Comments on: Hard landings

By: Water Games

Water Games — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 17:19:00 +0000

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By: Helicopter Flights Sydney

Helicopter Flights Sydney — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 09:55:12 +0000

Is it a hard landing when the pilot has control and a crash when they don’t?
What are the guidelines for each?

By: Pete ayers

Pete ayers — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 00:17:25 +0000

Info I saw locals said lights blinked off and on just before the shots were fired. Makes you thunk they got into powerlines coming in. Too many of those wrapped around the main rotor would be a big reason the leave it.

By: Dan Hester

Dan Hester — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 03:00:32 +0000

I bet the pilot experienced a brown out due to blowing dust inside the compound walls, lost sight of the ground and therefore landed hard with sever damage to the helo, The use of NVGs and landing lights in blowing sand often results in the loss of ground reference resulting in either a hard landing or in a go-around, if the pilot reacts quickly.

By: Brendan Fitzpatrick

Brendan Fitzpatrick — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 14:09:28 +0000

When does a hard landing become a crash? Is there any reason why someone reports hard landing vs. crash?

By: alan b.

alan b. — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 02:02:38 +0000

Hard landing is just what they told the media. The temp was high and they came in hot and heavy. And they hit that wall. Whether they misjudged and hit the wall and that caused the “hard landing” or if it was something like settling with power or vortex ring state (two different things!), we’ll likely never know.

Either way, I want to see that helicopter!

By: Kris Sundberg

Kris Sundberg — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 20:02:53 +0000

I’m glad to see a discussion on this subject. The media reports of “higher than expected temperature” didn’t sound plausible (for a variety of reasons).

I then heard that the final approach inside the “high walls” of the compound might have caused loss of lift. This also did not seem plausible. Wouldn’t landing in such a confined area actually enhance ground effect?

The simplest (and I think most logical explanation) is that the tail rotor clipped the wall.