Actually, there was really no time for contemplation prior to landing, as
I'm sure most pilots of single-engine, low-level helicopters will recognize.
One's training kicks in and takes most of the "thinking" out of the
situation, particularly when fast and low. I always loved the questions one
gets from the maintenance guys after such an engine failure, "what was the
oil temperature? pressure? N1 speed?" My usual answer "I don't know! I
was busy trying to avoid flying into anything and then busy trying to land
the aircraft without busting my ass!"

Neither I nor my peter pilot got off a mayday call on the first engine
failure, I was busy flying the machine and he was busy sucking the nylon
netting from the armored seat up to where the sun don't shine (high pucker
factor situation for a FNG). After the bird stopped sliding I turned off
the main fuel & battery, and shouted to the crew to "unass this thing". We
all bailed to the drainage ditch on the side of the road.

Maybe a minute later I thought about having neglected the radio call and
since we hadn't taken fire or seen any bad guys since landing, I ran up to
the bird and fetched the ammo box we used for an emergency kit and returned
to the ditch. Opening the box, I extracted the rinky-dink survival radio
and used it to call for help. No one heard it. We were less than 3 miles
from the firebase at Gia Ray, there was lots of chopper traffic around that
firebase, and not one aircraft heard my mayday call. That survival radio
was an absolute pick of junk and clearly not worth having along.

I gave up on the rinky dink radio, climbed into the bird, flipped on the
master and fired up the ARC51BX UHF radio. Everyone heard the mayday call
that went out on that one and we had air cover from an OH-58 within a couple
of minutes. About 15 minutes later, a unit of armored vehicles came roaring
down the road and set a perimeter around my machine. They stayed until a
Chinook came and carried our bird home for a new engine. The next day I
borrowed the CO's machine and carried several cases of cold beer out to them
as my thanks. Cav guys are worth their weight in gold!

A bit before the hook showed up, two pilots from our unit (who on their day
off had been taking the sun on top of our bunker back home) came out with a
spare Huey so I and my crew took that machine on to finish our day of
hauling people around Ham Tan province and my colleagues rode back to their
bunker on the rigging ship. I was a little sad to miss seeing the hook
bring my bird home, but better to go fly all day than to sit around the
company area dealing with whatever the operations or company staff could
dream up to occupy my time. Additional motivation was that my crew chief
would not have been happy if I had left him to fly all day with some other
A/C after the adventurous way we had started the day.

Gyrocopters strike me as a little scary. Several guys 3 doors down from our
Skyhawk's hanger have one. There ain't much to it. I don't think you can
carry much more than yourself, a 16 oz bottle of water, and a toothbrush in
one of those things. Still, I would like to try flying one someday.

Cheers,
Leonard



e muchthe first one, on the highway,
"boB" wrote in message
...
Leonard Ellis wrote:

I had two Lycoming T53-L13A engines come apart in 1970 during my tour
flying Hueys in RVN (240th Assault Helicopter Company).

The first one happened at cruise (~100 kts) at perhaps 100 feet AGL while
we were flying east from Bearcat (near Long Thanh) to the coast along
highway 1 just southeast of the Gia Ray massif. When the compressor
blades let go, it sounded like an explosion, I thought for a few seconds
that we had taken an RPG. Anyway, the autorotation and successful albeit
skidding landing on a paved highway went exactly like we trained for
low-level autorotation.


Some great moments there Leonard. Of course I think you didn't think that
way as the engines came apart.

I retired in 1995 and, after flying a season with Papillon Grand Canyon
Helicopters, I had enough money to buy my dream aircraft, the RAF2000
Gyro. The reason I was choosing the Gyro was the ability to land on
country roads, stop the rotor and line it up fore and aft, and drive it
like a motorcycle to a country gas station or big Truck Stop for a break,
food and a shower and a motel for the night. Some time camping beside the
aircraft was another possibility I was looking forward to. Adding the
required lights, brakes and other safety equipment would be no problem and
the Gyro can be licensed as a homebuilt motorcycle. I couldn't get my
Sprint II ultralight street legal with the wings attached so it wouldn't
be worth the bother.

But even with it being street legal, too much driving on the tires would
not be good for it although good street tires can be found I think.

But health going down hill and getting married to a German Tourist I met
flying over the Canyon put the plans on hold. But I still think about it.

Reading all the posts here has been great. Posts about aircraft like the
mini 500 and others are good reading. Is there a place where a person can
go to see some of the helicopters people own here? Maybe someday I'll get
back on track with my old plans.


--

boB,
SAG 70

U.S. Army Aviation (retired)
Central Texas - 5NM West of Gray Army Airfield (KGRK)