Now one near a school! Ballarat

[nong]

I was trained to look for the poles not the wire. I can see the pole in slide #2 as it doesn't look like a tree. I don't think the pole in slide #5 is involved

Your training was deficient.

 

 

[David Isaac]

A bit if a different thing but check this out. This choppa hits a wire that it is working. So this guy knew where it was because it was connected to his choppa. You can't account for Lady Luck not being nice . Note the rigger who jumps up an grabs the wire;)

Motz,

I just realised it was the rigger you referred to that caused that accident. There was no way the pilot was to know that the rigger grabbing the cable would instantly pull the cable into the rotor arc. It is incredible to watch the forces involved on that cable impact that instantly tore the tail off the aircraft and threw the pilot into the back seat. I also notice the centrifugal forces that opens the pilots door and ejects gear out of the chopper but the pilot luckily stays inside, albeit in the back seat.. Very lucky boy!

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

That was actually the vid I was referring to, quite an incident and incredible no-one was killed considering how close so many people were. Having re-watched it a few times I think I've worked out why it happened. I would think the helicopter had been employed to stand the mast up using the cable that was attached on the hook. Once the mast was standing and the guy wires rigged and holding it up then the pilot would have operated the hook release to drop the cable. However it's not uncommon for the hook release to fail to open the hook. They have an electric release and a backup manual release but sometimes the sear won't open without a fair load pulling the hook open. So in this case I would say the pilot was hovering down to allow the rigger to give the cable a pull to flick the hook open (the rigger and pilot would have comms). It looks like it was a bit of a serious situation either way because the pilot couldn't land with the cable attached, by the time he got to ground level the cable would have been within the rotor arc anyway... Had they been able to foresee the way the rigger's pull on the cable pulled it into the arc the best bet would have been to hover up high to full cable stretch inside and use the weight of the tower to open the hook. 20/20 hindsight of course.

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Yes those forces are amazing when you see them being absorbed and distributed where they weren't meant to. Having seen a choppa prang pretty close I can vouch for how much energy is in those blades. This video chills me a bit but is good to see no fire.. Very survivable without a fire.

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

Here's the powerline insulator washing I mentioned, all quite safe but the long hours of concentration involved... no room for even a moment's inattention. These guys have nerves of steel.

 

 

 

[rankamateur]

Motz,I just realised it was the rigger you referred to that caused that accident. There was no way the pilot was to know that the rigger grabbing the cable would instantly pull the cable into the rotor arc. It is incredible to watch the forces involved on that cable impact that instantly tore the tail off the aircraft and threw the pilot into the back seat. I also notice the centrifugal forces that opens the pilots door and ejects gear out of the chopper but the pilot luckily stays inside, albeit in the back seat.. Very lucky boy!

It took me a while to work out what became of the rigger who caused this, but he was the guy flat on his guts to the right of the wreckage. One very lucky camper, amongst many. I just wonder if he got pulled over by the cable when the rotor caught it?

 

 

[alf jessup]

But HOW do you manage to bend the wings like that?

horsefeathers,

 

With great difficulty would be my guess.

 

Alf

 

 

[alf jessup]

HITC, In 1974 I was in a Cessna 182 crash. We left one wing 30 Ft behind the fuselage wreckage, the other wing was still attached, but bent in two. Two dead, two survived. Weak wings not built strong enough ??....no we hit the bloody ground hard, something had to give ! .same difference with this Savvy...................................Maj...

Glad your still with us Maj.

 

A knowlegable and valued contributor to this forum.

 

I am please these 2 are also still with us we have had enough loss this year

 

Alf

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Thank you Alf...that's real nice of you.........................................Maj...

 

 

[storchy neil]

i tangled in two wires in the storch s at the same time but only lost the nose wheel he was unlucky the wire was not deflecked down it caugh the main gear thank his luck his wing hit first and absorbed the impact

 

as i said i did not see two wires that went to the house at 500 ft or at 150 ft when i flew over them as the wires did not run from the nearest pole to to house

 

the plane i would say has hit the wires at an angle pulling it down onto the very damaged wing neil

 

 

[Phil Perry]

I've never been able to understand the preoccupation of the media with light aircraft accidents especially since they rarely seem to know what they are talking about. I once read a report in an Australian newspaper about a Pitts Special that made a forced landing at an intersection in Oshkosh Wisconsin, thats about the same as reporting an Australian single car accident in the Chicago Herald (or whatever their newspaper is called) Must admit though I am curious how they managed to do that to the wings!

