Weird Emergencies

Over the past weekend in San Diego, an 84 year old man decided to
unstrap and get out of the aircraft while on short final. It killed
him of course. He was in a biplane but it reminded me of some
incidents when I had passengers who became the emergency in
helicopters too. How to handle them?
A pax who was moving around in the front seat and stuck his foot thru
the chin bubble and got it stuck..... Or the big guy pax who filled
the seat so much that he limited the amount of aft cyclic while trying
to flare and land....
Or the guy who was drunk and tried to wrestle the controls away from
me so he could show me how it was done......
The pax who unstrapped and began to move around in the cockpit and was
actually going to change seats by crawling across me?.....
I'm sure you have seen others as weird. How about sharing them and
spice up the board? Its getting pretty dull....
Ol Shy & Bashful

Or the skydiver who always planted his hand on the fuel valve in the C182 I
was flying, then pushed himself out the door, turning as he did and turning
the fuel off. He would be away and I would be climbing for the next jumper
when the engine would do it's Rupp Rupp and quit.
Stu Fields.
"SelwayKid" wrote in message
m...
Over the past weekend in San Diego, an 84 year old man decided to
unstrap and get out of the aircraft while on short final. It killed
him of course. He was in a biplane but it reminded me of some
incidents when I had passengers who became the emergency in
helicopters too. How to handle them?
A pax who was moving around in the front seat and stuck his foot thru
the chin bubble and got it stuck..... Or the big guy pax who filled
the seat so much that he limited the amount of aft cyclic while trying
to flare and land....
Or the guy who was drunk and tried to wrestle the controls away from
me so he could show me how it was done......
The pax who unstrapped and began to move around in the cockpit and was
actually going to change seats by crawling across me?.....
I'm sure you have seen others as weird. How about sharing them and
spice up the board? Its getting pretty dull....
Ol Shy & Bashful

I once aborted a takeoff because my passenger, who had just eaten a Reuben
sandwich, belched a big one.
The smell was so bad I exited the runway and opened the door.
True.

Let me tell you about skydivers who eat pizza, drink beer the nite before
and can turn the inside of a C182 green even with the door off!! I was
looking for an oxygen mask with built in mic because of some of these guys.
The best I could do was slip the plane into the open door after they left.
This, unfortunately, had a tenndency to flutter the back seat upholstery.

S.Fields
"Gyroplanes" wrote in message
...
I once aborted a takeoff because my passenger, who had just eaten a Reuben
sandwich, belched a big one.
The smell was so bad I exited the runway and opened the door.
True.

A flight at Arlington Wa. to check out the fix to some interference that I
had on the radio provided a learning experience. Shortly after lift off in
my Safari, I heard a tremdous banging sound. The first thing that I thought
of was Passenger's Seat Belt hanging out of the door. Wrong. Seat belt
secure and banging continued. Looking below for a landing site showed only
swimming pools and back yards. All gauges checked, and all controls normal.
Banging continued. I squeezed the black out of the plastic on the cyclic
and collective conntrols. Upon landing, I found the end of the passenger's
seat belt had been flapping away at the boom mike on the headset (still
plugged in)that I had secured in the passenger's seat. Thankfully I didn't
do a quick auto and tear up the ship and land in some swimming pool with a
ship with nothing wrong with it.
Stu the Safari driver.
"SelwayKid" wrote in message
m...
Over the past weekend in San Diego, an 84 year old man decided to
unstrap and get out of the aircraft while on short final. It killed
him of course. He was in a biplane but it reminded me of some
incidents when I had passengers who became the emergency in
helicopters too. How to handle them?
A pax who was moving around in the front seat and stuck his foot thru
the chin bubble and got it stuck..... Or the big guy pax who filled
the seat so much that he limited the amount of aft cyclic while trying
to flare and land....
Or the guy who was drunk and tried to wrestle the controls away from
me so he could show me how it was done......
The pax who unstrapped and began to move around in the cockpit and was
actually going to change seats by crawling across me?.....
I'm sure you have seen others as weird. How about sharing them and
spice up the board? Its getting pretty dull....
Ol Shy & Bashful

Your comment "squeezed the black out of..." made me laugh like hell.
Reminded me of a similar thing. I was over the water between Miami
and Key West at night, all of the sudden I hear this big clank followed
by a thunk that I felt in the seat. I wasn't sure what it was, no guage
probs,
no funny vibrations. I thought maybe I hit a bird. The only issue was that
the
torque on my sphincter was in the yellow.

My ship has an litter kit which allows the copilots seat to be used for
carrying patients. When I landed I found that the co-pilots shoulder harness
frame had fallen into the back seat. I secure the shoulder harnesses when
not
in use now.

