Two die as US helicopter crashes

Grok Headline matches for Two die as US helicopter crashes

Second Helicopter Crashes in NYC in 4
Days (AP)

Second Helicopter Crashes in NYC in 4
Days (AP) 06/17/2005 04:37 PM
AP - A helicopter with at least five people aboard crashed Friday afternoon in the East River near the United Nations, police said. There were no immediate reports of any injuries.

Helicopter crashes in Highlands

Helicopter crashes in Highlands 09/19/2004 05:46 PM
A helicopter with two people on board crashes into a hillside in the Scottish Highlands.

U.S. helicopter crashes near Fallujah

U.S. helicopter crashes near Fallujah 04/13/2004 10:09 AM

U.S. Helicopter Crashes in Iraq, Killing
at Least 9

U.S. Helicopter Crashes in Iraq, Killing
at Least 9 01/08/2004 08:17 PM
The U.S. military said the cause of the crash was still unclear, but witnesses said that the helicopter had been shot down.

British military helicopter crashes

British military helicopter crashes 07/19/2004 09:33 AM

Helicopter Crashes in Iraq; 2 Pilots
Dead (AP)

Helicopter Crashes in Iraq; 2 Pilots
Dead (AP) 01/23/2004 04:16 PM
AP - A U.S. Army OH-58 Kiowa Warrior helicopter crashed Friday in northern Iraq, killing the two pilots, the U.S. military said.

Helicopter Crashes in Siberia, Killing
15 (Reuters)

Helicopter Crashes in Siberia, Killing
15 (Reuters) 08/05/2004 03:36 AM
Reuters - A helicopter crashed in Russia on Thursday killing all 15 people aboard, and initial reports said it had been on patrol with a contingent of firemen searching for forest fires.

U.S. Helicopter Crashes in Iraq; Two
Crew Missing

U.S. Helicopter Crashes in Iraq; Two
Crew Missing 01/25/2004 05:16 PM
Reuters via Wired News Jan 25 2004 8:42PM GMT

U.S. Army Helicopter Crashes in South
Carolina

U.S. Army Helicopter Crashes in South
Carolina 04/28/2004 03:07 AM
Reuters via Wired News Apr 28 2004 7:09AM GMT

U.S. Military Helicopter Crashes in
Japan (Reuters)

U.S. Military Helicopter Crashes in
Japan (Reuters) 08/13/2004 01:44 AM
Reuters - A U.S. military helicopter crashed on Friday in the grounds of a university on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, officials said.

Another New York helicopter crashes in
East River (Reuters)

Another New York helicopter crashes in
East River (Reuters) 06/17/2005 04:37 PM
Reuters - For the second time in four days, a helicopter has crashed into New York's East River, with preliminary reports saying all on board were rescued, police said on Friday.

U.S. Apache Helicopter Crashes in Iraq -
Witnesses (Reuters)

U.S. Apache Helicopter Crashes in Iraq -
Witnesses (Reuters) 04/13/2004 05:58 AM
Reuters - A U.S. Apache helicopter crashed west of Baghdad on Tuesday, witnesses said, adding it had been hit by ground fire during heavy fighting in the area.

A.I. Helicopter?

A.I. Helicopter? 12/18/2003 11:52 AM
CowboyRobot writes "Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization just launched the Mantis, a 'low-cost, intelligent small ...

How not to land a helicopter

How not to land a helicopter 03/23/2005 01:19 PM
David Pescovitz: This video may be old news, but I'd never seen it before. A military helicopter tries to land on a ship and, well, fails. Link to 2.6mb WMV file (Thanks, Michael-Anne Rauback!)

Along those same JG Ballardian lines, the House of Rapp has a gallery of links to other aircraft crash videos. Lin k

The helicopter checkride

The helicopter checkride 12/17/2004 06:36 PM

Last Friday I took a checkride to add a Private helicopter rating to my Commercial pilot's certificate.  The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will, in theory, examine applicants for this rating but in practice prefers that you pay a Designated Examiner.  The fun started at 9:00 am in Nashua, NH at CR Helicopters with Joe Brigham, a retired legend in the cranberry bogs of New England.  The oral portion of the exam lasted until nearly 11:00 am at which point the winds had picked up from calm to a typically unpleasant New England 10 knots gusting 15.  When the objective is to hold the helicopter steady within a foot or two of a reference point on the ground these kinds of winds make life tricky, especially in the Robinson R22, one of the world's lightest helicopters.

