someone parked a chopper in the roof of a house

[BrendAn]

should be on the news tonight. no injurys as far as i know. a chopper is supposed to have crashed through a house roof in mentone this afternoon. i assume it would be one of the trainers from moorabbin.

[onetrack]

Pilot was trapped in the wreckage, he was released by rescuers, and transported to hospital with lower body injuries. No-one was home in the house when the chopper crashed into it.

 

https://www.9news.com.au/national/helicopter-crashes-into-house-in-melbournes-southeast/03d2496a-76fa-460b-b57f-fef312c13d21

 

Edited November 30, 2022 by onetrack

[red750]

Looks like a Schweizer 300.

[BrendAn]

14 minutes ago, red750 said:

Looks like a Schweizer 300.

 

14 minutes ago, red750 said:

Looks like a Schweizer 300.

Hughes I think they just said

 

[red750]

One's a variant of the other. Schweizer developed from the Hughes 269. Didn't read to the bottom of the article.

[RossK]

15 hours ago, BrendAn said:

 

Hughes I think they just said

 

Surely it's a Cessna....🤣

[RFguy]

home owner and neighbours are fortunate that there wasnt a fire.

[kgwilson]

Saw it on the ABC news last night. It is lucky that it was a very light helicopter, it didn't hit anyone or power lines, there wasn't a fire and the pilot was not badly injured. It will be interesting to find out the cause. Power/mechanical failure or Pilot error. My money would be on the latter.

[facthunter]

Why do we speculate and usually blame the pilot? Imagine if it was you and how you'd like to be regarded in such circumstances. WE collectively have much more knowledge of these things than the "man in the street".   Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

Apparently fires are not that easy to start in real life. There was a jabiru in Bundaberg  in which smoke came out of the engine compartment. The plane subsequently burnt on the ground back to ( but NOT including the half-full fuel tank ). There have been a couple of others lately, like the plane in the power-lines, where there was no fire.

I have only been around one crash in my 50 years of flying, and that was a Sonerai which DID catch fire. But a guy I knew well crawled out, covered in fuel, through the broken windscreen of a Cessna in a vineyard. Luckily for him there was no fire.

Just recently, a pub in a nearby town was shattered by a car and there was no fire. I reckon it was lucky that they didn't deliberately light a fire to get rid of any forensic stuff.

So....  movies would have you believe that a fire is the usual thing, while my experience is that it is unusual unless deliberately lit.

[RFguy]

I would not blame the pilot- it is a helicopter !. to stay airborne you just need to put in enough rudder, balance pitch and roll, and pull on enough collective. how hard can it be. 

 

so, no I do not think it was the pilot. 

 

Jabiru's likely burn because of their haphazard, dangerous wiring practices, and poorly engineering wiring paths (happy to stand in a court of law with that one) .   there is no way those airframes should fly without electrical mods. IMO. I have commented to Jabiru about it with no response.

Edited November 30, 2022 by RFguy

[Bruce Tuncks]

If not pilot error then what? maintenance error? But the pilot should:   1. treat the first flight after maintenance as a test flight and 2. Do a really good d.i. every time.

If both these things were done, a lot of the mishaps I know of would have been averted.

[red750]

TV reports said he was a student returning from a nav exercise. Low fuel?

[facthunter]

To my knowledge a good number of accidents where structural damage is done DO result in a fire. Engine fires in flight are often extinguished by the fire extinguishing systems of which there are TWO for each engine which includes a firewall SOV(Shut Off Valve) that cuts off inflammables.  Emergency stops for near V1 can result in brake fires.. There's also electrical fires which can be coped with by isolation  and other cabin fires. Multi engined pistons have someone there with a fire extinguisher for start ups. Fuel injection engines improperly started will light up the grass under the motor.  Leaking lube oil from things like a bent push rod wearing through the tube it runs in will easily catch fire if the oil gets on the hot exhaust manifold.    Nev

[Bruce Tuncks]

wow you got my attention there RF. What would you suggest us Jabiru guys do ? My current 230 has very neat wiring as the builder was fastidious,  and I think that it is impossible to protect a starter motor with fuses. But that Bundaberg fire was faulty wiring for sure, and the Cessna was due to a sump-plug put in finger-tight.  There is no way that either of these things could be picked up on a normal di.

