Helicopters Video Thread

Courage :slight_smile:

No… Marines!

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Extra squishy suspension

What was I saying about Risk Aversion?..forget I mentioned it…LOL…I was clearly wrong…

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This is very, very awesome!

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Yeah…I watched this earlier. That is some cool use of the scenery tools (or Mission Editor I guess) to do that stuff on the dam. That dive away from the top was sick…

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Insane: https://i.imgur.com/0Cy6yz0.mp4

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Oh man…I had visions of a pannier getting blown up off one of those bikes into the rotor. Even something that small can have catastrophic results. Risky business those helos…

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Yeah, something like this is not done everyday, especially because Amsterdam is pretty well supplied with hospitals in short range. So either they needed a doctor on scene ASAP or needed to get someone to the hospital ridiculously fast. It’s probably less then a 2 minute flight once you get off the ground again.

I know the VUMC among others has a helipad with a service station for Lifeliners, I’ve marked it on this google maps link, with a random bridge over the canals as well.

https://www.google.nl/maps/dir/52.3753653,4.8999626/VU+medisch+centrum,+De+Boelelaan+1117,+1081+HV+Amsterdam/@52.3588713,4.8757595,12.75z/data=!4m8!4m7!1m0!1m5!1m1!1s0x47c5e1e2c3698a61:0x595abf41bfccdee!2m2!1d4.8598158!2d52.3345709

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I highly recommend scrolling through that website to get an idea how the lifeliner helicopters are used in The Netherlands. Our country is small enough to not need aircraft like @BeachAV8R flies when transporting patients between hospitals, we can do it with this and ambulances!

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So it seems different that I was expecting. Most of the reports that I read on that site seem to reference delivering a doctor to the incident site instead of transporting a casualty from the site to hospital. My limited exposure to the Air Ambulance groups has been related to pickup instead of delivering support personnel. Very interesting reads.

I suppose that that really is because of the population density of The Netherlands though.

Posting only because there were no major injuries of fatalities…

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How the guy on the ground survived, i have no idea.

I would be buying a lotto ticket after that one ! fwooooooaaarrrr

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I’m left wondering how that even happens. What was the other crew trying to do? Show off?

To me it looks like the pilot of the (our) right side helicopter missed the parking spot. Still doesn’t excuse error of the pilot of the second helicopter landing. That is unless a CFI was saying over the intercom, “Closer you sissy.” :slight_smile:

Yeah, @chipwich got it right. The NTSB report says that the pilot of the helicopter coming in to land had her windscreen a bit contaminated with water droplets. She said she saw the other helicopter, but just assumed that it was on it’s proper parking spot (it was not). Thus, she lined up for the other spot…and there ya’ have it. Poor procedures all around. I’m guessing there are now requirements for positive comms between helos, proper marking of the helipad, proper placement of helos on the pad, and perhaps even a requirement that if a marshaller/mechanic/pilot is around they should give hand signals to ensure proper landing zones.

NTSB Report with more details…

"On final she observed N96BM on the ground and assumed it to be on pad 1; at the time there was no direct/established communications with the pilot of N96BM. The pilot hover-taxied to Pad 2, and was concentrating on keeping her helicopter in the box for Pad 2. She stated that she was getting on the radios to tell the passengers to stay put, and simultaneously lowered pitch; at that point the, “sky fell.” The pilot stated that she had seen two helmets in the helicopter, but did not have eye contact with the pilot or TFO of the other helicopter.

The pilot stated that the windscreen and side windows were wet with water drops. She was looking forward to stay straight and utilizing the chin window and her periphery to land inside the box.

The pilot stated that at the time she did not realize that the parked helicopter (N96BM) was not in the box. Her state of mind was that the other helicopter was in the box, so pay attention to your box when you land, and you’ll be fine.

In her experience, she had not observed a helicopter placed outside of the box."

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And let me slap my hand a bit for that comment. Aviation accidents are sometimes the result of the .01% thing happening when all your career you’ve been exposed to the 99.99%. Things like this happen…and it is easy to say “well, they shouldn’t have done that”…but it isn’t pilot error…it is “human” error. We aren’t perfect machines and it is actually quite easy to see how this could have happened.

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We’re creatures of habit…
If you have never seen another helo parked out of its box, you will assume it’s parked inside it. That is until someone has an accident. I bet everybody considers the possibility of a misplaced helo now though.

In our business (fixed wing stuff) it drives me crazy to no end to see yellow taxiway lines painted in places that do not guarantee you wing clearance. Granted, a Gulfstream has to be more aware than a Cessna 152 on what his tips are doing at any given time, but I’ve seen many yellow taxi lines (usually on FBO ramps) that would lead any small to mid-size turboprop or jet to bang a wing into some fuel trucks or parked vans or whatever. I never trust a yellow line unless it is coming off a runway onto a taxiway. Markings on non-movement (non ATC controlled) areas are a wild west unfortunately.