Running the startup checklist on the R22 takes about 4 minutes during which one tests the engine's dual independent ignition systems, the carb heat, the sprag clutch that enables the rotors to freewheel if the engine quits, and the low RPM warning horn that sounds if the blades begin to slow down.  The test complete, I called Nashua Tower to ask for clearance to a grassy area east of the paved 5500'-long runway.  Once we got across the runway Joe asked to see a sideways hover taxi then a backwards hover taxi.  These are done with the skids of the helicopter 3-5 feet off the ground.  I set the helicopter back on the grass and Joe asked me to pick it back up.  When we were 2' from the ground he twisted the throttle on his side of the ship to idle, simulating an engine failure.  The helicopter immediately started a yaw to the left.  I pushed the right antitorque pedal to bring the nose back to where it had been pointed.  As the R22 settled towards the ground I pulled the collective pitch control to use some of the rotational energy of the blades to cushion the impact.  Every time you pull more collective the helicopter wants to yaw to the right so I had to step on the left pedal.  We thumped down on the ground about 1 second after Joe had closed the throttle, reasonably smoothly and within about 5 degrees of where we'd started on the heading.  The standard for a Private rating is 10 percent and Joe declared that I had demonstrated a hovering autorotation.

The next maneuver was the Quickstop, simulating an attempt to take off and then an abort due to failure to clear trees or the appearance of an obstacle.  We had to get over to the side of a small hill about 1000' away.  I accelerated the helicopter to about 40 knots and 40' above the ground and then pulled sharply back on the cyclic to flare off the speed while simultaneously lowering collective to prevent the helicopter from ballooning up in altitude and using the antitorque pedals to prevent yaw.  At the end of the Quickstop Joe asked for a running landing to simulate bringing the helicopter down at a high altitude in which the machine lacks sufficient power to hover.  We slid into the grass.

We were near the hill at this point so it was time to demonstrate slope operations.  One approaches the slope at a 45-degree angle with the helicopter yawed so that the skids are parallel to the slope at all times.  You hover so that the upslope skid is about 2-3' above the ground and then gradually lower the ship until the upslope skid touches.  At that point you push the cyclic into the slope to lock the skid against the slope while simultaneously adjusting collective pitch to hold a level attitude.  After pausing in that position for a moment I lowered the collective to bring the downslope skid into contact with the ground while simultaneously adding addition cyclic towards the upslope to keep that skid locked.

Slope operations complete we started with a normal takeoff and normal approach.  Unless you are all by yourself in a Blackhawk you don't take off straight up in a helicopter.  You bring the ship up into a hover and then push the cyclic forward until the helicopter is flying fast enough that the blades are biting into fresh undisturbed air.  This is called "Effective Translational Lift" (ETL) and the helicopter rapidly picks up speed and then altitude beyond this point.  The normal approach and landing is a reasonably shallow angle coming down toward some traffic cones abeam the Nashua windsock.  Once back on the ground Joe asked for a maximum performance takeoff in which one does try to depart as nearly vertical as is possible.  This involves spending some time under the R22's "deadman's curve", a combination of having a low airspeed and a low altitude such that it would be impossible to make a smooth landing in the event of an engine failure.  Joe asked for a steep approach to the cones.  This is not straight down as you might think but rather just steep enough that you could clear the trees around a mid-size field before landing on someone's helipad.

Next up was an autorotation.  This involves closing the throttle about 700' above the ground and gliding down at about 65 knots and 1500'-per-minute descent rate.  Starting roughly 40' above the ground I began to pull back on the cyclic to slow our forward speed and reduce the descent rate.  When the forward speed was just about gone I leveled the ship with the cyclic so that the tail did not strike the ground and began to let the R22 sink towards the ground with just a bit of forward speed.  At the last minute I pulled the collective to cushion the final impact with energy from the rotating blades.

The final part of the checkride was escaping from a vortex ring state.  Joe took the controls and slowed the helicopter down so that we had lost almost all forward speed.  Then he lowered the collective to start a 500 foot-per-minute descent from our 700' altitude.  The helicopter began "settling with power" into its own disturbed air, falling suddenly much faster than the initial descent rate established by Joe.  The controls became mushy just as he said "You have the controls".  The way to escape from a vortex ring state is by pushing the cyclic forward to try to fly the helicopter forward out of the disturbed air while simultaneously lowering the collective so that the helicopter isn't beating the air so hard.  Once I had recovered some flying speed I pulled on the collective to resume a climb.

