods of time or regular operation here.

 

And like the others said. There aren't many twins that can hover OGE OEI with any kind of a load on anyways. The MD902 is supposed to be really good OEI but they aren't even certified in Canada.

[Phil Croucher]

And what sort of light twin are we talking about? The 902 does indeed have good OEI performance, but it is simply too big not to p*ss the neighbours off around there. The only light twin that won't do that is the twinstar, which is simply an expensive way of carrying around two Allison 250s! The F1 and F2 models will run out of puff on a hot summer's day, and require you to be below 2100 kg for the Cat A performance required for such a rescue. Which leaves the N! In Ruedi's case he then has to fork out for new tools and engineer training and a whole load of new procedures, plus spare gearboxes and engines to cope with Eurocopter's slow turnaround times, although those might be better in Canada than they are in Europe.

 

With current equipment, I'm not a great advocate of the "twin automatically being safer" mentality, although in the big picture there is probably a 5-10% safety margin overall for most machines if you're talking about corporate liability, depending on when the stove quits. It certainly didn't help the Cougar guys, God bless 'em.

 

Phil

[dimit]

Where's the dead horse-flogging emoticon?

 

Dick