AH-64 Apache Crash

[Gordo]

Oops - I thought he'd recovered from it - until he lost the tail rotor...
He may also have had a bit of a problem registering his angle of attack and/or ground altitude with the snow around.

[tinomen]

I still say he had it judged well, for a lower altitude, there's just a lot less lift up at higher altitudes like that and you can see the helicopter just kind of sink a little extra right before it hits.

[grapper]

Don't worry people, only birgirpall trying to boop someone.

[Kyros]

I still say he had it judged well, for a lower altitude, there's just a lot less lift up at higher altitudes like that and you can see the helicopter just kind of sink a little extra right before it hits.

So he didn't judge it well then.

[up_the_ante]

Did you see the guy that JUST got missed as the tail hits the ground?!!

[canberraKarter]

One, he was to close to the ground when he started the maneuver..
Two, he started the tail rotor turn before forward speed was below what was required to do the maneuver.. It caused it to turn like a plane off of the main rotor instead of a 180 using just the tail rotor. If he had done it correctly you would have seen him go strait up, stop, 180 and then come back down on the same line.. As it was he side slipped because his forward momentum was to high and by the time he recovered he was below the safe altitude to pull out..
Not to mention how stupid he was for practicing something like that with ground troops below him. I hope they throw the book at him and he gets to spend a little time behind bars and a dishonorable discharge for being such an idiot.

Are you a helicopter pilot?

No, you can start 1/2 inch off the ground to do this maneuver, speed is the key. Also he was using using the anti torque pedal and probably pulling the guts out of the collective, he probably didn't have enough tail authority to bring it around any faster and make it look clean. It could have been a whole different scenario if he turned right and did a torque turn instead, he may even of had power to spare.

And of course he was high, that always makes mistakes costly.

Edit, also note the comment about the tail fin stabiliser. He's right, that is odd and shouldn't be like that as you can clearly see the pitch of the blades trying to pull the nose up but the stabiliser working against them just before impact. More to this story perhaps...

[Gordo]

Well done spotting that - that'd have screwed him up big time for getting the nose up.

BTW, while there have been hundreds of tragic crashes, this one always makes me laugh - well deserving of any disciplinary action too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFK12QZ5gSI

[canberraKarter]

Yep that vids a classic!

Had many "Oh yee of little faith" jokes when doing low level flying training with my instructor