Dropped Buckets

[407 Driver]

Well, I never actually "dropped" a bucket, but one did depart the aircraft in 2003. A shackle backed off when I was in the Vermillion River, and as I pulled the bucket out of the water, things seemed quite Light, as just the longline was left I looked down, there was the bucket, but it was not attatched to me anymore. Of course, it was in front of 50 tourists with cameras. I landed (opposite side of the river from the gawkers), and was about to wade the river to get it ( a full 200 gal bucket ????) but it started to depart downstream. The fire crews, a couple of Heli crews, and I had a great 30 minutes of walking downstream, watching this flopping bucket come and go from view. Dan, the Venture man offered to try and snag it with his 205 bucket, (thanks for the offer Dan). Finally, it reached a shallow area, and I did wade out to my waist and grab it ! No serious damage, I'm still using it.

Memorable afternoon, and cool in the +30 heat ! and We still all got our 8.0 's :up:

 

Then there was this young guy at a BCFS foam seminar in Invermere BC (April 1985 ? ). 100 Forestry persons, 3 helicopters, they asked for a volunteer pilot to demonstrate a foam drop, 2 of us hid, but ______ shot his hand up "I WILL". he filled his bucket with water and foam mix, then hovered at 100' front and center, what happened next is obvious -- the entire Bambi bucket dropped 100' with a remarkable WHAK ! The 206 did a long slow circuit back to

staging. The pilot did state, "all I wanted to do was fly away and forget the whole thing ever happened, but the Boss would want the broken bucket back". There was very little damage actually.

..Finger trouble on the first bucket drop of the spring

[helicopterjim]

I know of a check pilot who took a new employee out to a quarry to do some bucket practice. Since the button were all reversed on the cyclic (including the main hook release!) he reminded the new pilot several times to ensure that the right button was used! Then he proceeded to demonstrate for the new pilot what he wanted him to do - and promptly dropped the bucket in a very deep quarry!

 

An aside to all of this I will refuse to operate a helicopter with non standard switches on the cyclic or collective. I believe that it has contributed greatly to the demise of at least one pilot.

[twitch]

I dropped an old "waterboy" bucket back in '81 (does that count, they were a royal pain) on a fire in Manitoba. It landed on a rock from about 150'. The way the aluminum formed around the square steel frame on the bottom was quite interesting. I thought "cool drop forged aluminum"

[Zazu]

I dropped an old "waterboy" bucket back in '81 (does that count, they were a royal pain) on a fire in Manitoba. It landed on a rock from about 150'. The way the aluminum formed around the square steel frame on the bottom was quite interesting. I thought "cool drop forged aluminum"

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One day after rapping out of a 206!, pilot went to pull a couple of buckets out of the Illecillewat river. He got a little too close to the main flow of the river and AWAY he went...eventually punched it off and we had to go get it. It sure was kind of funny though, watching your machine go down the river being pulled by a bucket

 

Zazu

[gov]

I was in Whitehorse in 78 and I went up there without my bucket which was a new GRIFFITHS being shipped right from the factory straight to Whitehorse. When it arrived I asked the forestry folks I half jokingly about the closest shallow lake so I could recover said bucket should it depart said a/c during the test drive. The release mechanism was a pair of push buttons half way down the collective and worked ok when operated as designed. It looked like a good photo op so my patrner in crime got out on the beach with his camera and as I was watching him during the flyby you guessed it. Fortunately I had recieved good directions from the forestry people and I could see my new equipment in the water and some friendly soul with a wet suit (it was June in the Yukon). It was bent out of shape and never worked properly all summer long. I hated that bucket and fortunately never saw another Griffiths.

[PIC]

Speaking of dropped external loads, the following story had some much more serious implications than the bucket dropped in Penticton.

 

In Austria, a chunk of concrete fell from a helicopter and hit a gondola cable, hurling dozens of passengers to the ground and killing at least nine people.

 

Cable car crash in Austria kills at least nine

[deuce bigalow]

OK OK I confess. Back in the old days, and I'm going back a few years, we used to tie an inner tube into the old waterboy. It was only of use if you hit the tit when you were picking up.

 

On another occasion I had a Bambi depart due to the manual cable being rigged too short in a HU500. Amazingly it was empty and it turned turtle and sort of parachuted onto a scree slope. I flew my engineer over and he hooked it up and I went to work. 1000' drop didnt bother it a bit. You wouldnt want to try that with a waterboy or griffiths.

[vortex]

On another occasion I had a Bambi depart due to the manual cable being rigged too short in a HU500.  Amazingly it was empty and it turned turtle and sort of parachuted onto a scree slope.  I flew my engineer over and he hooked it up and I went to work. 1000' drop didnt bother it a bit. You wouldnt want to try that with a waterboy or griffiths.

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They do parachute quite nicely when dropped. I watched a Paramount 205 drop one in the middle of the Homathko river in 1990 from about 300'. The parachuting Bambi coincided with a radio transmission :shock:

[justfly]

...The parachuting Bambi coincided with a radio transmission :shock:

'cause of a slip o' the finger (presuming the obvious), or radio frequency opening an electrical release?? (can that happen???)

[vortex]

'cause of a slip o' the finger (presuming the obvious), or radio frequency opening an electrical release?? (can that happen???)

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I think it was a case of the tx button and the belly hook felt just a little too similar. I've never heard of a radio freq. effecting a hook but I still haven't heard it all yet.