On Jul 17, 12:09*pm, Bill Kambic wrote:
On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 08:24:57 -0400, Bill Kambic
wrote:



On Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:05:22 -0700 (PDT), J
wrote:

Hi. An ignorant civilian here with a question. I've never been in or
near a helicopter.

The May 2010 USNI Proceedings (pg. 78) mentions that "[t]he Navy's
H-72A's have several specific equipment additions, including
jettisonable cockpit doors...." I can understand jet fighters have
jettisonable cockpit canopies but I'm having trouble imagining
circumstances in which a helicopter would need to have jettisonable
cockpit doors. Can someone please clue me in?

Thansk . . . J

When I was aboard INTREPID one of our helo squadron, HS-11, pui one
into the water. *The co-pilot was a buddy of mine, know affectionately
as "Dirty John" (he had a date with every single woman in RI...once
:-) ).

I was watching the PLAT when it happened. *The helo went in upright
and immediately flipped inverted. *The sponson floatation bags
inflated as advertised. *He said that he waited 'till the bubbles
cleared (just like in the Dilber Dunker), disconnected his head set,
released his harness, and pulled the door jetteson handle. *Nothing
happened. *He pulled harder, and nothing happened. *Then he pulled as
hard as he could. *Nothing happend. *At that point he got worried.
Then he membered that the main door was open so he swam back through
the fuselage and went out that way. *He said if the floatation bags
had not worked he would probably not have made it.

So, yes, the ability to jetteson the doors is important.

I have to correct myself: *the H-3 did not have a "door jetteson
handle" in the cockpit it had a "window jetteson handle." *Served the
same function as a crew escape route.

Makes more sense than the helo ejection seat.

Seems when you have a sinking helo the more holes in the fuselage for
egress the better.

I see to recall the ejection seat had some sequence of blowing the
rotors, then the canopy then going out that way. Funny none of the
parachute test guys (all enlisted for some reason) ever wanted to try
the system, I think it got as far as a mockup. Then died, might have
been an Army only or joint Army / AF project.

Parachute test guys always made sure a dummy went first. Then they'd
do it for real.

Unlike the test pilots, of course they were all officers and
engineers, do the 'it works trust us' they would fly anything.

There's a moral somewhere...