Is it really necessary to duck your head while getting in and out of a helicopter? You see some people crouching and practically crawling along, while a lot of others at least bend over some.
Sure, there are whirling blades o’ death over your head, but isn’t there enough clearance? Is it just an innate human response to something dangerous overhead?
What happens if a strapping six-footer like myself just walks right up to that old helo and climbs in?
– Greg
Well, I am no expert, I have ridden in a chopper twice in my life. The reason I ducked getting in or out with the rotors spinning was because of the wind those things put out. It made my eyes water. If I ducked my head, that put my head between the wind and my eyes. Bend over a bit, and you get even more separation.
“You can be smart or pleasant. For years I was smart.
I recommend pleasant.”
Elwood P. Dowd
Well, I’m 6’3" and have worked with helicopters before so…Mostly it’s a combination of conditioning (ever seen anybody in a car duck while driving through a parkade?) and trying to avoid the enormous winds these things can generate. Same idea as running through a desert during a windstorm…
Additionally, if the pilot cuts the power at any time the blades will drop significantly. Since you can’t see them why not give them an extra margin of error, pretty simple in light of the consequences. It’s usually a safety regulation for anyone whose job involes loading or unloading from a running copter,
Larry
What Ivick said. The blades are flexible. If they happen to be decellerating the machine as you approach, they may be dipping slightly. For once, what you see in Hollywood is based firmly in the demands of real life.
The times I have either shot from choppers with the door off ( A loathesome experience, to be sure ) OR loaded a patient into a Stat-Flight chopper,I have been told to keep my head down by the pilot, or Flight Nurse. I do what I’m told, I get to play another day.
Cartooniverse
If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel.
As an air cadet, I rode in a Huey. The pilot who took us to the chopper told us to duck because, given the flexibility of the blades, occasionally a blade will dip a foot or two in its path. I can’t imagine that all’s well when that happens, but with the top of my head missing, the minor fluctuations in the rotor path wouldn’t matter much to me.
Never attribute to an -ism anything more easily explained by common, human stupidity.
Now you all have me worried! How often do people get hit by drooping blades?
Regarding the drooping blades as they slow down, I know an attorney who was killed that way. In my engineering days I was on helicopters a lot. Approaching or leaving the helicopter, I was ALWAYS aware that there was a blade swinging somewhere above ny head and I unconsciously maximized the distance.
My guess would be that you really don’t have to duck approaching a Jolly Green Giant or a Chinook. OTOH, I would generally approach a Skorpion or a Bell 47G on my hands and knees.
Tom~
Cartoonverse?
You were a door gunner? What unit? I was cobra aircrew in the 25th Combat Aviation Batallion, 118th Bandits.
Ursa,
Almost no one buys it that way, but it does happen. So duck when you approach. A far more common mishap is when crewmen get complacent and forget about the tail rotor. It’s nearly invisible when it’s rotating and easy to walk into if you get sloppy. As you might imagine, it’s a messy way to die.
I think the ducking comes more from conditioning, although I have never been in a helicopter myself.
However, I have had many an experience with a ceiling fan. After hitting my head a couple of times (on moving fans) I now find myself ducking even with a good foot of clearance, and even when they are motionless. The same thing applies to doorways, overhangs, etc. for me.
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Also, don’t forget to beware of the rear propellor, too. It has been reported that this blade is hard to see because of its speed of rotation. People have been known to walk smack into the rear prop. Not pretty.
I knew a girl the backed into a propeller blade once… Disaster.
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Computers have let mankind make mistakes faster than any other invention, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns.
There are some kit helicopters with rotors low enough to whack you in the head. Some small gyrocopters have had a pretty high accident rate due to this.
As far as rotor blades flexing, high winds and gusts can cause some extreme flex. I recall a Aerospatiale Gazelle that cut itself in two attempting a takeoff in high winds on a medevac flight.
Helicopters blades have enriched the language with the delightful term “Jesus nut.”
It’s the name for the nut that holds the blades onto the helicopter. So named, because if it fails during flight . . . “Jesus!”
“East is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does.” – Marx
Read “Sundials” in the new issue of Aboriginal Science Fiction. www.sff.net/people/rothman
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- Of course, you also have to be careful when you’re around the intakes of jet airplanes too, but you’ve all likely seen that video. That has to be one of the all-time-grace-of-God-close-calls ever.- MC
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NO! Haven’t seen the video, but can guess.
A guy here at work commented that working on aircraft carriers is dangerous. Pretty much every tour (6 mos?) somebody gets careless around the aircraft and meets a spinning blade/intake.
One more reason to avoid the Navy.
[QUOTE]
Originally posted by EvilGhandi:
Cartoonverse?
You were a door gunner? What unit? I was cobra aircrew in the 25th Combat Aviation Batallion, 118th Bandits.
Wow. Evil, I apologize. Such is the risk of a shared nomenclature. I’m 37, a DEVOUT pacifist. War and me don’t mix. However-I am also a professional cameraman. When I say I’ve shot from the side of a Bell Jet Ranger with the door removed, I mean that I strapped myself to the main rotor post ( or, whatever the correct name is for the metal column that passes through the middle of the bird), and leaned OUT with a camera on my shoulder, door gone, feet on the skids. Utah was pretty that way, Bermuda was MUCH nicer.
Thank god the pilots in both cases were VERY VERY seasoned ( both Vietnam era trained ), and took no risks. The Bermuda pilot was great, he took us in sideways on the deck, towards a lovely isolated beach-over the water. Amazing shots…
Sorry for the confusion, though !
Cartooniverse
If you want to kiss the sky, you’d better learn how to kneel.
Just a few years ago, a lawyer working for Conseco Group in Indianapolis suffered a fatal head injury while walking away from a helicopter. The rotors were spinning down and dropped low enough that they struck his head. I also seem to recall that they mentioned a small breeze had kicked up and may have tilted the blades even lower.
