Would be a quick way to go.

Even if the blades are high enough so one could remain fully erect I think for the majority of people the natural instinct would be to duck.

Absolutely! Having a 20' "sword" whipping past your head would be pretty scary. But I assume it's gotta be a thing because it's almost universal. I guess the President may not do it when walking to/from Marine 1. I'm not sure. I don't know that I've ever seen a Pres board it on video, and I think those things are big/tall.

Why do we duck when it's raining?

I don't remember the rotors moving when the POTUS is walking under them. Maybe this is a policy.

The vanes can take a whole frozen turkey without damage.

Negative! While the engine may continue to operate (sub-standard, at best), there is definitely damage done to the vanes, and other parts, inside the engine.

sorry...had the wrong video. At 1:45 for the bird.

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That's just terrifying. It almost looks like a Looney Tunes sequence in the way that it just sucked him up. I wonder if they Article 15'd the guy.

Wow.

Two risks, that are separate: main and tail rotor.

The issue with the main rotors on most helicopters is control authority in pitch, even on the ground, which is why no one ever enters the rotor arc from the front of the aircraft while spinning, always from left or right. The disc can get to five feet on the H-60 forward.

There have been some horrific accidents on small ships involving the main rotor.

Tail rotor pretty self explanatory.

Ha. Now you reminded me about the Thanksgiving episode of WKRP in Cincinnati.

^^^ Smoked and sliced turkey is the best.

Is a tail rotor strong enough to "suck" you in like a jet intake?

We had an airman back into a C2 prop while it was warming up during night OPs. With all of the launch and recovery noise and movement he didn’t hear it and obviously had a lapse in awareness. Nothing much left above the waist. Would have been so quick, immediate lights out. I had buddies in Crash and Salvage that had to do the FOD walk down after that and I had an outboard antenna right off the catwalk that I had to wash off. They parked and roped off the C2 in the hangar Bay until we got back in port. Couldn’t touch it until the investigation was completed.

Five!? Holy moly. At idle? Forgive but I know nothing of helo ops.

"Swivel head" was the term we used. If your head wasn't constantly in motion, constantly scanning the area 360 degrees around you, you were just an accident waiting to happen. There was no room for complacency on the flight deck, and mistakes were very costly!

That's a nice video, but having worked in the industry, around jet engines for 20 years, I've seen my fair share (up close and personal) of what a real bird ingestion can do to an engine.

Yep, tail is obvious. Thanks for the explanation on the main. I'd always wondered. This makes sense. I don't normally think about the rotors being anything other than parallel to the helicopter.

you would think..
but many a crewmember has tackled folks who ..
jump out before being cleared and go towards the rear...

saw same when a CMS jump out ..
before the shirts cleared us..
wham ..down he went..
then the Airboss had a piece of his a$$$..
something he hadn't experienced in years for sure..



Rika

Interesting tidbit, Flat: Modern helos do not idle in terms of rotor speed...the main rotor spins at the same RPM when the helicopter is on the ground or in the air when the engines are engaged.

The term is Nr. When the pilot increases collective (essentially the gas pedal) to go fly, the Nr remains constant throughout the flight - at least I always hoped so:cool:

In the Navy H-60 the Nr is 258 RPM.

Nr below the constant RPM is called "drooping". Drooping is bad.

The only time the Nr changes is on shutdown, at least in the Navy. I can see the shutdown checklist as I type:D