I'd never stopped to consider the weight of the rotor gearbox. The
rotors were torn off in the impact and chopped off the tail rotor.
Chuck Norcutt
On 7/29/2011 11:06 AM, Jim Nichols wrote:
> Chuck,
>
> Perhaps Bell learned something from that and similar crashes. I have read
> quite a bit about the 429 in the last few days, and one thing I recall is
> that the roof of the 429 has been strengthened to prevent the main rotor
> gearbox from coming down through the roof in such accidents.
>
> Jim Nichols
> Tullahoma, TN USA
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chuck Norcutt"<chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: "Olympus Camera Discussion"<olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, July 29, 2011 9:47 AM
> Subject: Re: [OM] What happens when your cable cutters don't work
>
>
>> It's probably hard to tell from the single photo I provided of the
>> exterior of the helicopter
>> <http://www.chucknorcutt.com/Scott%27s%20accident/index.htm> but, the
>> reason he survived the fall (from 200 feet) was that the helicopter
>> landed in tall trees going backwards. The tail and passenger area
>> crushed up like an accordian and the seats bent over backwards all of
>> which helped cushion the impact. But if you look at the roof you'll see
>> that it also buckled inwards. That caused a roof liner panel to break
>> free and exposed the roof's U-channel support structure. One of those
>> U-channels caught him near the base of his skull and created a huge V
>> shaped cut in his scalp which was nearly torn off by being ripped up the
>> back and then over toward the front until it was a big flap hanging on
>> at the front edge. Not a complete indian scalping job but pretty close.
>> You can see how much blood there is on the seat despite the fact that
>> he wasn't in there very long after the impact. He was still conscious
>> for a short time after the impact and got out of and away from the
>> helicopter because he was afraid of fire. The helicopter had been
>> refueled not long before and the tanks had burst leaving a 90 gallon
>> pool of jet fuel on the ground underneath.
>>
>> Your scalp, of course, is chock full of blood vessels and, if it gets
>> cut open like that you bleed like crazy. Fortunately, an air medivac
>> team (whose members he knows well) were just lifting off from a hospital
>> that was 10 minutes away and they managed to give him first aid and
>> deliver him to a large trauma center within about 1-1/2 hours of the
>> accident. I later spoke to one of the surgeons who worked on him who
>> said that he had lost so much blood that he'd probably have died had it
>> taken another 20 minutes to get to the hospital.
>>
>> There are about 1/2 dozen other events that transpired that day that,
>> had either one of them not happened, he would not have survived.
>>
>> Chuck Norcutt
>>
>>
>> On 7/29/2011 10:04 AM, Chris Barker wrote:
>>> Hmmm! Not good. I don't think that I appreciated that at the time,
>>> Chuck.
>>>
>>> Chris
>>>
>>> On 29 Jul 2011, at 14:26, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
>>>
>>>> When I expressed surprise that his helicopter wasn't WSPS equipped when
>>>> even an old Huey has it he reminded me that the helicopter was purchased
>>>> by the State of New York which also didn't furnish helmets for their
>>>> pilots. It was the lack of a helmet which allowed his head injury to be
>>>> as serious as it was... he nearly bled to death. The state now requires
>>>> and provides helmets for their helicopter pilots.
>>>>
>>>> Chuck Norcutt
>>>> --
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>>>
>> --
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>>
>
>
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