In-flight Emergencies W/ Class D Loads

[bleed air]

Anyone out there train for in-flight emergencies while slinging a Class D load, specifically, auto's?

 

If so, how do you do it?

[vortex]

Mr. Cooper at Alpine in Canmore may admit to doing one or two and I think even had a real one to put his skills to the test with :shock: .

[twinstar_ca]

how could you even begin to train for that!! i can only imagine that the decision to jetison is one that no one wants to have to make...

[407 Driver]

There are just a few pilots here that routinely fly class D loads.

 

It's something that one must think about, but very few have any real experience.

 

An A-119 Koala pilot in Europe had to deal with it, He saved the aircraft, but did kill his class D passenger.

 

In a perfect world, you'd like to save the passengers and the aircraft, but unfortunately, it will probably not be successful. Someone is going to get hurt.

 

My thoughts are to try for the smoothest landing for the passengers, and to take the major lumps with the aircraft, as I have much more protection than they do.

 

two thoughts..

 

flare and get them on the ground, then push forward and land ahead of them (and it's going to be a very hard run-on landing ! )

 

flare and get them on the ground and do a tail slide, using the tail boom and rear fuselage to absorb some energy?

 

Your comments? I just hope that it never happens to any of us.

[Skidz]

Just curious 407D, but how far below the a/c are your pax usually hanging (I'm talking about belly hook loads, not winch) ?

 

Most pics I've seen show the "load" on a relatively short line. Add to that the double safety and the need to time the release perfectly to avoid a splat: You're going down at 1500 fpm, gotta flare high and time the pendulum action on the load, the get 'er moving forward so's not to mulch them with the t/r...

 

Know what ? I NEVER EVER wanna do class D loads on a single...

[Helilog56]

You bring up a good point Skidz....that is something I could never understand or agree with. Class D with single engine a/c. Yea, I know.....someone will bring up that old comment that most twin engine a/c do not have any kind of single engine performance to maintain OGE hover, but that does not hold true anymore. There has been many performance upgrades to alleviate that. Look at the latest performance stats for PT6's these days.....

[407 Driver]

50' to 150'+. I generally always go with a 100'.

 

Helilog56, ...like 2 - 3DF's going to idle ????? (weigle world 2005)

[Helilog56]

Oops.....Oh yea.....I forgot about that small problem of feeding two engines with the same fuel supply.....

[bleed air]

Been away for a bit…interesting responses…so I gather then that this isn’t something that anyone actually trains for but rather has a roughly preconceived idea of what one would try to do in a given situation and then if presented with that situation (God forbid) just hope one’s idea is right?

 

Don’t get me wrong, I would never suggest tying some poor soul on the end of a longline and going out and doing a few auto’s, but does anyone even go out with a dummy weight and do auto’s? I may be overestimating the risks, but the mere thought of doing even that gives me a bad feeling about how a practice auto might end up. I have visions of explaining to the boss the result of a near zero airspeed auto from 100 feet…”…uh, H-V curve? What’s that?”

 

It just seems to me that, given all of the other emergencies that we do train for, this is one that would be every bit as worthwhile. However, I really don’t want to test this out myself, but to paraphrase the old saying, I’d rather learn from the mistakes of others (or more preferably, their successes!).

 

Any thoughts?

[Jammed left]

I've done it..during our class 'D' course. With a 140lbs 'Dummy' attached to an old steel line. We actually did most of the emergencies that one would do during recurrent. Jammed pedals, hydraulics, and autos.

 

We did the emergencies to the point that we felt we would release the line..then flew away. With a couple of the autos, we flared, released the line and carried the auto to a power recovery hover at the bottom.

 

It worked out alright in several instances, other times, misjudged the flare. Would the rescuer survive the whole thing...a matter of debate i think. Some of the 'landings' looked surivivable..but given the whole reasoning for doing class 'D' rescue in the first place, it's unlikely that there is going to be a nice field to try and do the emergency to.

 

Good fun though!!