5 Homemade Helicopters that Failed

[Linctex]

I have been around & working on various helicopters for 35 years - since the early 80's.

I have ALSO had to talk some people out of flying their home-designed and home-made whirlybirds, for various reasons.

None of them made this film (thank goodness) but if they had tried, I am sure they would have.

It is a hard thing to do - - to look someone in the eye and tell them if they try it, they are going to destroy all they have worked for, and possible may die.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0MUghBogFA

 

[FlyNavyP3]

When I attended Aviation Safety Officer school a few years ago (training for post accident investigation and running a safety program) the one overwhelming thing I walked away with was how many different ways that a helicopter has to kill you. It's a machine that literally wants to kill you, if you let it , and those were mass production helicopters. No thank you on the home made ones.

Fun fact when you crash a helicopter in the water it turns upside down as it's sinking. That's its last trick to try and kill you in the event you survived the crash in a rotary wing death trap.

Fixed wing for me, thank you!

 

[Dave Sherman]

I heard a joke once: Helicopters don't fly. They just beat the air into submission.

Once saw a helicopter being used to run a power line between two towers. From the angle it was pitched at, I had to salute the pilot for holding it steady at that angle with the weight of the wire on it while the linemen wired it up.

 

[Timo325]

Some people will always chose to take more risk than others..



Fly Navy, I went to ASOC at Fort Rucker back when I was a young officer!

Where did you go?

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

Isn't EVERY helicopter flight technically a test flight?

 

[FlyNavyP3]

Originally Posted by Timo325
Some people will always chose to take more risk than others..



Fly Navy, I went to ASOC at Fort Rucker back when I was a young officer!

Where did you go?


I attended at NAS Pensacola

 

[RooflessVW]

A million parts flying in close formation at high speeds around an oil leak, waiting for metal fatugue to set in.

Love helos. Miss them.

 

[CincyDavid]

I watched helicopters cutting tree limbs along power lines in the common ground behind my old house...a vertical array of whirling saw blades knocking down tree limbs. Wild, scary to watch.

 

[CT8]

My neighbor flew Hueys in Vietnam and kept on flying Helicopters until he retired a few years ago from Cal Fire flying a Huey. Quite a career ! The Bell Jet Ranger is has one of the safest flight records on the books.

 

[tom slick]

I visited the Hiller museum a few years ago. Looking at the early designs made me wonder "who in the heck did they talk into doing the first flight?"

 

[Mr Nice]

Originally Posted by CT8
My neighbor flew Hueys in Vietnam and kept on flying Helicopters until he retired a few years ago from Cal Fire flying a Huey. Quite a career ! The Bell Jet Ranger is has one of the safest flight records on the books.


Have you read the book: Chickenhawk ?

If not, read it cause its a great book about a Huey pilot in Viet Nam.

 

[CT8]

Originally Posted by Mr Nice
Originally Posted by CT8
My neighbor flew Hueys in Vietnam and kept on flying Helicopters until he retired a few years ago from Cal Fire flying a Huey. Quite a career ! The Bell Jet Ranger is has one of the safest flight records on the books.


Have you read the book: Chickenhawk ?

If not, read it cause its a great book about a Huey pilot in Viet Nam.

Yes I did And still have it ! It is great reading. Here is Tom in a video

 

[john_pifer]

Like the person talking said, "That was beautiful!"

 

[LoneRanger]

I thought this was going to be a slam on the Rotorway line of homebuilt copters. I always liked those from the Exec on up to whatever is the current one... if they're still in business.

 

[Shannow]

When I was in AITC (Oz Air Training Corps) (Cadets) through late years of Highschool, the Iroquois' would land while we were on parade.

Most days they would do it sequentially and perfect...every now and then they would "hot dog" it...probably another drill, but doing spins on landing and what not.

6-10 of them was great to watch (as long as you weren't caught watching)

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

Natural tendency to CRASH. You have to fly it one hundred percent of the time or it will kill you like stated above.

 

[kc8adu]

helicopters do not fly.
they are so ugly that the earth repels them!

 

[Cujet]

As a general rule, Experimental Amateur Built aircraft have a 5x-6x crash rate vs. Certificated aircraft. Interestingly, the fatality rate "per crash" mirrors certificated aircraft. Unlike cars and trucks, aircraft of any sort are not crashworthy.

The RV series of homebuilts probably have the most refinement behind them and their crash rate is somewhat lower than other experimental aircraft. But not lower than "real" airplanes.

Even so, people continue to "experiment" and die.

I don't have the answers, not even close. I purchased a Cessna because it's a Cessna. Anyone can fly it and it has very few bad habits. That's about the best I know how to do.

I maintain this helicopter: It's a Eurocopter EC-135 with 2 engines. Good thing too, as the RH engine has failed twice in the last 18 years and the left engine once.

 

[kschachn]

Originally Posted by rooflessVW
A million parts flying in close formation at high speeds around an oil leak, waiting for metal fatugue to set in.

Close to the way I always heard it, "Helicopters: 10,000 pieces of metal fatigue rotating around an oil leak."

 

[CT8]

The pilot of this bird couldn't get it to crash no matter how hard he tried.[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nbk57FLGf6k" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350">