Air Ambulance Helo Down - Close to Home

inav8r

inav8r

Line Up and Wait
Joined
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Indiana, US
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Mike B.
http://www.heraldbulletin.com/local/local_story_033121720.html

A PHI Air Ambulance Helocopter crashed into a garage at my home field last night. Really close to home. According to the news it was trying to turn back to the field to make an emergency landing just after take off. I see these guys around the airport all the time, but I don't know any of them personally. All three on board were in serious condition as of the news tonight.

It's a real shame and it hits close to home.

My prayers are for their quick recovery and their familes.
 
inav8r said:
http://www.heraldbulletin.com/local/local_story_033121720.html

A PHI Air Ambulance Helocopter crashed into a garage at my home field last night. Really close to home. According to the news it was trying to turn back to the field to make an emergency landing just after take off. I see these guys around the airport all the time, but I don't know any of them personally. All three on board were in serious condition as of the news tonight.

It's a real shame and it hits close to home.

My prayers are for their quick recovery and their familes.
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Interesting, I wonder if thats the same PHI as PHI down around the gulf, Petroleum Helicopters Inc.?
 
Henning said:
Interesting, I wonder if thats the same PHI as PHI down around the gulf, Petroleum Helicopters Inc.?
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Yep. Our local medical center contracted with them for Life Flight services last year.
 
That's a tough business to be in, and the accident rate is pretty high. Wires and sometimes very steep approaches are sometimes to blame. It's sad whenever there is an accident.
 
It is a tough job. Hope they recover quickly!!
Bob, I would think that "steep" approaches are not such a big problem in helos. They have the benefit of that veritcal lift thing going for them. Wouldn't a steep approach really just be a hover to landing ( Mind you not that I'm saying hover is easy) as I recall from your posts during your instruction? Just curious.
 
According to the Airport Manager the weather conditions at the time were cielings at 400 ft and vis at 2 1/2 miles. I don't know what the wind conditions were. According to a witness the helo appeared to be trying to land on a road near the airport - but then something happened and they crashed next to the road instead (into someones detached garage).
 
AdamZ said:
It is a tough job. Hope they recover quickly!!
Bob, I would think that "steep" approaches are not such a big problem in helos. They have the benefit of that veritcal lift thing going for them. Wouldn't a steep approach really just be a hover to landing ( Mind you not that I'm saying hover is easy) as I recall from your posts during your instruction? Just curious.
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There's steep Adam, and then there's steep. For example, flying a 1/4 mile pattern and starting the descent opposite the numbers and landing ON the numbers is not very steep. But coming in near vertical because of obstacles is going to be steep.

This problem is what Ron and I were talking about at lunch at LNS: settling with power aka vortex ring state. Basically this is a condition where the rotor system is caught up in its own downwash. The rate of descent can quickly become a couple of thousand fpm, and no helicopter has sufficient power to stop the descent even if increasing collective pitch didn't cause rotor stall (the only thing which will stop it is to lower collective and apply forward cyclic, but it takes substantial altitude to arrest the descent).

To get into a vortex ring state, three things must happen: airspeed below effective translational lift (typically 10-15 kt, in other words, the rotor has to be flying through its own wing tip vortices), some power (20% or more in a turbine), and a descent rate greater than 300 fpm. The airspeed becomes the real kicker in a tail wind. Because the wind is pushing you forward, what looks like a normal closure on your chosen landing spot may have you at zero airspeed. The problem basically is that with an off airport landing in a confined area, how do you tell if you have a tailwind?

That's probably more than you wanted to know :hairraise:
 
RotaryWingBob said:
To get into a vortex ring state, three things must happen: airspeed below effective translational lift (typically 10-15 kt, in other words, the rotor has to be flying through its own wing tip vortices), some power (20% or more in a turbine), and a descent rate greater than 300 fpm. The airspeed becomes the real kicker in a tail wind. Because the wind is pushing you forward, what looks like a normal closure on your chosen landing spot may have you at zero airspeed. The problem basically is that with an off airport landing in a confined area, how do you tell if you have a tailwind?

That's probably more than you wanted to know :hairraise:
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Keep them coming Bob!
Very well written explanations of yours as to what makes the choppers go. Is there a good book or helicopter pilot's bible out there?
 
RotaryWingBob said:
The airspeed becomes the real kicker in a tail wind. Because the wind is pushing you forward, what looks like a normal closure on your chosen landing spot may have you at zero airspeed. The problem basically is that with an off airport landing in a confined area, how do you tell if you have a tailwind?
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Uh, check the ASI? IIRC though, the ASI in some helicopters is on the peg below 30 KIAS. OTOH it seems like it wouldn't be all that difficult to design a device to indicate low airspeeds electronically.
 
RotaryWingBob said:
That's probably more than you wanted to know :hairraise:
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Bob,

Keep it coming! The physics behind helicopter flight seem to be much more complex than for fixed-wing flight, and I enjoy learning about helicopters. I miss the old "Johnny's Heli-Factoid" series from the old AOPA board.

Thanks for the thought-provoking post! :yes:
 
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