Some pilots are such cool dudes - fazed
by nothing.
I'm amazed by this one - circa
1987/88
"TC" he said on the phone; "The
engine started running rough,
probably due to a fouled spark plug,
so I found a clearing, hovered above
it at tree top level and shut the
throttle to autorotate into it.
Can
you send up a maintenance engineer
to have a look at the skid gear as
it looks like its got a bend in it."
Wow - what a cool dude!
No mention of what the engineer
eventually found - the passenger
in hospital with a compressed spine because the
landing was so hard that he went
down vertically through the seat and
hit the underbelly skin.
No mention of the engine resting on
the ground because of the completely
collapsed skid gear rear cross tube
and bent skid tube uprights.
No mention of the big crack
and torn metal between
the seat fronts and instrument panel where
the machine had split in half.
No mention of the buckled airframe
on the left hand side above the
orange stripe.
No mention of the bubble popping
out.
No mention of the big gap in front
of the main transmission fairing
where it had been buckled out of
shape by impacting on the cabin
roof/firewall.
At least the
main Rotor Blades where undamaged due their very low RPM
when the helicopter smacked flat and vertically onto the
ground.
I still shake my head in wonder when
I recall this one -
wondering how he missed telling me
about all the extra broken bits when
he phoned in.... but more
importantly his complete lack of understanding what to do in
any perceived emergency.
Probably the
result of delayed shock....... no!
True Story
TC
C
