R-44 down in Sherman Oaks

[RDoug]

Four people, no "life-threatening injuries".

Helicopter carrying 4 makes emergency landing in Sherman Oaks neighborhood

 

[Murdoughnut]

Helicopters doing what helicopters do.

 

[Pilot Fighter]

I'm curious where he was thinking about landing when he deployed his floats.

 

[sweeps]

I'm curious where he was thinking about landing when he deployed his floats.

I thought the same thing, but then wondered if the impact could have deployed them.

 

[deadstick]

I think those are fixed floats, not pop-outs.

 

[Pilot Fighter]

I think those are fixed floats, not pop-outs.

They look like Dart emergency floats to me.

Need to find another pic. If they are four piece, they are emergency. Otherwise, they are fixed. I think Dart is he only supplier of emergency floats for the 44.

Update: After some Google-fu, I think they are fixed.

 

[deadstick]

I started to seconds guess it because most of the fixed floats weren't yellow. However, the pop outs have 4 separate cells.

And here are some fixed, yellow floats.

 

[Boris Badenov]

Whatever they are, they didn't pop when having a helicopter dropped on them hard enough to spread the skids! Waterwings they are not.

 

[deadstick]

I don't know if this is still the case, but at one time, the procedure was to auto into the water, let the fuselage absorb the initial impact, then pull the trigger on the floats. On several occasions, the pilot popped them before hitting the water, and when the aircraft touched/splashed down in the water, the floats departed the aircraft. No bueno.

 

[MarkE]

Interesting. That's only a few blocks from me. Wondered what all the commotion was, last Friday. Glad no one was seriously injured. They might have received a parking ticket, though!

 

[knot4u]

I work at KVNY and that helicopter looks familiar as does the name of the company. I haven't seen a helicopter on floats around here in a long time. Maybe they just install them when they're needed, maybe for flights to Catalina? I haven't touched a helicopter in a very long time so I have no idea what the rules are or how difficult they are to install and remove.

 

[gne in prog]

They might have received a parking ticket, though!

We're not parking it, we're abandoning it.

 

[CFI A&P]

We stay in Sherman Oaks during our VNY overnights. It could have crashed into our hotel... gasp. Ban all helicopters!


Sent from my Startac using Tapatalk.

 

[fast89pony]

I'm curious where he was thinking about landing when he deployed his floats.

Maybe to help soften the impact? Anything helps at that point.

 

[Boris Badenov]

It's like the rest of the thread never even happened.

 

[fholbert]

We're not parking it, we're abandoning it.

At that point the owner is the insurance company. Ticket them.

We lost a helicopter at Chino the following day. I was on frequency after the accident but before tower knew where it was. No humans or cows where injured in this accident.

http://www.foxla.com/news/local-news/268976674-story