AEL Oklahoma Helicopter down

[akflightmedic]

Bleh….always hate this news.

 

[DesertMedic66]

Sad and unfortunate. From the ADSB it looks like they were cruising at around 200 ft AGL during the night. Won’t be shocked if they hit something

 

[FiremanMike]

Sad and unfortunate. From the ADSB it looks like they were cruising at around 200 ft AGL during the night. Won’t be shocked if they hit something

I believe the prevailing opinion on justhelicopters is a mast bump, looks like the tail rotor is intact but separated and there’s a blade missing off the main rotor head.

Either way, terrible news..

 

[DesertMedic66]

I believe the prevailing opinion on justhelicopters is a mast bump, looks like the tail rotor is intact but separated and there’s a blade missing off the main rotor head.

Either way, terrible news..

I’ve seen 3 main opinions so far: mast bumping, tower/wire strike, large bird strike. All are possible when you are 200ft agl.

 

[FiremanMike]

I’ve seen 3 main opinions so far: mast bumping, tower/wire strike, large bird strike. All are possible when you are 200ft agl.

The "experts" on jh are arguing over that elevation, some saying 1700 agl..

I don't really know how to read those charts and don't care to learn, so I'm just sitting back and waiting

 

[Jim37F]

mast bumping

The fact that this is even theoretically possible to essentially crash your helicopter into your same helicopter, much less not-just-theoreticall-but-well-known-cause-of-way-too-many-fatallities, is just insane to me

 

[DesertMedic66]

The "experts" on jh are arguing over that elevation, some saying 1700 agl..

I don't really know how to read those charts and don't care to learn, so I'm just sitting back and waiting

The barometric altitude, which is representative of MSL, for their flight was around 1,700ft. The elevation of weatherford where they crashed is around 1,600ft.

 

[DesertMedic66]

NTSB prelim report was published. Around 500 feet AGL during return flight home. Multiple geese carcasses found at crash site including one wedged in the flight control servos.

 

[FiremanMike]

NTSB prelim report was published. Around 500 feet AGL during return flight home. Multiple geese carcasses found at crash site including one wedged in the flight control servos.

Ugh..

I've been out of hems game for a long time, is there any good reason to fly that low on a positioning flight?

 

[DesertMedic66]

Ugh..

I've been out of hems game for a long time, is there any good reason to fly that low on a positioning flight?

IMO, not really. Especially when bird migration has been a little heavy in the region during that time frame. In my neck of the woods we pretty much fly a minimum of 1,000 AGL day or night for company policy. In areas with moderate to high bird activity we fly at 3,000 AGL

 

[VentMonkey]

IMO, not really. Especially when bird migration has been a little heavy in the region during that time frame. In my neck of the woods we pretty much fly a minimum of 1,000 AGL day or night for company policy. In areas with moderate to high bird activity we fly at 3,000 AGL

Absolutely. Our base pilots are good about briefing migratory patterns and trends in our area.

And also with the amount of reservoirs, lakes, riverbeds, and increase in rain water we’ve found ourselves extra vigilant since we dug ourselves out of the drought here we’ve seen some increased bird activity.

Personally I’m a nerd and try and wear both the clear, and dark visors down on my helmet whenever possible.