Frank Robinson of Robinson Helicopters Has Died

[Troll]

Oooh… Tell me more!

[smokinhole]

He wasn’t criticizing the commercial (probably wasn’t aware). And wasn’t criticizing herding directly. But there’s no question of the danger. She was (by necessity). Hot and humid (high DA). Often below ETL. Low and slow. Often downwind and in the hashed part of the HV diagram. Plus the dust. Nothing wreckless about any of that. Just no room for error and substantial luck needed if things go wrong.

[WarPig]

The look on that horse’s (long) face!!

[Harry_Bumcrack]

@Troll

flying small helicopters, herding cows… Ironically, those are the first jobs a new heli pilot can get, over here anway.

Same in Oz. A neighbour once got the bug after his wife got him an introductory flight (in a R22) for his birthday. Re-mortgaged his house to get his licence and later realised that moving to the Northern Territory, heli-mustering, was about the only ‘job’ he could hope to get flying one. The real irony is that once you have done that, it is about the only job flying a chopper Downunder that you can get due to their cowboy (no pun intended) reputation.

Me, I’d rather saddle up a horse. They’re far less likely to kill you… ‘autopilot’ quality varies though

[smokinhole]

@chipwich

Speaking of Robinson, I remember the discussion that we had around mast bumping and your collective dumping incident. When I was tooling around virtual southern England last night in the G2, I was wondering if I would have the correct control input to the same situation, and if the Cabri’s rotor head design is similar to the R22

Hey, I missed this. TBH I don’t recall that incident but it might be where a bird was danger close and I avoided with too much lateral cyclic. At the time I thought, “Had I pushed forward we might have died.” Now I know how GROSSLY exaggerated that thought was.

The Calbri is a fully articulating rotor and is therefor virtually immune from mast bumping. Semi-rigid, teetering, 2-blade designs like most Bells and the Robinsons are uniquely susceptible. This is because in these machines it is g-forces alone that make the fuselage follow the rotor disk. In a Bell or a Robi, if the g forces approach zero (or negative) Newton alone drives the fuselage. That alone doesn’t cause harm. The problem is the tailrotor. At high speed (nose-low) it is above the CG. So if the fuselage is free to be influenced, the tailrotor thrust will cause a rapid right roll. That is STILL not a problem. The problem is the pilot’s natural reaction of left cyclic. The disk will move. The unloaded fuselage will not. That’s when the mast bumps, separates or decapitates the cockpit. Always fatal.