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| Member |
This. I work around life flight helicopters in strange terrain. You have no idea of rotor height, droop, terrain. And I have no idea the actual rotor height to begin with as the model involved may not be the same and it might be nighttime, foggy, wet as well. What is the downside (none), what is the risk (big). So take the precaution. “So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.” | |||
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The guy behind the guy |
Welp, I’ve heard enough, I will be ducking if I ever approach a helicopter. Sorry to hear about your shipmate Navy. That’s horrible. | |||
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| His diet consists of black coffee, and sarcasm.  |
There is still a pretty good downdraft from the rotor blades even though there isn't enough for lift, as well as quite a bit of engine noise. When walking into a stiff headwind, you lean forward into it, do you not? Somewhat the same principle. | |||
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Drill Here, Drill Now |
When I took HUET (Helicopter Underwater Egress Training) to go offshore, they showed an extremely graphic video of a family exiting a tourist helicopter, and the husband excitedly extended his arms in the air as he walked away. As other posters have pointed out, the blades can dip several feet from the center to tip and he lost his arms with his family watching as other tourists filmed. Pretty disgusting and it definitely drove home the point. I've been on a bunch of helicopters for work (Gulf of Mexico and Alaska) and a couple on vacation I've never once had the urge to walk upright away from a helicopter or raise my arms. Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity DISCLAIMER: These are the author's own personal views and do not represent the views of the author's employer. | |||
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| Member |
Way back when I was a kid every time that I saw a person walking up to a helicopter they ducked so it was ingrained in our memories a long time ago. | |||
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| Go ahead punk, make my day |
The Navy has a prominent safety program to keep people from walking through props on E-2/C-2 aircraft and rotors on helos - because too many people would walk into them on the flight deck. It stuck with me and I’ll always say the best way to never get hit by a prop / rotor is to never walk through the arc. | |||
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| Member |
this --------------------------------- Proverbs 27:17 - As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. | |||
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| thawed out, thrown out |
Better to be seen than viewed. | |||
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Member |
I’ve seen that video, it’s definitely a training video as that part is clearly fake. Hope that helps your memories! | |||
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| Conservative Behind Enemy Lines  |
I found what you said riveting. | |||
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Member |
Boring for you guys that have been around them a lot but it fascinated me at the time. I have only been near a running Helicopter once. This would have been in the 70's probably. I think it was called a Jolly Green Giant. Two story looking thing with the cockpit way up high on top, not on the nose, very smooth rounded body with sliding doors on the bottom level. It came to town to set some antenna parts on a microwave tower. First thing it did was land in a church parking lot and offload several drums of fuel. It must have been lifting near it's capacity. It made 4 or 5 lifts that took about 10 minuets each but I only saw the last one. After every lift, and before they left for the day they would shut it down and add some more fuel via a hand cranked pump in the barrel. The blades on that thing drooped a lot. When leaving for the final time one crew stayed outside and he raised his arms in unison with the blades as they throttled up / spun up on restart. Once the blades were level with the ground the guy ran and jumped in and shut the door and they took off. I was about 250 feet away leaning up against my buddies pickup truck when they left. I thought it was going to turn his pickup over! He was parked broadsided to the chopper and the wind was almost bouncing his tires off the ground. Damn impressive to me and made me wonder why they didn't rope off a larger area! If I had to get in that thing while running I don't think I would duck... more likely crawl! If it ain't woke... don't fix it. | |||
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| Member |
This exactly why I did, there were many times we were dropped off with a single skid on the hillside. we made sure to remind all the team members to go downhill FIRST ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Live today as if it may be your last and learn today as if you will live forever | |||
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E tan e epi tas |
Because Helo Blades can droop and everybody universally wants to keep their head attached to their body. It’s just natural to want to stay as far away from the idustrial strength weed whacker as possible. Same reason everybody pulls their arms down when the roller coaster goes in the tunnel. "Guns are tools. The only weapon ever created was man." | |||
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| You're going to feel a little pressure... |
Rotor blades droop and flap several feet, especially when slowing down. Also, a stiff gust of wind can deflect them quite a bit. If that deflection heads in your general direction, you can go from all clear to half as tall, just like that. Bruce "The designer of the gun had clearly not been instructed to beat about the bush. 'Make it evil,' he'd been told. 'Make it totally clear that this gun has a right end and a wrong end. Make it totally clear to anyone standing at the wrong end that things are going badly for them. If that means sticking all sort of spikes and prongs and blackened bits all over it then so be it. This is not a gun for hanging over the fireplace or sticking in the umbrella stand, it is a gun for going out and making people miserable with." -Douglas Adams “It is just as difficult and dangerous to try to free a people that wants to remain servile as it is to try to enslave a people that wants to remain free." -Niccolo Machiavelli The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. -Mencken | |||
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| Do the next right thing  |
While researching family history I came across this story:
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Who else? |
Air Cav. UH-1's, OH-58's, MH-6's, UH-60's, CH-47's, AH-1S's, AH-64's. You duck, for all the reasons previously mentioned. Further, I was told a sudden downdraft of wind could cause a blade or blades to dip and nip you. Many times the circumstances were multiple rotary-wing aircraft coming in and departing and wind was violent and everywhere as we assed or unassed. The tail rotor gets most. Seen a few of those. | |||
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| half-genius, half-wit |
Same here with the Westland Lynx - well-known rotor-disc drooper...and sailor flight-line/landing pad killer. Only with the VERY tall Wessex was there any degree of certainty that unless you were over seven feet tall you were going to be fine - the Crew Chief/Loadie shuts 'DUCK!' you duck. tac | |||
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Age Quod Agis |
I was stationed with a helicopter battalion. Helicopters are really cool. They are fun to fly in, useful as hell and devastating to the enemy. They are also evil machines that have a black heart. A helicopter is always looking for an excuse to kill you. Never, ever give one the chance; it WILL take it. "I vowed to myself to fight against evil more completely and more wholeheartedly than I ever did before. . . . That’s the only way to pay back part of that vast debt, to live up to and try to fulfill that tremendous obligation." Alfred Hornik, Sunday, December 2, 1945 to his family, on his continuing duty to others for surviving WW II. | |||
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| Member |
Because it looks cool. ----------------------------- Always carry. Never tell. | |||
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| Go ahead punk, make my day |
Because they value their life. | |||
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