Passenger jumps out of heli during emergency autorotation

[mickjoebill]

Ok the passenger was wearing a parachute:)
Great blow by blow description from the pilot.

Multicamera coverage including a hand held shot from the cameraman in the back.

AS350 Autorotation - with a twist - YouTube

This is the second recording on youtube of a cameraman hand holding a camera during an emergency auto all the way to impact, in this case with an open door and secured with only a slack lanyard!

There was plenty of time for him to improve his survivability, a classic case of the dangers in general, of open door filming, that are exacerbated by the pressure to get the shot.

The pilot was wearing the passengers chute, a bit worrying for the camerman after the front seat guy bailed!


Good that it all worked out well!



Mickjoebill

[photex]

There's so many questions about this and I'm avoiding most of them, but why the hell is the pilot wearing a chute?

[Weheka]

I think it's a legal requirement in this country when carrying out any parachute ops in any aircraft, all on board must be wearing parachutes.

[Cylinder Head]

Never mind the cause - great effort Roy - right on the numbers when doing it for real! Bet this won't make international news though - "just a pilot doing his job" will be the attitude but at least those of us on this forum can appreciate your skill and professionalism under pressure. I salute you sir!

[212man]

"just a pilot doing his job" will be the attitude

Yes, when I get spurious aural warnings, with no caution lights and all other indications normal, I always enter autorotation and ask my passengers to jump out........:confused:

Nice landing though ;)

[photex]

I suppose you could debate the merits of AR in this instance, but given he was near to the airfield and had clear airspace it seems reasonable.

The passenger jumping is slightly more difficult, but if he's got a chute and wants to go, who's gonna stop him?

Those guys will be dining on that story for years :ok:

[Hughes500]

Might be I need new glasses but didn't see him lift the lever at all at the bottom of the EOL ???

[Soave_Pilot]

Might be I need new glasses but didn't see him lift the lever at all at the bottom of the EOLHe did but not much. My guess is because he was very light.. Probably not even 50% fuel also.


Good job though.

[FH1100 Pilot]

Might be I need new glasses but didn't see him lift the lever at all at the bottom of the EOL ???

Maybe because it wasn't a real engine-out landing? Maybe it was because the thing was still producing power? Twelve years of flying and he couldn't determine that the engine had or hadn't quit? No yaw? No rotor droop? Hmm.

Hey, at least the guy admitted that he screwed up, which is like, yeah you had 5,000 feet to troubleshoot a faulty horn and see if it was a for-real engine failure...and you didn't...oopsie! So....well, anyways, nice flat-pitch approach, bub!

Oh yeah, and Bono wants his sunglasses back.

[[email protected]]

Simply raising the lever during the auto would have told him that the engine was still functioning correctly as the Nr would not have decayed - if it had then he would still have been in the right position for a real EOL.

Since the engine was running he didn't need much lever to cushion the touchdown as it was all power assisted.

Still - a nice PFL from 5K and everyone is safe:ok:

[Matari]

I wonder about the jumper who kept reaching in front of the instrument panel, blocking the pilot's view. I know some pilots who would have pushed him out for doing that, parachute or not!

[Hughes500]

Hm good point crab about engine as we didn't seem him close the throttle which I presume is in the roof ( ? not a 350 pilot)

[skadi]

Throttle is beside the collective, not in the roof!

http://media.adn.com/smedia/2010/03/03/22/5059515.55043.original.aurora_standalone.prod_affiliate.7.jp g

skadi

[Thomas coupling]

Once he'd made the (wrong) decision, he was quite professional about the mechanics of his recovery to land, I have to say!

Shame he made the wrong initial decision though:=

In mitigation, he was harping on about hydraulics issues and some associated maintenance. I have heard that AS350's have a notorious reputation for hydraulics issues - is that true?

[Gordy]

I have heard that AS350's have a notorious reputation for hydraulics issues - is that true?

The hydraulic pump is belt driven. The belts used to fail frequently, or more common was the A/C belt would break and then take out the hydraulic belt.

The resultant loss of hydraulics is really not that difficult to deal with if you have been trained properly.

[RMK]

Nice auto by the pilot.

I wouldn’t worry about the jumper; he was safe the whole time (he also asked the pilot if it was OK before he jumped). I know him and have jumped with him. He’s got near 20,000 jumps and is one of the best skydivers in Europe.

Now regarding the backseat camera guy? I don't know what the hell he was thinking or expecting? - but self preservation didn't seem to come to mind.

