Robinson R-22 Helicopter Crash

[williambrodie]

I have had instructors try and fail to get the R22 into Vortex Ring state to demonstrate it - if this is in fact the cause he is very unlucky

[southwest1998]

I love how people dislike just because they wanted to see someone in insane horror, or even die and watch someone's very expensive aircraft be destroyed. I would much rather see this than the actual crash it'self.

[cowboy6591]

I beg to differ, I think R22's are a colossal piece of crap.

[GunBroker100]

@cowboy6591 Why, because you work for Bell? I see Bell's folded up when the pilot screws up or they have a failure.

[marinejock18]

this looks like it was survivable...the fuselage and tail cone are in-tact and undistorted...maybe a dynamic rollover

[deathorglory100]

@marinejock18 L

[basakwards]

@marinejock18 read the description. he was trying to land with a tail wind and got into settling with power. instead of lowering the collective and applying forward cyclic to regain airspeed he continued the approach until it was too late.

[toober52]

Bad.

[HelimanZ06]

Can you read this sentence?

If it takes you longer to lower the collective than it took you to read that sentence you will not be able to recover an R-22 in an engine-out situation.

According to Robinson that times equals 1.1 seconds.

I totally enjoyed my training on an R-22 but mast bumping, carburator icing, weight restrictions, and low rotor mass greatly influenced my decision to go the 269 route.

[Wildcat5181]

Not all pilot error. There are many reported tailboom catasrophic separations, tailrotor gearbox failures, engine failures. Not a great trainer or daily use machine without fastidious maintenance. It's so popular because it's cheap compared to othere helicopters. That makes it appealing and affordable to more, and more in the sky means more failures. Pilot do not want to die. Auto-rotation training teaches them how to live, but gravity, friction, poor maintenance and light weight parts kill.

[NazTfox]

The R22 is a very reliable helicopter, most crashes are pilot error

[SlittyDrake]

Thats his fault for not putting the hydraulics on lol.

[GTMustangRider]

I'd rather pilot a Schweizer 300Cbi or a Hughes 269, it's a more stable platform. The U.S. Air Force use to train it's helicopter pilots on the Hughes 269's and Schweizers.

[aircraftchecker1]

These toys don´t have nothing to do with solid helicopters.

They should be grounded.

To many accidents are happend with this flying campingchair.

[edcoondog]

@aircraftchecker1 They're perfectly safe if you know what you're doing.

[TheIpodGuitar]

Filmed out of an helicopter, that pilot must have the creeps.

[madisonelectronic]

How do these guys manage to get insurance? Many of the Helicopter pilots on these sites cannot agree amoung themselves how to fly the things.

[sammy100nz]

i cant beleive the amount of shit ppl write of here weather there pilot or non pilot

[Fowtowsjop]

Yesterday a helicopter crashed into the dunes near the Europort in Rotterdam, 4 of the 5 people that were in the helicopter got killed :(

[yumyumsashimi]

I see Robinson test pilots fly these everyday all day in all sorts of weather and allways have safe clean landing and takeoffs and then the customers man they scare the crap out of me watching them leave the factory, some of them wobbling all over the place, scraping stingers on the ground, turning the aircraft 180 close to the building etc. and even in great weather conditions they are sloppy. So it is no wonder they get into a situation they cant get out of.

[yahoorif]

If the pilot use R44 , it wont happen like this

[TheMiseryGuts]

These are garbage aircraft. The only helicopter firm to not even use CAD/CAM software.

[SKYPUP]

@TheMiseryGuts

The B-52 was designed that way at will last 100 years.

[jcole60brit]

Apparently, the action has stopped.

[RCPhilN]

woow.... nonstopaction... ^^

[LarryCanFly]

If with a tail wind ground speed is greater than airspeed, so as you reduce ground speed as part of a landing approach, your airspeed can go near zero, so if you feel settling-with-power, would pulling back + lowering collective + increasing power like doing a quick stop, help? Because forward cyclic would reduce rpm and you're chasing the wind or rather being chased by the tail wind.

[camp69]

Amen worst situation you can be in. A 180 auto is the worst.

[Emiel1111]

No, you need to get forward speed again (to regain ETL). But if you do not have the height, you might want to try an auto. Do not pull power while in SWP, it will only make it worse. Do not pull back on collective, because it will make getting the speed above ETL harder.

[LarryCanFly]

OK, I get it, lower collective and push forward -- just like getting out of any other SWP (Settling With Power) situation? Right? The goal is to get out of your own down wash vortex ring problem, right? Thanks for the info.

[Emiel1111]

It depends on the situation. Where will you end up if you do? But you definately don't want to raise collective. That will do no good whatsoever. You could maintain collective and gain forward speed, or maintain forward speed and lower collective. You need to get rid of one of the 3 factors. 1 Airspeed below ETL. 2 Induced power. 3 Rate of descent above 300 ft/min. Since you cant control the rate of decent immediately, it is one of the other 2, or both.

[futoandutoo]

junk now

[biglhot75]

Can you avoid settling a little bit by avoiding downwind landings. I ask because I am not a helo pilot.

[casinosquare1]

I used to instruct during the 70's on Brantlys (B2 & 305) down in OK. wowee, hardly any power, no blade inertia, ah the good ole days! Google it ha ha (the flying ice-cream cone) check out your head clearance!!

nice talkin' to ya boys Over an out.