That was it.  What can one do with a Private helicopter rating?  Take friends for rides, basically, and that's about it.  I'll be starting work on my Commercial rating next week.

RC Helicopter Simulator 1.0.12

RC Helicopter Simulator 1.0.12 04/21/2004 06:35 PM
A fully configurable radio-controlled helicopters simulator.

Mi-24 helicopter in Afghanistan

Mi-24 helicopter in Afghanistan 07/07/2004 04:43 AM
Custom paint job on Afghan Hind attack chopper .. Mean Looking Mil 24 Hind .. Quote: .. images

usaattacked.com/mi-24_helicopter_in_afghanistan.htm
track this site | 5 links

Helicopter Fuck

Helicopter Fuck 08/16/2004 02:15 PM
Please don't try this at home. You may have spotted Japanese web oddity Micky Yanai's -- um -- work on Rotten.com. Now, Fleshbot has more on "the most creative porn actor who invented 'Helicopter Fuck!'," as one fan-site enthusiastically proclaims. Male pattern baldness mullet. Bad '80s novelty sunglasses. Spandex. Sequined American flag codpiece. If that doesn't add up to buzzkill, I don't know what does. Lin k to Fleshbot item, which includes pointers to "Helicopter Fertish" (sic) galleries. NSFW, duh.

Helicopter Anthropology

Helicopter Anthropology 02/10/2004 02:44 AM

Today was my 20th and last hour of helicopter instruction in Panama (tomorrow morning I'll get on an American Airlines flight to Toronto, staying at www.metropolitan.com).  After a couple of autorotations in which one learns how to land the helicopter after the engine quits we proceeded up the Rio Chagres.  This is a national park, established to protect the rainforest in the Canal's watershed.  In the past few decades Embera Indians have moved up from the remote malarial province of Darien, on the border with Columbia, to this region where the jungle environment is the same but access to health care and tourism jobs is much easier.

Our approach to the little village of grass huts involved flying up the center of the twisting river, about 10' above the water, at 50 mph.  Steep hillsides with big trees constitute the banks of the fast-flowing Chagres and constitute a bit of a distraction for a beginning student.  Thanks to the lack of development in Panama one is safe from powerlines, those perennial killer of helicopter pilots, but we rounded a couple of corners to find people motoring along in dugout canoes.

The little Embera village that we visited contained 84 people from 17 families, each of whom lived in an elevated grass hut.  A traditional anthropologist might spend God knows how long paddling around looking for this village and then 12 months living here in one of those huts.  The  helicopter anthropologist sleeps in an air-conditioned bed in a modern hotel overlooking the Canal, takes a 30-minute flight into the village, and waits for Johnson, the one resident who speaks English, to come down towards the riverbank as the rotors spin down.  Here's what we learned...

The Embera sustain themselves by catching fish in the river, killing wild pigs in the surrounding rainforest, growing some crops, and harvesting various wild plants.  They manufacture their own clothing, which is nada for the young kids, a loin cloth for the adults, and a beaded bikini top for women.  They make some cash by guiding cruise ship passengers on package tours and selling them handicrafts.

Technological comforts are limited to three hours of electricity per night and one channel of broadcast television that can be received through a gap in the ridge.  Cable and Wireless, the telecom monopoly that has been restricting Panama's economic growth (it cost $7 to make a one-minute phone call from my hotel to Canada), installed a pay phone around which the Embera built a thatch phone booth.  It has been broken for six months.

There are no shops.  You can't buy bottled water, Diet Coke, or any other packaged food.

At the center of the village is a single concrete building:  the schoolhouse.  The Panamanian government sends a teacher out for the wet season so that the children learn Spanish.  Imagine the dedication of this woman, a Latino from Panama City, to live in such a small isolated community in which many residents speak only the native Embera language.

[http://www.photo.net/philg/digiphotos/200401-panama-embera/ has some snapshots from the trip]

Thirteen die as US helicopter downed

Thirteen die as US helicopter downed 11/02/2003 08:43 AM
US helicopter shot down in Iraq

news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/1/hi/world/middle_eas t/3234543.stm
track this site | 5 links

Viagra and Helicopter Gunships

Viagra and Helicopter Gunships 05/02/2004 07:36 PM

The most powerful tools for conservationists in the Galapagos turn out to be Viagra and helicopter gunships.  Introduced goats consume all of the vegetation that formerly fed the giant tortoises.  Efforts at eradication were unsuccessful until the authorities brought dogs over from Switzerland to herd the goats into headlands whereupon they were shot from helicopters.  Island after island is being declared free of goats and the tortoises are coming back.

