Premature Deployment on Helo

[dnasty 0]

While jumping this weekend off a helicopter, my dad had a pretty scary experience. He climbed out on the skid and did a gainer off of it, and while mid flip he noticed his lines around his head. His main had deployed without him actually pulling it AND while in a very unstable position. He recovered somehow and didn't have to cut and pull silver. How the hell could this have happened? He buckled the seatbelt behind him and didn't make contact with the skid. It definitely taught a lot of people at the DZ a lesson on jumping from the chopper though.

[JohnnyMarko 1]

Is the spandex on his BOC loose?

[dnasty 0]

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Is the spandex on his BOC loose?

It was a rented student rig, so i have no idea, But its the one he always uses and its never deployed by itself before.

[Hellis 0]

The PC came out somehow? Just like on most other prematures?

Not trying to hijack, but look at this, this is scary. Its the reserve
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pg53t_HIQw#t=1m20s

[mchamp 1]

Most likely didn't have his pilot chute completely secure with perhaps too much exposed.
Another is perhaps his closing loop is too loose and/or spandex for holding his pilot chute might not be tight enough

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[billvon 2,417]

Most helicopters are a bit tight to enter/exit. He may have snagged the PC handle as he climbed out.

[dnasty 0]

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Most helicopters are a bit tight to enter/exit. He may have snagged the PC handle as he climbed out.

Thats what probably happened, that or the seatbelt snagged it or something. We are just relatively new to jumping and I was wondering what other kind of shit could have happened

[Andrewwhyte 1]

One problem with helicopters is the relative wind is from above so even without the flip on exit the entanglement danger is higher during a premature deployment.
I lost a friend like that.

[crotalus01 0]

Does that depend on the type of heli and/or the pilot? I have 3 heli jumps from a Robinson R44 and on all 3 the rotors were pitched such that there was no rotor wash coming down - the air was almost as dead as a balloon.

As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

[Andrewwhyte 1]

Don't know. Don't understand where the lift would come from in that case either.

[pilotdave 0]

There's just not much downwash real close to the fuselage. I did 8 jumps from a bell jetranger a few weeks ago (and a handful of jumps from Allouette IIs and an R-44 in the past) and I've noticed the same thing on all of them. The amount of downwash you feel while standing on the skid is basically nothing. Check out the guy's hair in the attached pic... The ~20 kts of forward speed we were doing had a much bigger effect than any downwash. Even sticking an arm out on takeoff, you don't feel wind blowing down.

The inboard portion of the rotor disk just doesn't create much lift.

Dave

[Andy_Copland 0]

I gotta say i agree. I climbed on the skid with my hand over my PC fearing massive downwash. Got out there and thought "huh... nothing..."

1338

People aint made of nothin' but water and shit.

Until morale improves, the beatings will continue.

[riggerpaul 1]

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There's just not much downwash real close to the fuselage. I did 8 jumps from a bell jetranger a few weeks ago (and a handful of jumps from Allouette IIs and an R-44 in the past) and I've noticed the same thing on all of them. The amount of downwash you feel while standing on the skid is basically nothing. Check out the guy's hair in the attached pic... The ~20 kts of forward speed we were doing had a much bigger effect than any downwash. Even sticking an arm out on takeoff, you don't feel wind blowing down.

The inboard portion of the rotor disk just doesn't create much lift.

Dave

+1

Not much sense having downwash just hitting the fuselage, causing additional turbulence and wasting energy. You cannot avoid some of this, of course, some downwash will be hitting the tail boom. But moving it a bit out from the hub will keep it away from a lot of the fuselage.

[Neoslim22 0]

Quote

While jumping this weekend off a helicopter, my dad had a pretty scary experience. He climbed out on the skid and did a gainer off of it, and while mid flip he noticed his lines around his head. His main had deployed without him actually pulling it AND while in a very unstable position. He recovered somehow and didn't have to cut and pull silver. How the hell could this have happened? He buckled the seatbelt behind him and didn't make contact with the skid. It definitely taught a lot of people at the DZ a lesson on jumping from the chopper though.

Why would you buckle the seat belt?

[swoopfly 5]

i would just like to add to this thread.

While we are use to jumping from planes (most the time). i have found that new jumpships come with new scenarios that can go wrong.

i did my first heli jump this year, it was a 2 way. we both climbed out opposite sides and hung from the strut and just let go.

