Wapiti are incredibly nimble for their size. They can navigate through some incredible terrain at amazing speed for their size.

This isn't about the elk. But the idiots in the whirly bird.

It could also be a case of the pilot hitting a grounded elk with their tail rotor, not an elk leaping up into the tail rotor.

Especially based on this quote from the article:

quote:

The crew had launched a net to catch the animal, but when that didn't immediately work the pilot started to slow down so someone could jump out, said Mark Hadley with the state Division of Wildlife Resources. As the helicopter slowed down, the elk collided with the rotor.

I'm not a chopper pilot. But from my recollection of helicopters, when a chopper speeds up the tail rotor lifts, and when it slows down the tail rotor dips.

So if they were traveling at 10 feet off the ground, then attempted to slow down, that could have put the tail rotor even lower than 10 feet. Right at head/antler-height for an average male elk that's 9 feet tall.

quote:

Originally posted by Elk Hunter:

So, if I have this right: They were trying to NET a living elk that weighs several hundred pounds, so they can sedate it?!?!?

Last time I saw such antics was that they sedated the animal before doing much of anything else.

Ya know, dart it, wait for the sedative to kick in, put the radio collar on it, wake it up and let it go about its business.

Is there a plague of stupid in process? People seem to get dumber, and dumber, and dumber.

I used to work for a company that did a great deal of this; in fact, we had specialists who did only net gunning and buldogging from helicopters, and were in demand because of the very high success rate. I think the character of the story is probably wrong, though.

Net gunning involves flying low, offset from the animal, using a firearm with four barrels; each barrel holds a bolt in the muzzle area, and each bolt is attached to a corner of a net, which is folded between the barrels. When fired, the net spreads out and wraps the animal, and brings it down.

The other technique we frequently employed was buldogging, in which a specialist wrangler exists from the helicopter skid onto the animal and brings it down in a similar manner to bulldogging on horseback. At first blush it sounds rough. The reason it was so much in demand was that it's far more successful than directly tranquilizing.

Successful tranquilizing an animal depends on weight, and it's very easy to kill the animal, especially as the animal continues to run and struggle as the drugs take effect. The mortality and loss rate for animals shot by tranquilizing is much higher than netgunning and bulldogging. Consequently it's preferred in many case (not all).

Net gunning is done in close; it has a very short range, which means the helicopter needs to be close. It makes a lot of use of slow flight, rapid changes, and quick stops, which involve a rapid change in the angle of the rotor disc and a rapid change in the angle of the helicopter, including placing the tailboom and tail rotor much closer to the ground.

An elk does not jump ten feet into the air to strike a helicopter, but maneuvering close to the animal with quick stops as the animal changes speed and direction is a difficult, very challenging dance with very little margin for error.

The MD-500 is a very maneuverable, very capable helicopter; it's a sports car that flies beautifully and is very well suited to this role (as well as numerous others). It's used in natural resource flying, firefighting, law enforcement, military, and numerous other roles. It's a very nimble aircraft. Like any, it has limitations, and it appears that whatever the specific mode of impact, in this case the helicopter met those limitations.

It takes very little at a critical moment, to disable the helicopter, if the tail rotor has a strike, or if the skid catches on something. This is particularly true during the rapid energy and momentum changes that take place during an animal pursuit. In the case of bulldogging, net gunnning, or even exiting the aircraft to get to the animal, there is a lot that can go wrong.

Those doing this job are professionals, not haphazard cowboys. The job, however, is not without hazard, like many jobs.

Speaking of tail rotors, the link below has the original photo which shows the tail rotor missing. Under that photo click on "view more image" for a shot of the left side that shows part of the rotor under the cockpit area.

Did the elk's contact with the rotor cause it to "fall off," or was it the hard landing?

http://www.newser.com/story/25...this-helicopter.html

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
Speaking of tail rotors, the link below has the original photo which shows the tail rotor missing. Under that photo click on "view more image" for a shot of the left side that shows part of the rotor under the cockpit area.

Did the elk's contact with the rotor cause it to "fall off," or was it the hard landing?

http://www.newser.com/story/25...this-helicopter.html

Several other pictures, or expanded pictures, show the helicopter from several angles. It does have a collapsed right skid, broken main rotor blades, and missing tail rotor blade. There is damage to the structure, wrinkling in the skin, a missing tail rotor gearbox and broken tailboom. The tail rotorblade is under the helicopter. Undoubtably most, if not all of that damage occurred by striking the ground, not an elk. It may have involved an upset with the elk acting as the fulcrum on a skid (what on the ground would be a "dynamic rollover")







Not enough information is visible or given to make an adequate, detailed analysis.