I await the outcome of this investigation more than any other. I have always been a big fan of the Jet Ranger and Long Ranger since I was a kid. I still remember the introduction of the Long Ranger and the article in FLYING magazine. The Jet Ranger is the safest single engine machine flying, so the result of this investigation is crucial to know the cause.
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I’m interested in this one too. Shouldn’t take them too long to sort out what happened. I’m thinking the cause could only be one of two scenarios. Mechanical/ structural fatigue failure, or improper pilot response to an engine power loss.
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Might also be a rotor gear box failure that caused the gears to lock with the rotor inertia tearing the gearbox out of the helicopter structure.
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It is a classic, I remember Bell showing it at YVR early in its model life.
But better is now flying, the Bell 407 which does not have the teetering rotor design.
Helicopters are tricky to fly.
Pros do and precisely, an OHL pilot was renowned for positioning chunks of transmission towers within 6 inches. (Scary job was people strapped to lower part of tower ready to insert bolts to secure it.)
Nervous-wing machines I called them when I worked for OHL. Require maintenance. One OHL pilot I met had a Super Puma roll over on liftoff, fortunately survived curved blades trying to go through roof. An actuator or such had failed to disengage on shutdown, helicopter had been moved between landing and liftoff - it immediately banked to fly the heading it had shut down at.
I agree, mast bumping seriously damages the MR blades and there is no way they will continue to rotate like those in the video
Moonmullins claims “The Jet Ranger is the safest single engine machine flying…”
That’s fake news and wishful thinking.
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Mike read this. BELL 206 seems to be pretty damnned safe. As for FAKE news where is your database?
https://flightsafety.org/fsd/fsd_aug91.pdf
MM,
According to the NTSB, the 10 “safest single engine machines” flying, based on fatal accident rate/100,000 hours flown are as follows:
DA40: 0.35
PC-12: 0.36
C-172: 0.45
Caravan: 0.66
C-182: 0.69
SR22: 0.78 (2019)
TBM850: 1.2
Bonanza: 1.3
C-206: 1.6
Saratoga: 1.8