Now while the jump went great and no incident occurred, i noticed after landing that my reserve handle was dislodged from its pocket and just hanging there. apparently when we were climbing down the strut my Soft reserve handle gripped the grip tape on the top of the strut and pulled it from the pouch. thank goodness i didnt have a reserve deployment from the side of a helicoptor. but i thought i would just put this heli experience out there and remind everyone when you jump something new. be safe and rememeber a different aircraft comes with different scenarios.

[riggerrob 558]

Quote

Quote

While jumping this weekend off a helicopter, my dad had a pretty scary experience. He climbed out on the skid and did a gainer off of it, and while mid flip he noticed his lines around his head. His main had deployed without him actually pulling it AND while in a very unstable position. He recovered somehow and didn't have to cut and pull silver. How the hell could this have happened? He buckled the seatbelt behind him and didn't make contact with the skid. It definitely taught a lot of people at the DZ a lesson on jumping from the chopper though.

Why would you buckle the seat belt?

....................................................................

Perhaps to prevent the loose end from beating the paint off the side of the fuselage?

[airtwardo 6]

...we both climbed out opposite sides and hung from the strut and just let go.

Just some food for thought...

Chopper skids are designed to both collapse in a crash or hold the weight of the machine for landing, not to have people hanging on them in flight.

Never heard of a problem on larger commercial helios but was denied an R22 jump once because of the owners concerns, I mentioned that to an R44 owner once who subsequently had things thoroughly checked during a scheduled maintenance...I didn't personally see it but I was told there was some deformation around the skid attachment points that weren't due to 'normal' wear...he doesn't take jumpers up anymore.


OTOH I rode the skid UP once on a NOTAR with 3 others... and the pilot had no concerns what so ever.

Just a heads up FWIW.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[pilotdave 0]

Robinson actually published a Safety Notice in 1983 regarding carrying external loads on the skids of R22s.

http://robinsonheli.com/srvclib/rchsn13.pdf

No idea if it applies to R44s.

Dave

[swoopfly 5]

Quote

...we both climbed out opposite sides and hung from the strut and just let go.

Just some food for thought...

Chopper skids are designed to both collapse in a crash or hold the weight of the machine for landing, not to have people hanging on them in flight.

Never heard of a problem on larger commercial helios but was denied an R22 jump once because of the owners concerns, I mentioned that to an R44 owner once who subsequently had things thoroughly checked during a scheduled maintenance...I didn't personally see it but I was told there was some deformation around the skid attachment points that weren't due to 'normal' wear...he doesn't take jumpers up anymore.


OTOH I rode the skid UP once on a NOTAR with 3 others... and the pilot had no concerns what so ever.

Just a heads up FWIW.

The heli owner actually gave us a briefing on this. He was ok with so much weight hanging from his skid, and we made sure to meet his requirement.

[crotalus01 0]

The last 2 R44 jumps I did the pilot told us we could all hang if we wanted (3 of us) and he didnt care what we did as long as we didnt push off.
As for buckling the seatbelt back, if it is not the shoulderstrap variety it can damage the fuselage if it gets out the door.

As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

[dninness 4]

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Chopper skids are designed to both collapse in a crash or hold the weight of the machine for landing, not to have people hanging on them in flight.

Never heard of a problem on larger commercial helios but was denied an R22 jump once because of the owners concerns, I mentioned that to an R44 owner once who subsequently had things thoroughly checked during a scheduled maintenance...I didn't personally see it but I was told there was some deformation around the skid attachment points that weren't due to 'normal' wear...he doesn't take jumpers up anymore.


OTOH I rode the skid UP once on a NOTAR with 3 others... and the pilot had no concerns what so ever.

Just a heads up FWIW.

Light piston helos like the Robinsons have concerns about weight, and the skids aren't beefed up for stresses in "all directions." The skids are built to assume the weight of the aircraft while on the ground (the force is actually "up" thru the skid tubes into the fuselage when the weight of the aircraft is on the ground). They're not so much built to take a force "down" on them. People step on the skids when they're on the ground, but the ground is right there, so there really is no appreciable force being transmitted to the structure.

Now, a UH-1 or a heavier turbine powered aircraft? I'm here to tell you that a UH-1's skids are BEEFY and the way they're held into the fuselage accounts for stress in both directions, up and down.

I made a Robinson jump this summer, and the aircraft was equipped with deployable floats on the skids, and the owner/operator asked us politely not to hang from the skids, and really didn't want us doing a ton of repositioning on the skids, either, lest we jack up the floats.

NIN
D-19617, AFF-I '19