Bullet holes in rotor blades?

haigotron · February 13, 2009

Has anyone actually seen a case where bullets actually go through the rotor blades and make holes?

Just wondering...

AlphaOneSix · February 13, 2009

In real life? Yes.

In the game? Not yet, at least not that I am aware of...I may have had holes in the blades but crashing them into the ground removed all the evidence!

Arrowhead · February 13, 2009

I watched my AI wingman fly back to base with one rotor blade partially shot off. He was wobbling like crazy, but he made it, and I could see the damage to the single blade after he shut down.

Dusty Rhodes · February 13, 2009

Could you imagine that being you trying to hamfist that thing back to base?

Cezar11 · February 13, 2009

ever seen this video of an apache taking off a blade with a tree? I don't think you could make it back to base in real life with that kind of vibration.

S77th-RYKE · February 13, 2009

Could you imagine that being you trying to hamfist that thing back to base?

I actually landed with half a blade missing (broke it hitting the ground if I remember well), the whole helicopter was shaking like a washing machine . I wish I had force feedback to know what it would have felt like on the stick instead of my X-45 .

I was proud of that landing to say the least .

S D · February 13, 2009

I suppose the decision to try and make it back to base would depend on the situation. In that Apache footage, its a training mission so the safest thing to do is get it on the deck asap. Where as if you were flying in hostile territory you might have to take the risk.

SDeath · February 13, 2009

It happend to me once while doing one off the missions when you have to fly over the high snowy mountains. I couldn't get over the top so I backed up to get some extra height and speed to get over them (Damn that powerloss modelled in is so real). But at one point to get some speed, I was quite low over the glacier and somehow too close to a bump on the right so I lost half a blade. I pulled it up to get some height again and find a place to land, I put it down on a flat spot on the glacier. But damn that was hard to fly. Indeed it shaked like a washing machine.

But in the end when I shutdown I was very proud of myself that I was able to put it down. The last 10 seconds of the shutdown the Black Sharked was humping on the ground due to the imbalance. It was fun.

A nice example of what happens when you loose a piece of your rotor blade:

This is a dutch police Bulkow, who was trying to land in a street, he striked a lightpole and lost a piece of his mainrotor blade. The piece went through a houses window and caused quite some damage, luckily no injuries. If you look close you can see the helicopter vibrate due to the imbalance. He finds himself a better place to land very quick. =-)

Edited February 13, 2009 by SDeath

SDeath · February 13, 2009

I suppose the decision to try and make it back to base would depend on the situation. In that Apache footage, its a training mission so the safest thing to do is get it on the deck asap. Where as if you were flying in hostile territory you might have to take the risk.

I think with the imbalance they sustained, it's impossible to fly it back to base. Very soon everything will start to fall apart, the shaft and maingearbox aren't capable of handling that kind of vibration very long.

Offcourse miracles do exist. But I think no one would try to fly it back. Who knows when everything falls apart. As long as you have control, try to land.

S D · February 13, 2009

Very true, but i would guess that decision would be made by the crew. These are the guys who fly the thing everyday, knowing the limits of the thing. It's amazing how much punishment aircraft can take and make it back in one piece.

But yeah loosing a blade and causing such vibrations would probably make it unflyable.

EtherealN · February 14, 2009

I suspect the one thing that would help a crew decide whether to keep flying or not is basically where at exactly they are. If they know they are currently over hostile ground but only need to make it back a few kilometres to reach a friendly position they might decide to try covering that just to avoid capture.

But it's all academic unless you're a real pilot in a real thing I guess. I'm not sure I'd want to stay inside a glider if it had lost the vertical stabilizer or part of a wing even if it was somewhat controllable and I just needed a few kilometres more to reach safer terrain. :P

On impressive flying of damaged aircraft though, I recently checked out some of the SAM systems on Wikipedia and ran into an article about an airliner that was hit by a MANPAD which took out ALL hydraulics. Not even backups alive as far as I understood. And the pilots brought it to a safe landing purely on differential thrust. That's some quality flying. :)

SDeath · February 14, 2009

I suspect the one thing that would help a crew decide whether to keep flying or not is basically where at exactly they are. If they know they are currently over hostile ground but only need to make it back a few kilometres to reach a friendly position they might decide to try covering that just to avoid capture.

But it's all academic unless you're a real pilot in a real thing I guess. I'm not sure I'd want to stay inside a glider if it had lost the vertical stabilizer or part of a wing even if it was somewhat controllable and I just needed a few kilometres more to reach safer terrain. :P

On impressive flying of damaged aircraft though, I recently checked out some of the SAM systems on Wikipedia and ran into an article about an airliner that was hit by a MANPAD which took out ALL hydraulics. Not even backups alive as far as I understood. And the pilots brought it to a safe landing purely on differential thrust. That's some quality flying. :)

That's been on Discovery Channel. It was a DHL cargo a/c hit by a surface to air missile, fired by the terrorists in Iraq. It took out al hydraulics. I believe it has been the only a/c ever to make it back without hydraulics. The landing on the Hudson was a miracle but this was even more skill, all crew, 3 in total, had to work together to make ik back to the airfield. just using thrust.

Edit :

A link to the video of the actual firing of the surface-to-air missile, and the aftermath while still flying :

http://www.1001crash.com/telechvideo.php?video=dhl_A300_v&lg=2&nonjava=ok

Images of the aftermath while the a/c was landing an after it landed :

http://www.1001crash.com/photo-accident-dhl_A300-lg-2.html

Well I work with helicopters every day on my job, so I have quite a good idea what they can sustain. But I know how close Rotor-Track-Balance adjustments have to be. And losing half a rotorblade is just crap. It'll destroy the a/c.

Edited February 14, 2009 by SDeath

eV1Te · February 14, 2009

That's been on Discovery Channel. It was a DHL cargo a/c hit by a surface to air missile, fired by the terrorists in Iraq. It took out al hydraulics. I believe it has been the only a/c ever to make it back without hydraulics. The landing on the Hudson was a miracle but this was even more skill, all crew, 3 in total, had to work together to make ik back to the airfield. just using thrust.

That's true, and the best thing about it is, that they landed in a minefield so they couldn't leave the aircraft without being picked up by a fire truck :thumbup:

It was the 2:nd episode of the 3:d season of the Air Crash Investigation documentary series.

SDeath · February 14, 2009

That's true, and the best thing about it is, that they landed in a minefield so they couldn't leave the aircraft without being picked up by a fire truck :thumbup:

It was the 2:nd episode of the 3:d season of the Air Crash Investigation documentary series.

Yeah indeed I forgot that part.

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