Sea cucumbers are highly sought after in traditional Chinese medicine because they supposedly help us older guys, uh, "perform".  With Viagra as close as one's inbox, however, perhaps the illegal harvesting of these animals will stop.

(Off the boat now, in Guayaquil and headed for Peru...)

X2 Technology Demonstrator Helicopter

X2 Technology Demonstrator Helicopter 06/05/2005 11:46 PM

Super-copter:

Sikorsky Aircraft today announced plans to build and test a demonstrator for a new class of coaxial X2 Technology helicopters that maintain or improve on all the vertical flight capabilities of rotorcraft and whose high speed configuration will cruise at 250 knots.

Via PhysOrg. (The original article is posted here.)

Helicopter rescue from waterfall

Helicopter rescue from waterfall 08/29/2004 01:45 AM
A girl and her father are winched to safety after falling into a river below a waterfall in mid Wales.

Human Powered Helicopter

Human Powered Helicopter 08/06/2004 10:17 PM

Helicopter to Catch Satellite

Helicopter to Catch Satellite 08/20/2004 08:42 AM

NASA prepares to catch a falling star sample: This is awesome. It's rare that the world of geeks and the world of action movie stars collides so enjoyably.

To increase understanding of the sun's composition, NASA in 2001 launched the $264 million Genesis mission to collect samples from the solar wind — electrically charged particles blown out from the sun at up to 2 million mph. [...]

To prevent contamination and damage to the fragile silicon wafers that collected the star dust should the Genesis capsule hit the ground, NASA will try to snare the capsule in midair as it descends.

Click here to comment on this entry

Pixelito: Even Lighter Helicopter

Pixelito: Even Lighter Helicopter 08/19/2004 09:44 AM

So just a little while ago I mentioned that Epson had created the world's smallest flying robot. And while that may technically be the case, depending on how you define robot and if you define smallest by weight or by length or whatnot, this Pixelito helicopter hand-crafted by Alexander Van de Rostyne is pretty amazing. The frame is a single, twisted tube of 1mm carbon (fiber?), minus the tail boom which is 1.33mm in diameter, powered my a 6mm motor from the inside of a pager. It's remote controlled by infrared, and weighs in at a total 6.9 grams (stupid Most Bestest Whatevers titles beside,the Epson robot is 12.3 grams, although it has more features, too).

The Pixelito is the pinacle in a long line of tiny helicopters Alex has designed, but he is starting to question how much smaller they can go, due to the difficulty modellers will have constructing small machines. I'm confident that love will find a way, however.

And how can you hate on anyone who films their tiny, R/C helicopters with a hamster? I'm fairly sure that's scientifically impossible. (Thanks, Sebastian!)

Read - Home Page [Pixelito.ReferenceBE]

BXFlyer Four Rotor Helicopter

BXFlyer Four Rotor Helicopter 12/09/2003 03:46 PM
Bruce J. Weimer, MD decided to build an autonomous flying robot a few years ago and the SRS recently published an article he wrote about the results. He chose an electric powered, four rotor design similar to the Dragon Flyer. Bruce's robot is controlled by a BX24 microcontroller programmed in BASIC. His robot also looks very similar to the original prototype of the Dragon Flyer, which makes an occasional appearance at DRPG meetings.

"At Least 15 Killed When U.S. Helicopter
Shot Down "

"At Least 15 Killed When U.S. Helicopter
Shot Down " 11/03/2003 10:03 AM

US helicopter downed over Najaf

US helicopter downed over Najaf 08/05/2004 06:52 AM
A US helicopter is shot down in the Iraqi holy city of Najaf during fighting between US troops and militia.

"U.S. helicopter shot down in Iraq"

"U.S. helicopter shot down in Iraq" 11/03/2003 10:03 AM

Helicopter Rescues Climber on Mt.
Rainier (AP)

Helicopter Rescues Climber on Mt.
Rainier (AP) 05/17/2004 09:01 PM
AP - A seriously injured climber who had been stranded on Mount Rainier was rescued Monday evening after an Oregon National Guard helicopter took advantage of a sudden break in the clouds to retrieve him.

Three Killed in Calif. Helicopter Crash

Three Killed in Calif. Helicopter Crash 12/24/2003 04:08 AM
Reuters via Wired News Dec 24 2003 3:41AM ET

Man jumps from helicopter at Grand
Canyon

Man jumps from helicopter at Grand
Canyon 06/11/2004 07:16 PM

Some photos from the Richmond helicopter
experience

Some photos from the Richmond helicopter
experience 04/02/2005 01:49 PM

Here are some photos by David Rafner, who grew up in my old neighborhood in Bethesda, Maryland and now lives in Richmond.  He rode in the back seat with a camera while Kevin Peterson and I flew Sky 12.

