R44 Accident Deep Well Station N.T

[Rotorwork]

Another Robinson Destroyed

 

Glad the Pilot is OK

 

Fly Safe

 

R W

 

From ABC News

 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-14/pilot-walks-away-from-helicopter-crash-in-central-australia/6619298

 

A pilot has survived a crash that destroyed his helicopter on a central Australian cattle station.

 

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said the Robinson R44 went down on Deep Well Station, 200 kilometres south-east of Alice Springs, at 1:10pm.

 

The pilot activated an emergency beacon and used a satellite phone to tell the rescue coordination centre in Canberra he was not badly hurt.

 

He told them he would make his own way to Alice Springs for medical treatment.

 

The man was the only person on board the chopper, which is understood to have been destroyed by the impact of the crash.

 

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority grounded some R44's in February after a deadly crash in New Zealand.

 

Northern Territory cattle industry identity Dougal Brett died when his R44 crashed on Waterloo Station near the Northern Territory-Western Australia border last month.

 

The cause of the accident is unclear, but the ATSB is investigating.

 

 

[Kununurra]

The fact he is still alive is great news

 

 

[kaz3g]

Alive and walking is really good!

 

Deep Well is a VFR reporting point for aircraft inbound to Alice from Oodnadatta along the old Ghan railway.

 

Last time I was there the wind was very gusty and blowing a gale from the east, the thermals were active and I was being chucked around something awful. I got the ATIS, did my call and gave an estimate but then had to slow down a lot because it was so rough.

 

The lady in the tower called up to ask "Where are you?"

 

I explained and she told me to orbit south of the field while she got some biggies away. So I did.

 

Then she gave me the updated ATIS which was bloody awful for a TD with a crosswind component between 12 and 20 knots in the gusts.

 

I asked if the grass was available..."Negative"

 

I said "this could be ugly!"

 

She asked "Why?"

 

I explained..."oh".

 

Honest...the wind dropped and lined up with the runway at short final and I plonked it down as fast as I could. I just got myself to the tie down area before it picked right up again.

 

Gotta be lucky sometimes because I was contemplating doing something naughty :-)

 

Kaz

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Alive and walking is really good!I said "this could be ugly!" She asked "Why?" Gotta be lucky sometimes because I was contemplating doing something naughty :-)Kaz

Not to HER Kaz,. . .Surely ? ? ?

 

 

[kaz3g]

Not to HER Kaz,. . .Surely ? ? ?

Definitely NOT Phil!

 

The runway layout at Alice is quite unusual in that 17-35 and 12-30 do not intersect and are actually separated from each other by a few hundred metres except for connecting taxiway B.

 

Taxiway B used to be runway 04-22 in the days when most pilots flew real aeroplanes with the third wheel in the right place and was looking pretty good to me that particular day.

 

Kaz

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Definitely NOT Phil!The runway layout at Alice is quite unusual in that 17-35 and 12-30 do not intersect and are actually separated from each other by a few hundred metres except for connecting taxiway B.

 

Taxiway B used to be runway 04-22 in the days when most pilots flew real aeroplanes with the third wheel in the right place and was looking pretty good to me that particular day. Kaz

I flew into Alice a few times in the early 70s Kaz, but honestly can't remember the layout, but I see what you're getting at !. . . . I'll have to have a look on G.E. just to aide my deteriorating memoire . . .

 

 

[pmccarthy]

I flew into Alice just after the attempted plane hijacking. Was sleeping under the wing when a policeman stuck his gun through the tarp and asked what I was doing there. No ASICs in those days.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

I flew into Alice just after the attempted plane hijacking. Was sleeping under the wing when a policeman stuck his gun through the tarp and asked what I was doing there. No ASICs in those days.

OOOOH. . . .good idea NOT to retort any smartarse answers when some bloke has a gun in your face eh ?

 

I had a sort of similar experience when delivering a Britten Norman Islander to the UAE for their parachute club in mid 80s with my mate Pete, . . we did not have the correct paperwork ( this was MY fault actually,. . .I lost a couple of pages of bumf. . .) and were arrested ( gently BTW ) at drawn gunpoint by armed guards and locked up for a couple of hours whilst they checked us out with the British Embassy. I don't speak arabic, and one of them said, this is Arabia, . . .we speak Arabic. . . . OK, no argument there then.

 

When we mentioned that the aircraft was to be delivered to a local Sheikh, ( bin alley bin dustbin or summat ) their attitude changed diametrically, as apparently anyone called "Sheikh" ( pronounced" Shake" ) in the UAE is sort of connected to the Royal family,. . .and our guards shat themselves slightly, sweated a lot, and bought us loads of nice food, sweets and coffee, and apologised continually for about two hours until this guy turned up, he was in his thirties, in a western business suit, in a blacked out stretch limo with four bodyguards but looked like an assistant bank manager in his rayban sunnies !. . .but he got his people to drive us back to the airport and uprated us to first class for the return flight to UK. . . We asked him if his pilot (s) wanted a checkride, since they didn't have a similar aircraft at their jump site. . . and he assured me that his people could fly anything with wings ! ! ( his words ) . . . . .where have we heard this before. . . .So we said, . .any problems, the books and manuals and invoice copies are in the cabin !

 

Footnote,. . .the Sheikh had booked our return flight with Air France, and made a phone call to upgrade us to first class, because of our frightening experience with their security people,. . . Geezus. . . .suffice to say, if that was first class in Air Francais,. . .Gawd help anyone in cattle class. . . . total rubbish. They had a cabin staff strike on at the time and we got nose up ignorance / fairly zero service all the way back to Amsterjam Schipol where fortunately, we changed to BA. the tea was crap but you got plenty of it and the hosties and gay stewards were great !

 

Phil

 

 

[kaz3g]

Hi PHIL

 

The ERSA entry for Alice is attached...save you hunting for it.

 

Kaz