Inside a helicopter flying an extreme low level flight

[matt3381000]

The R22 is mainly used for training yes but in Australia it is also one of the main heli's used for airial mustering and the largest fleet of R22 helicopters in Australia is owned by a Cattle station my mate flew for him last season and it is dangerous work (but great fun).But not as bad as your making out but agree not the best.The MD520 is still one mechine that im keen on. I trained on R22, R44 now fly R66 ,Bell 206 jetranger/longranger and a AS350BA doing traiing on a AS355 twinstar

[spajsboyz]

pure adrenaline, death in 1 second

[PlatinumG]

damn thats low... it looks like it was grazing the grass/field! MH-6? little bird?

[rjphammond]

this looks more like the cockpit of an ultra-light than a helicopter. But what do i know? lol

[Rendark88]

Watch for wires =P

[ethan5673]

thats awesome! 5/5

[pleppes]

dude y didnt u reach out n take somthing from the ground u could have corn 4 dinner

[cverschragen]

If that's not inside the "curve" for the '22 I don't know what is.

[cavenm1]

@cverschragen yeah should revoke his ass

[Germanjoe123]

Funny looking apache..

[CrazyAirshipNut]

Not an Apache, it's a Robinson R22. Little bitty toy powered by a couple of chipmunks in a cage. The R22 has the worst safety record of small helicopters not because of the helicopter itself but the idiots who fly them like this. The R22 is not a performance helo, but a dinky little trainer. If your going to fly like this, get a real helo like an MD520, or a Bell 430, or an HH65A Dauphin.

[isamick08]

your full of shit there not just a trainer there also used widely in the cattle mustering industrie and pushed harder then this video show its not the chopper that does it all its the pilots with skills

[Flyawaywithme11]

this helo is also fun to fly! i flew one from belgium to denmark and back, in winter time.

[Veitnamsoldier]

Yeah we used to rave an R22 Beta, now we have an R44. The R22 was way to small though!

[fattyman149]

@CrazyAirshipNut dude you act likeyou can afford it

[Norgesmann]

@CrazyAirshipNut The R22 has an awful track record because the rotor system, in laymens terms, sucks. In an engine failure you will have to lower the collective in less than 1,2 SECONDS, if you don´t, you will not be able to recover and have a blade stall on your ass.

For the record, I trained in the R22, R44 and I now fly EC155-b1.

[Zhaarnak]

@Norgesmann I see what your getting at, but I think the reason why the R22 has an such an horrible track record is because there are a lot of them flying in the world today. And they are used almost exclusively for training which is an environment more prone to accidents and incidents.

[50Fahad]

OMG THATS SCARY

[banyani]

well I think also that the man broke FAA laws by flying/maintaining altitude less than 1000 ft AGL over populated areas; and 500 ft from any person or building, so; technically I'm not very impressed; pilot should have more experience and better judgement where to fly low level...

[cobradriver79]

Helicopters actually have an exemption to that rule, there is no hard deck for helicopter operation regardless of who is on the ground. Regardless, he was posing a hazard to people on the ground so he was not in keeping with the spirit of the regs.

[caioghiotto]

FAR/AIM §91.119 part (b)

[1WARNaBROTHA1]

just fly =)

[TehRPC]

Jealous much Mr. high and mighty?

[banyani]

I saw lots of uncordinated turns in there; lots of potential to crash; remember that you can crash a helicopter any day of the week; stunts are for show; the true 'master pilot' knows his airplane inside and out, please be carefull...

[MrRay47]

The other problem flying a high speed low-level Dustoff approach is setting it down in a small LZ or a particular side of a somewhat larger LZ. With an engine failure outside of combat you can put it down in any safe location and in the Bell's there's enough rotor momentum to pop up for a better look around. Aloha :)

[MrRay47]

Low level, high speed auto-rotation to the ground was a standard maneuver in the US Army for the AH-1G, I did many of them. More difficult were the high speed low-level approaches I flew in the UH-1H Dustoff in Nam. The big problem is not losing the engine, it's hitting something ... like wires.

[krustjov]

Well here's the deal; I'm not a helicopter pilot at all, I just happens to know a little bit of the basics... but thanks for some real life information. If I ever get the money for the PPL-helicopter I would never do this stunt.. there are brave pilots, and old pilots but no brave and old pilots!

[y217]

now you know why we can't buy life insurance!

[dimebox23]

dumbass. if your going to do that do it in a better helicopter than the 22. Its like flying a golfcart. fly the md520n.

[Flyingsquirrel14]

shit!

[xmodguy1]

Dude, NICE

[B206III]

You can fly like that and get away with it most of the time. All it takes though is one line of wires you didnt see, or one engine failure, and I'll pretty much guarantee that'll be the end of both you and your passenger.

[sarkasmi83]

yeah, or a misjudgment of the length of the rotors you really can't even see. But well, I guess guys who dare to fly like that have the flying hours needed to know about the space needed...

[krustjov]

well - wrong: an engine failure would give the pilot some time to autoglide becase of the high speed. He is staying out of the dead zone (low altitude+low speed = no time or speed to autoglide in event of a engine failure). THAT part of it isn't dangerous - but the cables along the roads and the low margin in feet AGL is pretty unsafe...

[B206III]

Wrong; looking in my R22 POH the secondary HV curve (dead mans curve - high speed) shows min 20' at 60 KIAS increasing to 30' at 100 KIAS. From what I can see on the video the airspeed ranges from approx 90 kts to maybe 70 towards the end, putting him firmly in the curve. At those speeds and heights the helicopter would be capable of autorotation yes, the problem is that the pilot wouldn't have time to react to a power loss before the aircraft impacted the ground.

[B206III]

Believe me, from someone who had a close call after a throttle chop on climbout (similar power settings), without a hard flat runway beneath him he wouldn't have much chance. That's aside from the dangers of powerlines, etc...

[Sonicbomb77]

u know that pilot had to be sweating at least one bullet flying that close to the ground, specially over fields like that. if you crash and your still alive somehow, youll have plenty of broken bones, your choper is in flames, and that field of dryness your in, *WOOSH* up in flames. Would not be pretty >.<

[dkorda]

REAL MOTHER BITCHEN!