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Some time ago I posted " made my day" about Nick a helicopter mustering pilot who was kind enough to give me a go at realizing a long time dream of actually flying an R 22.Well, today I learnt that a few days ago, nick was killed when his chopper apparently suffered an engine failure .....while flying in the so called "dead mans curve" ! For those of you who dont know what that means, its flying very slow, fairly low, usually close to , if not at full power, can be reversing the chopper and when the engibe stops, there is insufficent time /height to do a sucessful autorotation.Nick was a great young fella, a real pleasure to get to know and had no hesititation jumping on a motor bike for a few days ground work while I flew. He was going at a later date, look at getting a gyro as he thought the future lay in that direction!!Anyways, a sad day, prayers for Nick"s soul & family. Thank you Nick!
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Sorry to hear this Brian.Seems the older we get the more frequent the sad news is.Graeme.
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"Some time ago I posted " made my day" about Nick a helicopter mustering pilot who was kind enough to give me a go at realizing a long time dream of actually flying an R 22."Sure do. Made the news closer to home and sadder.Graham
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Was this the one near Julia Creek NQ a couple of days ago?
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Was this the one near Julia Creek NQ a couple of days ago?Not sure where Bones but that sounds very much like the one. Do you have any info ?
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Gd day Gentlemen,Pls access this link ; http://abc.gov.au/news/stories/2011/...=newsCheersLou
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yeah thats sad brian, i"m sorry to hear about your mate.
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That wasn"t Nick Logan was it?
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the preliminary reporthttp://www.atsb.gov.au/publications/investigation_reports/2011/aair/ao-2011-060.aspx
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That sucs, and is very unlucky, coz theres 2 belts.Both letn go is the sorta luck i have.
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Pretty amzing for both belts to let go, you would think the belts would have been making a noise, they surely wouldnt let go in 5 seconds. That wasnt the same 22 that I flew, DSD looks fairly new.Nick gave himself a good crack at surviving getting it down flat , rotors must have been going reasonably hard not to have hit the ground, guess the impact broke his back
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Thats the thing i was talking to a LAME who has a helo rebuild shop nerxt to me hangar, if one belt goes, its all over if you pulling power, the other one wont hold the power, so question is, why not 3 for eg. these things are only just flying machines the more i see of them.
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Thats the thing i was talking to a LAME who has a helo rebuild shop nerxt to me hangar, if one belt goes, its all over if you pulling power, the other one wont hold the power, so question is, why not 3 for eg. these things are only just flying machines the more i see of them.The extra friction of a 3rd belt would probably be too high ?these things are only just flying machines the more i see of them.I agree Bones, they were never designed for work in the first place....iether training or mustering although they do a remarkably good job at both but when things go wrong, they are not very forgiving.We are spoilt rotten with the "over "engineering of the gyro. When you look at a gyro next to a 22 with the panels off, it doesnt take a genuis to realize which is the stronger!!
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I agree Bones, they were never designed for work in the first place....iether training or mustering although they do a remarkably good job at both but when things go wrong, they are not very forgiving.We are spoilt rotten with the "over "engineering of the gyro. When you look at a gyro next to a 22 with the panels off, it doesnt take a genuis to realize which is the stronger!!Yes, just read an article in Flight Safety about agricultural flying. They were saying despite complaints about the low inertia and fragile rotor setup, the R22 has the lowest accident of the four main light utility helicopters in Australia (the ATSB 2003 mustering study). "The R22"s accident rate for aerial work operations was 14 per 100,000 hours, which was considerably better than the accident rate for private flying (76 accidents per 100,000 hours) or aerial agricultural operations (55 accidents per 100,000 hours)"- Flight Safety Australia Magazine issue 81If that"s true, considering most of them are used for mustering (62% apparently) and training (13% they say), that"s pretty good. Have heard complaints about them, mainly about $. I reckon they always have to be alert 10hours a day. Must take it"s toll. To me multi year Robbie pilots seem to age quickly.I"m pretty grateful for the over engineering of our gyros, god knows they get knocked about. It is easier to make things really strong and a bit heavier, but gyros are simple enough to handle some of that. I respect Robinson for a finely tuned design. I wish he had our interests at heart.
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Had a yarn with a chopper musterer. He said most accidents happen when they are going home at the end of the day as it is a job just trying to stay awake, especially after a 10-12 hour day. Scary stuff
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