Got to agree Derek, I used to have a lot of calls from a local news reporter guy who at least wanted some background on the type of aircraft before he wrote the story, which I was, sometimes, able to give him,. . .at least is shows that some of them are willing to check the story before going with it. . . problem was, he was plugged in to the national news feeds and I wasn't so a lot of the times he called I hadn't even heard about the accident / incident yet ! ! !

 

But you DO see some howlers in news reports. . . . I looked at the news pics of that particular accident before reading the rest of the posts, and my first though was also along the lines of. . . Geez, that must be the new model Cessna "Ground Catcher" I'm also most intrigued as to what happened to the wings . . . ?

 

Phil ( perplexed )

 

 

[Phil Perry]

I thought it was both wings too but careful check of the pics show it is only the port wing (with rego numbers) that is bent. In the photo of starboard side of plane you can see the starboard wingtip and undamaged starboard aileron/flapperon.I'd love to have a look at the failure mode of that port wing, I just can't fathom such a multiple failure. Does that indicate the spar failing in buckling (twisting outboard of the struts)? Or compression failure because the plane hit the ground stationary and knife-edge on the port wingtip? Beats me! Can anyone tell me the spar type on the Savannah? Folded C section with aly sheet D nose?

Hi Al,

 

I watched a guy in a Foxbat get too slow on a go around, and he stalled, wing dropped, and "knife - Edged" the aeroplane into the ground from about 75 feet onto the left wingtip. . . it bounced a bit, and the left wing was in a perfect triple "Z-Fold" config, but the rest of the aircraft sat on it's wheels without any apparent damage. . . .weird. . . it was taxied back to it's hangar, and repaired at an amazingly low cost by the inporter, and is still flying today. . . ( this was about 4 years ago ) What a plane Eh ??

 

 

[Guest pookemon]

Drove through Cape Clear yesterday and had a bit of a look on the way past. The powerline near the school is a single strand with about 300+m between the poles. If the paddock they tried to land in is the one I thought it was, then the poles weren't in the paddock at all (more like in the middle of the paddocks on either side. Around that area there's a bunch of paddocks the same - it's a bit of a lottery if the viz is bad and you have to land around that area. Pure bad luck on hitting the wire - extremely good luck on the outcome.

 

 

[Hongie]

With the media, if its a small plane, its a Cessna, if its large, its a Jumbo Jet, if something happens more then a few hundred feet away, it was xx football fields away, if a tank holds a lot, its xx olympic swimming pools if a driver spins the wheels, he was a hoon in a high powered illegally modified drift car if someone shots someone, it was with a high powered assault style weapon if a dog bites someone, its a pitbull.

 

bottom line? Dont trust the media about anything.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

With the media, if its a small plane, its a Cessna, if its large, its a Jumbo Jet, if something happens more then a few hundred feet away, it was xx football fields away, if a tank holds a lot, its xx olympic swimming pools if a driver spins the wheels, he was a hoon in a high powered illegally modified drift car if someone shots someone, it was with a high powered assault style weapon if a dog bites someone, its a pitbull.bottom line? Dont trust the media about anything.

Hongie, . . . I'm with you on that one, . . . did you see the report about the asteroid which exploded over Russia a couple of weeks ago ?? Guess what ?? "It was about the size of an Olympic Swimming Pool" WHAT ? It was long, narrow and thin and ??? No Mental picture available. . . . And I LOVE the deadpan way that the newsreaders deliver these daft statements . . . !

 

I've swum some incredible distances when I were a lad, but I have to admit that this similie doesn't do it for me, I dunno how long an OSP is . . . ? Maybe it's the way that reporters get trained, they must have a little book of these similies, and it's got to be universal, as they all seem to use the same ones don't they. . . . . . bloody meaningless.

 

Phil ( AKA "perplexed, of Cannock" )