We start off with Sky 12, a 15,000-hour Bell 206 Jet Ranger sitting on its dolly, my nemesis at the end of every flight.

Part of the preflight process involves climbing on to the top of the helicopter to check the nuts and bolts holding the rotor system and flight controls together.

Beautiful downtown Richmond (actually Richmond is all office buildings and highways; anyone with money has fled to the western suburbs though the Fan district near the art museum shows some signs of revitalization if you don't mind living right next to some truly bad neighborhoods)...

I watched more TV news in the last week than in all of 2004.  The camera monitor includes a little inset window showing the actual broadcast, complete with commercials.

Farmer Builds Helicopter From Scratch
(AP)

Farmer Builds Helicopter From Scratch
(AP) 02/16/2004 10:42 AM
AP - With directions from the Internet and an old Russian truck motor, a Vietnamese farmer fulfilled his dream of making his own helicopter. The job took two friends, seven years and $30,000.

Helicopter crash confirmed in Nigeria

Helicopter crash confirmed in Nigeria 07/27/2004 04:22 PM

Helicopter pilots aim to hook onto
Genesis

Helicopter pilots aim to hook onto
Genesis 08/20/2004 10:15 AM
globetechnology.com Aug 20 2004 2:05PM GMT

Helicopter versus airplane noise

Helicopter versus airplane noise 12/17/2004 06:36 PM

Helicopters that are descending with a fair amount of power produce an annoying sound called "blade slap".  Beginners are cautioned to avoid this condition because it leads to people on the ground complaining to the FAA about "those damned helicopters."  (One can avoid blade slap by lower the collective to descend more positively rather than drifting slightly down.)  A big turbine-powered helicopter flew over Harvard Square the other day, slapping away.  I was with a friend, call her "K", who hasn't spent much time in the work force.  I asked her whether she found the sound annoying.

"Helicopter noise doesn't bother me," K responded.  "I assume that it is a traffic helicopter or some sort of medical emergency.  What I really hate is airplane noise."

Why?

"Whenever I hear a big commercial jet overhead I think about companies sending their employees out for ridiculous meetings with each other where they will show vacuous PowerPoint presentations and have meaningless conversations."

CNN.com - U.S. helicopter shot down in
Iraq - Nov. 2, 2003

CNN.com - U.S. helicopter shot down in
Iraq - Nov. 2, 2003 11/03/2003 04:21 AM

Grok Description matches for Two die as US helicopter crashes
GrokA matches for Two die as US helicopter crashes

Ilia's Blog: Apache 1 vs Apache 2
Performance

Ilia's Blog: Apache 1 vs Apache 2
Performance 12/24/2004 12:30 PM
With more information in the continuing discussion about PHP and Apache 2, Ilia Alshanetsky has done some benchmarks just to check and see what kind of a performance difference there really is.

Apache Cocoon 2.0.3 released (XML-Apache
Project)

Apache Cocoon 2.0.3 released (XML-Apache
Project) 07/17/2002 01:55 AM

UnixWare 7.1.3 Open UNIX 8.0.0 UnixWare
7.1.1 : apache multiple vulnerabilities,
upgraded to apache-1.3.29

UnixWare 7.1.3 Open UNIX 8.0.0 UnixWare
7.1.1 : apache multiple vulnerabilities,
upgraded to apache-1.3.29 05/05/2004 12:29 PM
please_reply_to_security_at_sco.com (May 04 2004)

U.S. Helicopter Shot Down in Iraq, One
Killed

U.S. Helicopter Shot Down in Iraq, One
Killed 01/02/2004 04:59 PM
Reuters via Wired News Jan 2 2004 3:56PM ET

Nine U.S. Soldiers on Helicopter Die in
Iraq (Reuters)

Nine U.S. Soldiers on Helicopter Die in
Iraq (Reuters) 01/08/2004 08:32 PM
Reuters - A Black Hawk helicopter went down killing all nine American soldiers aboard and a transport plane came under fire, in two more blows to U.S.-led efforts to restore a normal life and peace to Iraq.

Two die as US helicopter crashes

The following phrases have been identified by the grok system as matching this entry: lorne lanning ex-wife apache helicopter "tech tv"