You spin me right round baby right round

Watching this one since a local county recently became the first US operators of the AW169.

There was a crash back in 2018 that prompted SBs and ADs related to tail rotor control.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has ordered operators of Leonardo AW169 and AW189 helicopters to conduct another round of safety checks, as investigators of the fatal crash of an AW169 in Leicester, England, have pinpointed the accident aircraft’s loss of control on a mechanical issue with its tail rotor control system. [AAIB attributed the crash to a loss of yaw control owing to a failure of the tail rotor control linkage]

In emergency alert service bulletins (169-126 and 189-217) issued on Nov. 30, Leonardo introduced repetitive inspections of the castellated nut that secures the tail rotor actuator control shaft to the actuator lever mechanism, and the tail rotor duplex bearing (every 10 and 30 flight hours, respectively) in the AW169 and AW189. EASA mandated these inspections in an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) issued the same day.
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The AAIB accident report was last updated November 2018 as ongoing. (AAIB Special Bulletin S1/2018 on Agusta AW169, G-VSKP)
 
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Looks like he lost tail rotor authority (for any number of possible reasons) while ground taxiing. With the throttles at FLY, the main rotor torque will try to jerk the helicopter around. If the nose landing gear isn’t centered, it’ll caster in the direction of the torque (left for these helos) and what you see will occur. The non-flying pilot, or the single pilot, has to immediately pull both throttles to ground idle or off as quick as possible in order to kill the main rotor torque and cease the spin.

Had this same thing happen with a Blackhawk on our ramp in TUS. Tail rotor shaft breakage and the helo began to spin on the ground after the torque snapped the tail wheel pin, spun around twice very fast before the co-pilot was able to get both throttles pulled to off. Sliding cabin doors were open and two back end crew were almost thrown out from the centrifugal force, but were luckily clipped into the ceiling with a gunners belt.
 
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One has to remember that a tail rotor is highly worked in countering the torque of the main rotor when below about 25 knots, the slower, the more work; it’s most work being done in a hover. Hence why hovering should be kept to a minimum as-needed. Also why many logging and firefighting helicopters have tail rotor failure related crashes, because they’re hauling long-line cargo or fire buckets on a long line, and constantly slow or hovering to fill, to dump, etc. Eventually, that tail gear box gives way and says it’s had enough.

Shameless plug: This wouldn’t happen with a NOTAR......(or a counter-rotating for that matter)
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
And this?

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high speed shaft failure from engine to drive shaft. Instant loss of power, but the engine Ng making a runaway to high side limit, which you can hear (as opposed to an engine failure). Pilot was in a bad area for autorotation....slow, low, and essentially almost a high hovering auto. Just not much residual rotor speed left in the rotor system to autorotate with as it decays very rapidly in this particular flight regime.
 
fholbert said:
Why would ANY sane person get into something with a thing called a Jesus Nut?

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No Jesus nut on an Astar, in the video :), they’re only on semi-rigid (2-bladed) rotor systems. Of course, one could say that a rigid-flex rotor system like an Astar has many Jesus nuts up top. :)

Even though the semi-rigid rotor system indeed has a Jesus nut up top, they are simple, efficient, and good rotor systems. You just cannot do any negative G on those particular ones, as with enough excessive negative and especially combined with a cyclic input when negative G, say hello to Jesus.....
 
MikeD said:
high speed shaft failure from engine to drive shaft. Instant loss of power, but the engine Ng making a runaway to high side limit, which you can hear (as opposed to an engine failure). Pilot was in a bad area for autorotation....slow, low, and essentially almost a high hovering auto. Just not much residual rotor speed left in the rotor system to autorotate with as it decays very rapidly in this particular flight regime.
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So..... nothing the pilot could have done? (I assume he was in that position because he was coming in for a landing).
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
So..... nothing the pilot could have done? (I assume he was in that position because he was coming in for a landing).
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he was. There has been an unusual vibration on the ceiling, indicative of something becoming out of balance in the drive shaft / main rotor area. The pilot was diverting from over the bay to dry land to make a precautionary landing and shut down. He just needed 10 more seconds or so.
 
http://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Hogg-N101DN.htm said:
In the late 1960s, and after the birth of his last child, Hogg decided to begin to save some money, and buy a helicopter. The final fiscal touch came after Hogg received some settlement money from a work related accident

In 1987 – twenty years after the start of his dream – Hogg purchased his dream helicopter, a Hughes 269B, for $26,000. Registered as N101DN, and powered by a 190 horsepower Lycoming HIO-360-A1A engine, the helicopter featured a three seat cockpit and flight controls that are directly linked to the control surfaces, eliminating any need for hydraulics.

Hogg had earned his private pilot’s certificate for fixed-wing aircraft, and had flown over 500 hours. The addition of a rotorcraft rating seemed to be a simple, yet challenging, proposition to the 58-year-old.
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Can we take a moment to acknowledge the guy on the ramp that thought "This isn't going well, I better start walking away." then looks over their shoulder and "Yup, that's going very poorly, better pick up my pace.... run!".
 
CFI A&P said:
Can we take a moment to acknowledge the guy on the ramp that thought "This isn't going well, I better start walking away." then looks over their shoulder and "Yup, that's going very poorly, better pick up my pace.... run!".
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We have to leave. We have to leave now.




What about the other guy?





Cooper is a professional, he can handle himself.
 
MikeD said:
One has to remember that a tail rotor is highly worked in countering the torque of the main rotor when below about 25 knots, the slower, the more work; it’s most work being done in a hover. Hence why hovering should be kept to a minimum as-needed. Also why many logging and firefighting helicopters have tail rotor failure related crashes, because they’re hauling long-line cargo or fire buckets on a long line, and constantly slow or hovering to fill, to dump, etc. Eventually, that tail gear box gives way and says it’s had enough.

Shameless plug: This wouldn’t happen with a NOTAR......(or a counter-rotating for that matter)
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Every once in a while I think I want to get a whirlybird rating and then I read something like this ;)

(it still sounds cool, yeah, yeah.)
 
deadstick said:
You’ve seen the footage of that Philippine EMS KA 350 that got its wings yanked off, right? Both airplanes and helicopters are fine...until they’re not.
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A point, I suppose. It does vaguely ring a bell, but I can't put my finger on the specific accident.
 
I can’t find the article, but here are a couple of pics. From what I recall, it was an IMC LOC-I, and the pilot overloaded the airframe during the attempted recovery.



9595ADFC-5004-4CBB-AC1A-2D5F998848DC.jpeg
481656FD-E938-47AB-813E-E0C956B0458F.jpeg
 
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