Medium Tail Rotor Drive Failure

[Herman Nelson]

I heard a story some time ago, and before I repeat it too many times, I thought I'd find out if anyone else knew something about it and could add clarification. It goes like this:

 

Some guy was long-lining with a medium (204 I think but might've been a 205). As he was hovering in the hole with a load on, he experienced a loss of T/R drive. Cool cat as he was, and fearing he would injure personnel on the ground, he accepted the rotation and pulled out of the hole, moved aside before releasing the load, got the thing flying and landed on an airstrip.

 

Is this true???

 

And if so, this guy is my hero...

[splitpin]

I heard a story some time ago, and before I repeat it too many times, I thought I'd find out if anyone else knew something about it and could add clarification. It goes like this:

 

Some guy was long-lining with a medium (204 I think but might've been a 205). As he was hovering in the hole with a load on, he experienced a loss of T/R drive. Cool cat as he was, and fearing he would injure personnel on the ground, he accepted the rotation and pulled out of the hole, moved aside before releasing the load, got the thing flying and landed on an airstrip.

 

Is this true???

 

And if so, this guy is my hero...

 

HHMMMMMMM!

[18speed]

Yes it is true, A Midwest Bell 204 in 1987, At Pickle Lake.

 

18 Speed

[Mark_]

I've heard similar stories where the load was punched and the ship landed hard away from the ground crew but never heard of one getting flying again....you mean to say that after a T/R failure in the hover he actually got it flying again? Come on...sounds like an urban myth to me!

[AH1]

Been there. How quickly the aircraft begins to spin is stunning. You have no time to do anything of the sort.

[Herman Nelson]

Thanks 18, I'll turn a few rocks in that area and see if I can uncover a few more details.

 

I agree that the story as it goes sounds a little far fetched but if true, it would answer my question which is:

 

Is a medium flyable after the loss of T/R drive?

 

The reason I'm asking is I'm doing training using a 412 Sim and the thing wont let you pull enough power to level out at any speed before loosing control. I heard however that the 212 Sim in Fort Worth will let you but in order for it to do it, they had to program the tailboom 9 ft longer than it actually is...

 

I've always beleived that somewhere in between lies the truth.

 

H.N.

[skullcap]

I do not know about said incident in 204 and do not want to comment on it. But the 204 model has a t/r control chain which has had numberous failures which, when fail the blades go to a "neutral" setting. Apparently this can be quite exciting but can be manageable, there have been quite a few instances of this happening and many got the machine down ok.

[N1]

I do not know about said incident in 204 and do not want to comment on it. But the 204 model has a t/r control chain which has had numberous failures which, when fail the blades go to a "neutral" setting. Apparently this can be quite exciting but can be manageable, there have been quite a few instances of this happening and many got the machine down ok.

Quite a significant difference between a tail drive failure and a tail control failure. Not to underestimate the actions required to identify and recover from either.

[skullcap]

Quite a significant difference between a tail drive failure and a tail control failure. Not to underestimate the actions required to identify and recover from either.

 

 

Yeah, that's my point.....OK

[18speed]

It was a tail rotor control failure, Not a tail rotor drive.

 

18 Speed