getfunky said... I wouldn't even be goin near a pedestal fan after that.
Any theories on what happened?
I'm no heli pilot. However taking off from a object moving in multiable diminesions is really f - ing hard. Hope my theory make some sense....
On boats there is side to side(listing), up/down from the swell and the angle which changes end to end from up / down motion....i guess you would call it pitching, and the boat is moving forward at a given speed.
So when you power up, and pull on the collective(up/down control) at the right time, and power so you take off, and the boat just doesn't drop away from you , you also need to apply some forward force on the cyclic (forward/backwards and sideways control) to try and somehow reasonably match the forward speed of the boat so you don't just slide off the back.....from a standstill.....now thats hard.
If the boat was pitching forward at the time...which it seemed to be as is was in the up position on the swell, when you pull on the collective, instead of a pure vertical motion relative to the horizon(yes to the boat) you are suddenly already moving forward instead of direct upwards, and then with the forward input on the cyclic to compensate for the boats motion, the boat just reaching the top of swell rise and dropping away from under you,
it would be to easy over cook the %'s of controls......it suddenly looks like you going to fast forward into the back of the ships bridge, without enough vertical lift to clear anything....you pull back on the cyclic to slow forward motion, which pitchs the tail rotor down on a boat deck. As soon as the tail rotor stops.........you turn into a spinning top............
Even at pilot error.....What a save on the pilots part to drop power and get it back down and level.......could have gone pear shaped in about 2 sec.....
my 2 cents....
