Ditching

[ridgeline]

I'd side with iceman. The shoreline. No trees and probably a reasonably "flat" surface under the water.

[hybrid]

Good thread. I always instinctively mentally have the water picked out when thinking what if.

Not sure that would be the right choice, it probably comes from over 7,000 hours in floatplanes in my previous life!

 

Would be good to hear some more logic and personal experiences from those that had to make the choice?

[Grasshopper]

I often wondered how I would put it into trees, does one Keep the flare attitude and let her settle tail first or level the cabin? Zero ground speed is obviously preferred if you can get her stopped in time. Not to get into to many details about your experience but I would love your take on this Grasshopper.

On the ditching side of things I think I would choose water in the summer months when I am by myself, other than that I think trees would be best.

 

Exactly, Hurby. Originally a prairie boy, I had it drummed into my early when I went to the great west forest that, if I ever had to go into the tall timber, to kill off as much forward speed as possible and try to get the tail in before the main rotor. Obviously, if it's in the trees before the rotor strikes them , it should cut down on the airframe-bending fuselage rotation thus precipitated.

 

I was quite privy to Iceman's incident and I'd only caution that, if you're looking at a treed shoreline, you better be very confident the water's not deep, plus, be sure you don't risk the rotor striking trees and turning a fairly straightforward touchdown into a disaster.

[skullcap]

I hand an old timer told me go into the trees flat cause if you go tail first the tail hits the trees and the aircraft can flip forward to go in nose first????? Perhaps small crappy trees go in tail first but big timber go in level, what are your thoughts on that?

[Iceman]

This might have been posted here before.

 

http://www.bladeslapper.com/m/how_to_crash.pdf

 

Interesting to read anyway.

[Grasshopper]

I hand an old timer told me go into the trees flat cause if you go tail first the tail hits the trees and the aircraft can flip forward to go in nose first????? Perhaps small crappy trees go in tail first but big timber go in level, what are your thoughts on that?

 

Skully, note that I suggested getting the tail in before the main rotor. Unfortunately, the 'carpet' isn't usually uniform, so one just has to do their best to have as much airframe in the wood as possible before the main rotor starts making coasters.

 

Once blade rotation has lost its effective energy, you're almost certainly going to have the nose pitch down which, in the really tall stuff, could mean a quite nasty nose bump on the ground but, hopefully, shoulder harnesses will mitigate much of that (I wish I'd had one).

[412driver]

The army hand out I found interesting and after taking ditching training twice....I would head for the trees....

 

Like previously mentioned, I can hold my breath and all that in a controlled environment but what if a crack against the helmet renders me unconscious even for a few seconds underwater....

 

My 2 pesos worth....

[helicopterjim]

The army hand out I found interesting and after taking ditching training twice....I would head for the trees....

 

Like previously mentioned, I can hold my breath and all that in a controlled environment but what if a crack against the helmet renders me unconscious even for a few seconds underwater....

 

My 2 pesos worth....

 

I hear you but I look at it this way - after watching the videos of some (some!!) Vietnam guys ditching it isn't necessarily a crash - you bleed off rotor - sink a bit - roll a bit and exit. Lots of potential for drama and trauma but ... maybe not.

 

Into the trees is a crash every time!!

 

... a couple more dinero's worth!!

[helicopterjim]

Gotta love camp internet .....

[skullcap]

So another question for you guys, if your engine fails and you can see the bottoms of the tree trunks as are on top of rock ledge on coastline,,,(most of BC) do you flare into the bottoms of trunks which seems a hard impact or some other option as water or tops of the 150 footers? I think it would not end well but is there an option?

 

Thanks for the inputs.