[facthunter]

 Post Crash fires are really so common that if there's a lot of damage and NO fire it's usually an indication of no fuel. What could possibly be worse than being injured and trapped in an inverted plane with fuel dripping everywhere around you?  Nev

[kgwilson]

I have seen a lot of poor wiring on GA aircraft. behind the panel it is often like a birds nest. Maybe not when it was new but with time and instrument, switch & other changes it ends up a mess. Tefzel wire is quite stiff as well so does not lend itself to tight curves in wiring harnesses.

 

If the cause of this crash was fuel starvation then that is pilot error. Mechanical failures are rare even with helicopters.

 

A few years ago a Jabiru 230 crash landed at YSGR when the new part owner took it for a test flight, not having ever flown a Jabiru before. I was one of the first on the scene. The LH wing was damaged and fuel was leaking onto the ground and into the cabin. The floor was a lake of fuel. It didn't catch fire and we were able to drain the remaining fuel from the tank & put the aircraft on a trailer & remove it from the field, then left it in open space for the fuel to evaporate. It was repaired and is still at the aerodrome (with a new owner).

[RFguy]

Bruce the main error is the lack of a battery isolation relay/contactor at the battery. Needs to be an enclosed contactor (no free air spark) . every certified aircraft I've looked at is done this way. The factory has the hot battery wire goes into the cockpit wiring mess.  same for alternator- needs to be fused and have its own wiring in the engine bay. alternator generators enough energy to make a fire also, but the battery is the king fire generator.  needs a fuse between battery and alternator chargign output. regulator goes bad and puts battery V+ onto the shorted stator. woof.

 

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, RossK said:

Surely it's a Cessna....🤣

"It plummeted from the skies and the witness on the roof could see the wide-eyed terror of the pilot as he struggle for control."

 

Strewth, Capt W.E. Johns has nothing on me. 

[onetrack]

One has to always keep in mind that piston engined helicopters are a vibrating, shaking, thumping, terrifying combination of 100,000 parts, constantly trying to tear themselves apart - and helicopter pilots stand head and shoulders above ordinary mortals, because they possess the special skills, delicate touch, and iron nerves needed to keep their machines from wanting to constantly fall out of the sky.

 

Just watch any video of a chopper coming to grief, it's a wonder they stay airborne at all!

 

[Student Pilot]

3 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

If not pilot error then what? maintenance error? But the pilot should:   1. treat the first flight after maintenance as a test flight and 2. Do a really good d.i. every time.

If both these things were done, a lot of the mishaps I know of would have been averted.

Possibly a 30 year old aircraft and a rotary wing one at that. There are many things that can go wrong with choppers, have you had a close look at the mechanical gadgets required? There are many things to check with a walkaround on a Hughes 300, not the lest being a heap of what look like fan belts that transfer power to the main mast.

[RFguy]

but , no fire. I'm thinking the pilot and home owner, and neighbours all pinch themselves and go buy a lottery ticket or two.

 

that the pilot survived its likely it didnt fall from far or wasnt going too fast. maybe was best effort for autorotation landing  over the suburbs.   I'd prefer a Jetranger in a  crash over a squirrel. 

Edited December 1, 2022 by RFguy

[kgwilson]

Helicopters are great fun to fly in especially one with a bubble canopy where you can see everything. There was a saying many years ago that "Helicopters can't actually fly, they are so ugly that the Earth repels them". No so valid these days as there are many sleep looking choppers. There are plenty of pretty ugly old and military choppers though.

[turboplanner]

4 hours ago, Bruce Tuncks said:

Just recently, a pub in a nearby town was shattered by a car and there was no fire.

Spent too much time at the Naracooret Hotel before driving home?

[Yenn]

Those who say helicopters don’t have mechanical failures do not see the amount of safety advisory’s put out by CASA. Helicopters seem to account for over 80% of advisory’s.