[nigelh]

Not wanting to be a smart arse but surely you could tell if you had lost power ?
RRPM stable ..... Engine temps where they should be . That should be enough to tell you the alarm is false ? What else could the alarm be warning you about ?
I assume he would have flown it properly if he had been over water otherwise he would be a Darwin winner !!!
Also the 350 really let's you know of any power changes with yaw . I had a dodgy turbine and small surges and droops in power produced quite alarming swings .
( I know this sounds smug , but come on , he had 4 minutes to work it out . I reckon it was all done for the cameras ):ok:

[TwinHueyMan]

Overall I think he did a good job and played it safe... but he violated a rule I wholeheartedly believe in - once you've made it to the ground in an emergency, stay on the ground. There was an unknown anomaly with the aircraft, he got it on the ground in excellent fashion, then did a quick reassessment and hover taxied on back to the pad. Let the maintenance guys drag it from the runway and ground it until the problem is solved.

Would have been very sad had the issue been more significant and he lost the engine during a hover and not handled it as well as the initial emergency.

Just my opinion.

Mike

[misterbonkers]

TwinHueyMan - wholly agree with you there! Look over the machine first.

Personally, as Captain, regardless of my ability I would have demanded the cameraman belt up in the back and brace up for a PFL.

NigelH - you have many hours and a lot of experience - when things are happening not as expected sometimes it's best to air on the side of caution and get it down - would you wont to prelong a flight in a machine with an over speeding head? I don't know how long the cricket bats would last...!

[nigelh]

I agree on getting onto the ground pretty quick to assess the situation , but the head was not over speeding . RRPM was in the green . Temps and pressures were normal . I don't think he did anything much wrong ie an approach which you could turn into a full auto was the right move . It's the thinking he had an engine failure that I didn't get . Anyway it all ended well !!

[Flyting]

As said already, he had time to figure it all out.
First things first.... do you hear the engine runnning before you make the wrong decision?

A bit of CRM... turn the horn horn horn HORN HORN HORN off so you could think more clearly.

[sonoferick]

Right or wrong decision, thanks to the pilot for putting the clip up, and to MJB for posting it. Good to see a happy ending.
SOE

[Jet Ranger]

The guys are legends. We are all only a human beings.

The film will be more interesting that the pilot also jumped-out (btw. Is it possible to do that - to escape the strike from the main rotor?)... and that the camera-guy finished the autorotation:E

JR

[212man]

The film will be more interesting that the pilot also jumped-out (btw. Is it possible to do that - to escape the strike from the main rotor?)

Around 2004 an AW139 Test Pilot and Flight Test Engineer bailed out after autorotation testing went awry (not sure of the precise problem.) Sadly, they only had a 50% success rate! :(

[Jet Ranger]

Hmm, probably the pilot was the last one and in a bit more complicated situation...

JR

[[email protected]]

Hmmm - must be an AW thing since the same happened on an early EH101 many years ago.

[212man]

JR, no it was the FTE that died.

Crab, that was a TR pitch change link that failed. All 4 crew bailed out - the Captain quite late. There was a very interesting article in 'Cockpit' with first hand accounts from each crew member in it, a few years ago - pretty sporty! I went down to AW a few weeks later and had been scheduled to fly it, but they banned non-test crew for a while so I had to make do with the sim...

[cyclic stop]

Did he say 12 years of flying with no emergency? He needs to fly a Lynx fora year to get some practice in :)

[Max Power 3503e]

Post 1.

Jumping out of a perfectly running Squirrel. I don't get it.
Negative on...Flashing high rotor RPM (HORN) caution light, (Eng) pressure caution light, (Gene) caution light. Ng showing 70 plus percent. TOT. Did you even look at that? Nr/Nft... How did that look? Engine oil pressure gauge. What was that reading? At least we know your caution panel was working with the blinding 'Doors' light on.

5000 feet agl at 65kts/1700 ft per minute decent would give enough time to do some trouble shooting.

Great training video.

[Arm out the window]

Some trouble checks would certainly have gone a long way - I'm tending to agree with whoever said it was done for the cameras, seeing as they were all there. 'Now check me out from this angle...'

Still, it can be hard to think clearly in the heat of the moment so maybe it's legit. Cancel the bloody horn though!

[Left_Pedal]

Good efforts all round by the pilot. Only thing I would've done differently is smacked that idiot in the front left seat every time he reached over and pointed at something in front of the pilot.