Bart

"Stu & Kathy Fields" wrote in message
...
A flight at Arlington Wa. to check out the fix to some interference that I
had on the radio provided a learning experience. Shortly after lift off
in
my Safari, I heard a tremdous banging sound. The first thing that I
thought
of was Passenger's Seat Belt hanging out of the door. Wrong. Seat belt
secure and banging continued. Looking below for a landing site showed
only
swimming pools and back yards. All gauges checked, and all controls
normal.
Banging continued. I squeezed the black out of the plastic on the cyclic
and collective conntrols. Upon landing, I found the end of the
passenger's
seat belt had been flapping away at the boom mike on the headset (still
plugged in)that I had secured in the passenger's seat. Thankfully I
didn't
do a quick auto and tear up the ship and land in some swimming pool with a
ship with nothing wrong with it.
Stu the Safari driver.

Alright Bart: You have graciously given me another. "Torque on my sphincter
was in the yellow" I will use it judiciously and appropriately. I used to
use "Pucker Factor" butt I like your torque gage.
"Bart" wrote in message
...
Your comment "squeezed the black out of..." made me laugh like hell.
Reminded me of a similar thing. I was over the water between Miami
and Key West at night, all of the sudden I hear this big clank followed
by a thunk that I felt in the seat. I wasn't sure what it was, no guage
probs,
no funny vibrations. I thought maybe I hit a bird. The only issue was that
the
torque on my sphincter was in the yellow.

My ship has an litter kit which allows the copilots seat to be used for
carrying patients. When I landed I found that the co-pilots shoulder
harness
frame had fallen into the back seat. I secure the shoulder harnesses when
not
in use now.

Bart

"Stu & Kathy Fields" wrote in message
...
A flight at Arlington Wa. to check out the fix to some interference that
I
had on the radio provided a learning experience. Shortly after lift off
in
my Safari, I heard a tremdous banging sound. The first thing that I
thought
of was Passenger's Seat Belt hanging out of the door. Wrong. Seat belt
secure and banging continued. Looking below for a landing site showed
only
swimming pools and back yards. All gauges checked, and all controls
normal.
Banging continued. I squeezed the black out of the plastic on the
cyclic
and collective conntrols. Upon landing, I found the end of the
passenger's
seat belt had been flapping away at the boom mike on the headset (still
plugged in)that I had secured in the passenger's seat. Thankfully I
didn't
do a quick auto and tear up the ship and land in some swimming pool with
a
ship with nothing wrong with it.
Stu the Safari driver.

Well I will share another, but I'm starting to see that I have so many to
share that I had better review my maintenance , flight planning and safety
strategies.
The Safari that I fly has a spring system on the collective to trim out the
forces so that I can even take my hand off the collective in flight for at
least long enough to scratch my nose. Without this spring, the collective
wants to come to high pitch rather strongly.
On a beautiful day on my approach to land, I had just flared and was pulling
pitch when I heard a loud bang, the collective wound up under my left ear,
the helicopter was going thru 15' straight up and the low rotor alarm was
screaming in my headset. To use a "Bartism" the sphincter torque gage went
off scale. By the time I got control of the collective, I had a good idea
what had happened: The spring broke. I now have two springs operating in
parallel. I have since come to believe that seat belts are not needed if
you have a 1/4" bolt just protruding from the middle of the seat.
Stu Fields
"SelwayKid" wrote in message
m...
Over the past weekend in San Diego, an 84 year old man decided to
unstrap and get out of the aircraft while on short final. It killed
him of course. He was in a biplane but it reminded me of some
incidents when I had passengers who became the emergency in
helicopters too. How to handle them?
A pax who was moving around in the front seat and stuck his foot thru
the chin bubble and got it stuck..... Or the big guy pax who filled
the seat so much that he limited the amount of aft cyclic while trying
to flare and land....
Or the guy who was drunk and tried to wrestle the controls away from
me so he could show me how it was done......
The pax who unstrapped and began to move around in the cockpit and was
actually going to change seats by crawling across me?.....
I'm sure you have seen others as weird. How about sharing them and
spice up the board? Its getting pretty dull....
Ol Shy & Bashful

Returning from a check flight after an engine replacement on a company
BK117, the pilot hovered at about 15 feet AGL and said "****! We're so low
on fuel, the thing won't set down... you're gonna have to hop out and go get
some sandbags and throw em on the skids". Being the gullible and
aerodynamically ignorant youngster I was, I promptly threw myself out of the
door, face planted into the tarmac, shoulder rolled out of it and
frantically ran to the backside of the hangar... I returned with the first
2 of many planned sandbags to find the ship on the ground and the pilot and
mechanic laughing their asses off.

