
Why are choppers always crashing? (2009) - mmhsieh
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2009/10/why-are-helicopters-always-crashing.html
======
torstenvl
_The thing is, helicopters are different from airplanes. An airplane by its
nature wants to fly and, if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events
or by a deliberately incompetent pilot, it will fly. A helicopter does not
want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls
working in opposition to each other, and if there is any disturbance in the
delicate balance, the helicopter stops flying, immediately and disastrously.
There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter._

 _This is why a helicopter pilot is so different a being from an airplane
pilot, and why in general, airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant
extroverts, and helicopter pilots are brooders, introspective anticipators of
trouble. They know if anything bad has not happened, it is about to._

Harry Reasoner, Approach magazine, November 1973

As quoted at [https://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/flights-and-
fancy-b...](https://www.airspacemag.com/flight-today/flights-and-fancy-
brooders-vs-extroverts-36056567/)

~~~
quietbritishjim
> There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter.

There is such a thing (very approximately but good enough for this
discussion): autorotation. It allows a helicopter to be flown when the engine
cuts out, but it does still require a great deal of manual control (from what
little I understand of it).

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autorotation)

~~~
angry_octet
It's really not that hard to autorotate, you do it at hour 8 in training.

The problem with helicopters is that people fly them close to the ground and
other obstacles. CFIT (controlled flight into terrain) is a leading cause of
crashes, as is flying VFR rated in IMC due to poor weather understanding and
processes. Mechanical failures are max 25% of accidents, and 75% of those are
due to engine failure alone, and hence autorotation is an option -- if you are
high enough and have planned your route well.

You can autorotate at fairly low altitude, but it depends on your forward
airspeed, rotor inertia, etc, which is situation and model specific.

[http://www.copters.com/pilot/hvcurve.html](http://www.copters.com/pilot/hvcurve.html)

~~~
aeternum
> It's really not that hard to autorotate, you do it at hour 8 in training.

Few students do full down autorotations, and no one does engine-off
autorotations. Instructors also don't just roll the power off when students
are not expecting it, as that would be far too dangerous. Successful
autorotation in a real emergency means the pilot has to execute a difficult
maneuver in conditions they've never before experienced.

~~~
angry_octet
This is a pointless hair splitting. Like all truly dire emergencies, it can be
trained for but not actually done. They do it in simulation under a number of
stressful conditions, such as during a complicated maneuver or another
failure.

------
fctorial
Chopper in fs98 was impossibly difficult to fly. I never got it to hover for
more than 5 secs. It was like balancing a bead on an inverted bowl. They
replaced the bowl with a flat surface in later versions. Don't know if real
ones are just as hard.

------
mikhailfranco
It seems that more special forces get killed in helicopters than in ground
combat. The crashes may be due to malfunction, or extremely bad weather, but
also because the helicopters are vulnerable to ground fire as they go to
reinforce or evacuate men from combat.

US SEALS in Afghanistan:

[https://www.history.com/news/the-costliest-day-in-seal-
team-...](https://www.history.com/news/the-costliest-day-in-seal-team-six-
history)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Takur_Ghar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Takur_Ghar)
(Roberts Ridge)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Red_Wings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Red_Wings)

British SAS/SBS in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Falklands War:

[https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/775565/harrys-five-
sa...](https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/775565/harrys-five-sas-pals-
killed-in-chopper-crash/)

[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/6044194/Two-...](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/6044194/Two-
SAS-soldiers-died-in-Iraq-helicopter-crash-because-of-notoriously-bad-
radios.html)

[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-454382/For-
time-25-...](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-454382/For-
time-25-years-fomer-SAS-man-tells-Falklands-tragedy-killed-20.html)

Coalition forces in Iraq:

[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-
east/helicop...](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-
east/helicopter-crash-takes-british-fatalities-to-14-112031.html)

[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/mar/21/iraq.uk](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/mar/21/iraq.uk)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Al-
Anbar_CH-53E_crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Al-Anbar_CH-53E_crash)

[https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2018/03/16/594168056...](https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-
way/2018/03/16/594168056/7-killed-in-u-s-military-helicopter-crash-in-iraq)

Australian SAS in training:

[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-11/survivor-
remembers-19...](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-11/survivor-
remembers-1996-black-hawk-tragedy/7497914)

One famous example from the Falklands War, where two helicopters crashed in a
blizzard on a glacier, but was redeemed by a tremendous feat of airmanship by
the pilot of the third helicopter:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paraquet#Reconnaissa...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paraquet#Reconnaissance_phase)

------
comex
(2009)