:ouch:

[mickjoebill]

I'm tending to agree with whoever said it was done for the cameras

The incident itself was caused by a genuine unplanned, unrehearsed, unscripted malfunction involving a broken sensor.


Mickjoebill

[Arm out the window]

Fair point.

I suppose what I should have said is, did the presence of the cameras influence what he did?

Autoing down like that, as has been said already, plenty of time for some troubleshooting.

If not distraction due to presence of cameraman and knowing he was on the fixed cam too, then it seems strange that the training we (hopefully) all get didn't kick in, as a little voice in the back of the mind going "look for secondary indications."

[Hughesy]

A bit of CRM... turn the horn horn horn HORN HORN HORN off so you could think more clearly.

Why turn the horn off? What if you then had a HYD issue? (however highly unlikely) You have no audial warning of that emergency then all of a sudden your accumulators have run out. Perfect time for that to happen when your low to the ground. Or at any time.

I would leave the horn on, as its only showing High RRPM tones, then it will also let you know if HYD or low RRPM situation happens.

[Flyting]

What if you then had a HYD issue
think about that for a second... the horn is going off already, do you think a hyd failure with the horn already going would have been noticed by, um, the horn maybe pinging inbetween the baaping??? The little red light on the dash would be the only warning besides the lock up after acc depletion...... so no, turning the horn off wouldn't have made a difference.
He had also set up an auto of around 60kts so wouldn't have made much difference to a Hyd failure.

[Bellrider]

In our company we have a fleet of 12 old Bell06 and we have that problem every year for One time! Engine out warning due to an N1 sensor failure! I even had that problem during checking powerlines! In this case you have 2 sec to make the right decision! But i can tell you it is really shocking for some seconds!
My first view in those cases is: 1. engrpm and 2. Gen warning light both negativ go on to make money for your company :bored:

[Hughesy]

think about that for a second... the horn is going off already, do you think a hyd failure with the horn already going would have been noticed by, um, the horn maybe pinging inbetween the baaping??? The little red light on the dash would be the only warning besides the lock up after acc depletion...... so no, turning the horn off wouldn't have made a difference.
He had also set up an auto of around 60kts so wouldn't have made much difference to a Hyd failure.

I do actually. The pilot in question would be looking out side at the time (unless flying an auto on intsruments alone).
A change in horn tone would bring his/her attention inside to which he would notice a change in flight condition of the heli. i.e HYD failure or low RRPM.
Then he would be able to prepare to make a landing without HYDS, or fix RRPM.

Think about this, would you prefer to know you have a HYD issue well before a flare/landing or as you apply aft cyclic?

I think I would prefer to know well before so I can plan my approach :ok:

I would be leaving the horn on. No where in the FM does it say "turn horn off" during emergencies.

[212man]

I do actually. The pilot in question would be looking out side at the time (unless flying an auto on intsruments alone).

I would say the lack of lookout was quite noticeable, but not unusual these days....

[Max Power 3503e]

Standing by for the incident report...

[Max Power 3503e]

What was your Chief Pilots comment on this show?...

[rotate1953]

Got to give that Pilot an (A) for Autorotating!

[RVDT]

Autorotation? When? Never happened.

If the collective was fully lowered and the needles never split I would be seriously checking the Auto RPM on this aircraft. Just in case if it does really stop it will actually autorotate.

OK the audio may not be the best but to my ear the RRPM does not vary at all.

[212man]

Got to give that Pilot an (A) for Autorotating!

Yes, great response. Nothing actually failed and he put his pax at risk - great response..........

[rotorrookie]

mayday mayday mayday..... why even bother, fly the bloody thing and valuate your options is first thing to do, issuing a mayday would be the last.
And before you all jump at me for saying this sitting on my couch I've been in similar situation on a 206L where a wire broke on one of two gas producers pick-up's which causes engine out horn to come on and gas produce gauge goes to zero. It happen at 4000agl while doing aerial-filming in middle of nowhere with 3 pax on-board. Went straight to auto and aimed at possible landing spot(where not many options around) decided to mute the horn next, found out then I could still hear the engine, applied little collective, and little more and more, stopped descending at 1500agl and flew to the next airstrip to calm my passengers.
I think in this video even though the pilot did do a good job he was little fixed on that he had a power issue and was not maybe making the best decisions there, but in his defense it is always stressful to have those jumpers on-board :O and having another helicopter and the rocket man in the same area was probably distracting but applause to him to come public with this, for us the wizards to judge :E

[Octane]

I'm curious, when performing an autorotation, would it be better to land on the grass or the bitumen. Roy had the option of both..