by Ken Omega
Hey what's up, everybody. Hope you're well. Thanks for stopping by and checking out this blog post. I want to tell you a little about flying a two-bladed helicopter with an underslung rotor system.
The short version is, these types of rotor systems are prone to a situation called mast-bumping. That's when the mast that holds the rotor blades rocks violently in inside the cowling, and eventually, the rotor blades break away from the mast. When that happens, you're done.
So anyway, on the day that this photo was taken, I had decided to go out and fly an hour or so. Just to keep current. I only had a private rating at the time. But I had flown with lots of different instructors. So I had already acquired a pretty wide perspective on things from soaking up all of these guys' knowledge.
However, the instructor that I was flying with on this particular day was someone with whom I had never flown before. We talked some. He told me he was recently married and had a newborn baby. Really nice guy.
We flew over the beach, did some maneuvers, and then came back to the airport to practice some autorotations. An autorotation is when the engine fails and you have to trim the helicopter so that the blades keeps spinning on their own. Most of what you practice when you train is how not to die.
One of the most dangerous things that can happen in this type of two-bladed helicopter is, you see something at the last minute (like a wire), and have to make an abrupt adjustment to avoid a collision.
A lot of times, flying over the beach, kites can cause this sort of last minute reaction. Because where there's a kite, there's a wire attached.
Unfortunately, that's what happened to this nice fellow that I flew with, on the day after I flew with him. He was flying with a student, and by the time they saw the kite over the beach, it was too late. The instructor had to make a rapid adjustment to try and avoid the kite wire. And in the process, mast-bumping set in.
The mast bumped so violently that they lost the rotor system and crashed on the beach in Long Island, New York. There were no survivors. It was a really horrible story to hear about. And when I found out that I had flown with the same pilot in the very same helicopter just the day before, I was unsettled to say the least.
I did continue to fly though. And eventually finished my commercial rating in Hawaii. It was as beautiful as it sounds. I'll try to put up a post with some pics on that some other time.
These days I don't fly much. I have had some great experiences, and even taken a few friends flying in a two-seater. They're the ones who usually take the pictures that I have. But I'm not focused on flying like I used to be. Back in the days, I flew a lot. But now, my priorities are elsewhere.
I'll never regret the decision to get into flight training though. It was something I wanted to do since I was a kid. I spent my last dollar to see it through. And if I had it to do all over again, I'd do it the same way.
If you're out flying, stay safe. Catch you next time
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