UH-60 shot down by rocket propelled grenade

[Replicant]

Originally posted by Hortlund
“We can confirm the helicopter took fire from an RPG while in the air,”

Seems they can't make up their minds yet...

BBC report:

"Some US soldiers as well as witnesses told reporters the aircraft was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).

But a US military spokeswoman said it was only known so far that the helicopter was attacked by RPGs once it was on the ground.

One of the five crew members on board was hurt. "

[davidpt40]

Nope the helo was seen spinning in after being hit by an rpg.  The confusion here comes from some military officials saying that the helo was shot after making a landing.  All witnesses saw it being hit in the air.

None of the UH60s in mogadishu that were hit by RPGs were hovering.

[MJHerman]

Originally posted by Staga
Hit a helicopter with a RPG ? Guess it was hovering or the shooter was a real marksman...

Anybody can get lucky from time to time.....

[Gixer]

Pilot did a nice job in picking his place for the autorotation and a credit that they wern't all killed. Though for those injured going to be some very sore backs.

Thankfully I've never had to do one yet for real, though they are alot of fun to practice.

Reminds me why I'd rather have an engine failure in a helicopter any day compared to a single engined plane.



...-Gixer
~Hells Angels~

[Fishu]

Originally posted by Gixer
Reminds me why I'd rather have an engine failure in a helicopter any day compared to a single engined plane.
 

It's just too bad if you loose any of the controls, which are pretty much all important for a chopper, then you'll come down like a rock.
in a plane you can at least loose the engine & propeller controls, plus you don't have a tail rotor

[Gixer]

Errrrrr. Sorry but your completely wrong. Lose the engine you still have full control and both rotor and tail rotor keep turning. Giving you plenty of lift for the final flare and touch down. Although maybe a tad heavier then usual.

If your thinking of blackhawk down and a RPG hit to the tail rotor, that would be rather bad. But a friend of mine lost a tail rotor in a B206 at 700 feet while in a hover. He was still able to do some sort of auto rotation and put it down (though the helicopter shook itself to bits once it hit the ground) and managed to crawl from the wreck with a few cuts and two compressed discs. Laughed though, said he never done so many complete 360's within 3 seconds.

Some helicopters are better then others for auto rotations, UH-1 is the best I know due to it's heavy blades and amazing inertia. They never seem to stop turning.

Reason I prefer to be in a helo is that even in a cessna you still have quite a bit of nose speed when you ditch. So much so I wouldn't look forward to having something come through the cockpit at 50mph. And much prefer the 0 to 5mph nose speed of a helicopter.


...-Gixer
~Hells Angels~

Originally posted by Fishu
It's just too bad if you loose any of the controls, which are pretty much all important for a chopper, then you'll come down like a rock.
in a plane you can at least loose the engine & propeller controls, plus you don't have a tail rotor

[Fishu]

Gixer,

I never said anything about loosing controls due to engine loss.

When something hits an aircraft, you'll be lucky if it breaks just the engine.
With a good chance you'll have something else broken.

....like some of the controls for example.

It's just too bad if the blade control gets shot off.. byebye autorotations

[Scootter]

Reminds me of old joke

If at night you lose you engine in a helicopter, set up autorotation and at about 200 feet turn on your landing light.

If you don’t like what you see in the light.....turn it off.


You will be going faster then 5 mph at touch down. and you better do everything just right or it will be even worse.

Me, I like my S.T.O.L. equipped Cessna, as stall speed is about 38-40 mph and unless I hit the side of a truck  I will be ok (I do have 3 point harness) and I have (hopeful) more time to pick a good spot.

Oh and don’t lose that helicopter engine at 0 zero airspeed and say 200 ft. You need speed and or alt to get rotor RPM up for autorotation. I think they call it the coffin corner, the area of not enough energy to spin up the rotor.

[Gixer]

True there is a "dead mans curve" with helicopters which spells disaster if you lose an engine. Normally combination of low speed and low alt.

Why guys who fly heavy lifters and spend the day lifting logs out of the forrest get paid higher rates.  As they spend all day flying in "dead mans curve".



...-Gixer
~Hells Angels~

Originally posted by Scootter
Oh and don’t lose that helicopter engine at 0 zero airspeed and say 200 ft. You need speed and or alt to get rotor RPM up for autorotation. I think they call it the coffin corner, the area of not enough energy to spin up the rotor.

[Scootter]

Originally posted by Gixer
True there is a "dead mans curve" with helicopters which spells disaster if you lose an engine. Normally combination of low speed and low alt.

Why guys who fly heavy lifters and spend the day lifting logs out of the forrest get paid higher rates.  As they spend all day flying in "dead mans curve".



...-Gixer
~Hells Angels~

Ahhhh thats it Gixer, thanks

A good friend of mine, Rick flys for the for the Sherriff's office and he spends most of his time in that area also.


They derserve the big bucks...  imo