[TheKingdomheartsfan2]

I can't believe their is actually someone out there that flew Brantlys beside myself. I had a B2A that we brought home from Fredrick OK. in the mid 80s. When I took my CFI check ride the designated examiner said he would never fly in that thing again. Not much fun to do autos in.

[casinosquare1]

The CFI would have emphasized the dangers. It is not allowed to simulate the condition for training purposes,it is left to the pilot to monitor all three factors during each descent made. Anyway, that wouldn't have been the cause. As the chap said earlier, downwind is not a good idea in a 22 - yep ambient temp critical in a 22 - and thermal lift differential between terrain ( road/grass/sand ) is MASSIVE especially in a featherlite craft like that. You can go into full auto and STILL go up.

[casinosquare1]

To enter S.W.P - 3 criteria have to be met:- descent of more than 300fpm, pulling more than 75% power and an airspeed of less than 15kts-ish. To exit the condition only 1 of these has to be corrected. 'thinks he was' nah, you'd KNOW it. Low hour pilot- for sure. And you're right 22's are shite. To the Bell man (and the 300 pilot) spot on MacTavish (s) :))

[1fastmr2]

I love how your calling them idiots and dont even know which "there" to use..jackass

[yumyumsashimi]

Goes to show how ignorant people are blaming the helicopter for crashing. HelloooOO theirs a man flying it.. The same people would put blame on a car crashing and not the driver. Clueless ignorant fools.

[UticaSux]

The Robinsons are death traps poorly designed. Another one just molotov cocktailed into a Maryland Freeway. How many more people will be guinnie pigs for Robinson until they "get it right"?

Fly Smart Fly Bell!

[uschdog]

Thats it fellas. i"m gonna stay in the Schweizer 300 for a while.

[nipponhouseplayer]

Ratio HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT! reliability make it safe but if you get out of the green your Dead Fred plus dont land down wind.

[180autorotation]

Look at the ratio of how many Robinsons there are in the world verses other helicopters. If you have 500 r22 and 100 bell jet ranger and the robinsons crash 3of them while the rangers crash only 2, the robinsons still have a better record because there are more of them. People fly more robinsons, plus more schools use robinsons to teach in them. Despite the many crashes, Robinson still has a great safety record because of its ratio. Think about it.

[marceloribeirobarros]

YES, I AGREE.... SHIT IS MORE CHEAP.

[marceloribeirobarros]

Robinson R22 R44 shitcopter ever ever ever. look all crashes on youtube robinson ever.... shit or no ????

[Eldelacuchuca]

It is not the R22's fault, the pilot was attempting an approach with a tailwind (according to the NTSB Report). As long as Robinsons' crashes in youtube, most if not all (i have seen) are pilot error.

[shapipple12]

how could he not recover at 100 feet in a open field im guessing it was a low hour pilot

[greg8698]

If you look at his statement and then compute the amount of time till impact with no power that pretty much tells the whole story. He said, "at 100 feet that he felt he was settling-with-power." At 100 ft with loss of power, time till impact is about 2-3 seconds at the most. So, if he felt he had power at 100 ft and then lost power anywhere below 100 ft , he only had 2 seconds tops before he impacted. So, basically whenever he lost power below 100 ft there was no way he was going to recover

[shapipple12]

this is true but still how he could get himself in the situation of settling with power in a open field is complete inexperience i could see if he was fully loaded going into a confined area... but still cyclic forward.....

[greg8698]

It all comes down to what his altitude was when he lost power. Once he dropped below 100 ft., if he lost power, he could run the cyclic forward and just hope for the best because in real time there was nothing further he could do. An autorotation was completely out of the question. By pushing the cyclic forward all he could hope for was some horizontal flight speed. My guess is by the time he realized he had no power, he had no option but to pray. Says a lot for watching your instruments.

[greg8698]

Keep in mind, he is flying a R-22 and that means fully loaded as you stated means he had one other person on board. Had it been a bigger helicopter such as a Bell 206Blll, a Long Ranger or an ASTAR 350 and I'm sure he could have kept the bird upright.

[shapipple12]

I agree on what your saying. what im trying to say though is that it should have never gotten to the point of seddling with power. it was the inexperiences of both the pilot and teacher that got them in that situation.

[greg8698]

Your probably correct about that. My question is what the hell kind of CFI did this guy have?

[shapipple12]

somthing we can both agree on :)

[helicopterR22]

its in pretty good shape for a skid spreader.

[cptjim]

I'm glad the pilot was ok, you can see that the skids did their job and absorbed a lot of the impact. Aircaraft can be replaced but a human life cannot! Safe landings!!

[rotorwingflight]

PEOPLE! please dont comment on this if you don't have any idea what you are talking about. thanks. read the description. the aircraft was a total loss

[helicoolr22]

it fixable just rolled over

[rotorwingflight]

hardly

[robotbluegreen]

how did this happen

[iweberdudei]

Ohhhh man...Ive flown over there before...it is so hot out there, even in winter time.

[catnoisekid]

its 68degrees right now.

[iweberdudei]

where did this happen??

[NonStopActionVideo]

southern california - near palmdale i believe