NZFF

Don't recognise the machine but it's got spray gear on it.

Helicopter crashes near Wanganui

The pilot was Peter Robb. Another great pilot

It was mentioned on the TV3 news tonight and course no idea what happened, one off the biggest things with the Hughes/MD 500s the shell is specifically designed for low level crash and survival, most notable was the Sir Tim Wallis crash in the late 1970s shown on a documentary proved that little egg is a live saver.

Maybe it was impact was just simply to aggressive, the twist , as pointed out the hull/egg was still very intact .. quick natural cause maybe ..

Yeh the 500 has pretty good accident survivability, I've always felt safe flying them. In fact, I feel safer in a 1970 model 500 than in last years R44 haha. Ag is high risk, reward. If a gearbox or drive shaft fails at the end of a run then you aren't left with many options. The one thing I noticed about the photos of the accident is that there didn't appear to be any wires wrapped around it or anything.

chopper_nut wrote:

QUOTE (chopper_nut @ Oct 28 2014,9:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ag is high risk, reward. If a gearbox or drive shaft fails at the end of a run then you aren't left with many options. The one thing I noticed about the photos of the accident is that there didn't appear to be any wires wrapped around it or anything.

Yeh the good old 500 with a solid head on it
What would happen if your airspeed was just above the dead man's curve? I suppose you have only seconds to react and in a ag turn not much height.

waka172rg wrote:

QUOTE (waka172rg @ Oct 27 2014,9:56 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeh the good old 500 with a solid head on it
What would happen if your airspeed was just above the dead man's curve? I suppose you have only seconds to react and in a ag turn not much height.

Yeh it depends. If your speed is in front of the curve then you should have enough height to perform a 'standard' auto. Most of the time when you're doing 'spray' turns though, your at speed and height combinations that put you in the avoid curve. Doesn't necessarily mean that your going to crash if you have a tranny or engine failure but it's going to make your life difficult.