Not quite an emergency but it was the closest I ever wanted to get to one.

By the way, the thing out in San Diego -- he made sure his grandson was
watching from the ramp. Plus, he happened to hit some wires on the way
down... no WSPS on him so he fell in two pieces to an apartment building
courtyard right in front of, yep, more kids. What a dignified way to kill
yourself.

-Mike

"SelwayKid" wrote in message
m...
Over the past weekend in San Diego, an 84 year old man decided to
unstrap and get out of the aircraft while on short final. It killed
him of course. He was in a biplane but it reminded me of some
incidents when I had passengers who became the emergency in
helicopters too. How to handle them?
A pax who was moving around in the front seat and stuck his foot thru
the chin bubble and got it stuck..... Or the big guy pax who filled
the seat so much that he limited the amount of aft cyclic while trying
to flare and land....
Or the guy who was drunk and tried to wrestle the controls away from
me so he could show me how it was done......
The pax who unstrapped and began to move around in the cockpit and was
actually going to change seats by crawling across me?.....
I'm sure you have seen others as weird. How about sharing them and
spice up the board? Its getting pretty dull....
Ol Shy & Bashful

Hell, I've got another one.
While up in Minnesota, I was going to give an gentleman a ride and so I
lifted off from a tight pad and took the ship over to a field that had more
maneuvering room. The group of people accompanying the passenger came over
to the field with their big black Labrador Retreiver, who came running and
jumping at the bottom of the helo. Having seen a dog try to bite a tail
rotor, told me that this wasn't going to work so I moved to a different
field. The winds were a bit gusty so we decided to wait and see if they
would calm down. Shortly after, a fast moving Big Ugly Storm Cell(BUSC) was
observed heading our way. Wanting to get the helo under cover, I grabbed
the truck and trailer and headed for the field. Got the truck stuck in a
gate that was too narrow for me to make the needed turn. CB antennas on top
of the truck contacted an electric fence wire which was hung suspended on
normally high enough poles. The property owner came over to offer advice,
leaned on the(electrified truck door and landed on her butt. I backed the
truck out told my wife to take the truck to a different field, Remember the
BUSC was still coming and looking worse. I jumped in the helo, lobbed it
over the fence into the next field, shut down and prepped the ship for winch
loading onto the trailer. My wife arrived with the truck and trailer, (the
BUSC was closer and meaner looking) and the winch failed. About this time I
discovered that I had landed in the field where the heard of Buffalo lived.
Complete with BIG BULL. Here they came. (It is breeding season) Winch still
doesn't work and the BUSC is getting closer. Now the buffalo are
surrounding the chopper, the BULL is shaking his head and pawing the ground,
the owner is screaming "LOOK OUT HES' GOING TO CHARGE" The cows are in a
spectator circle observing the whole process. I can't have my helo damaged
so I charge the BULL with a 2x4 waving around trying to look as big as
possible. My wife who is truly fearless(has night dived with sharks, and
painted Radio towers) has jumped into the camper on the back of the truck
and is looking out thru a crack in the door. The BULL continues to paw the
ground snorting and acting like he is not even noticing me and my 2x4. The
owner is still screaming "LOOK OUT HES' GOING TO CHARGE", I'm waving the
2x4 and the gentleman who was to take the helo ride shows up in the field
with a truck with buffalo feed and the entire herd turns their back on me
and leaves. Now the winch decides to work. Got the helo under cover and
not more than a light sprinkle out of the BUSC.
Yeah! Why didn't I lob the helo back into the tight pad I started from
where there were no buffalos?? That is the same question I kept asking
myself while sucking on a cold beer after the above fiasco.











"SelwayKid" wrote in message
m...
Over the past weekend in San Diego, an 84 year old man decided to
unstrap and get out of the aircraft while on short final. It killed
him of course. He was in a biplane but it reminded me of some
incidents when I had passengers who became the emergency in
helicopters too. How to handle them?
A pax who was moving around in the front seat and stuck his foot thru
the chin bubble and got it stuck..... Or the big guy pax who filled
the seat so much that he limited the amount of aft cyclic while trying
to flare and land....
Or the guy who was drunk and tried to wrestle the controls away from
me so he could show me how it was done......
The pax who unstrapped and began to move around in the cockpit and was
actually going to change seats by crawling across me?.....
I'm sure you have seen others as weird. How about sharing them and
spice up the board? Its getting pretty dull....
Ol Shy & Bashful