Maybe even pilot induced over compensation... the nose started to drop, over
corrected and thumped the tail. Bad way to fly but I am sure it has happened
before.

Patrick

"Chuck" wrote in message
m...

"Peter Duniho" wrote in message
...
"Chuck" wrote in message
m...
I was looking through http://www.faa.gov/avr/aai/iirform.htm and found
that
a helicopter had an "incident" during takeoff. It says that it became
"nose
heavy" and that the tail rotor struck the ground.

Would this be a typo, or am I just thinking wrong? I would think that
if
it
was "nose heavy", the *nose* would hit the ground.

As Bob says, the report is way too recent to be meaningful. Also the
"nose
heavy" quote probably came from the pilot or other occupant, filtered by
an
NTSB person writing the report. It may simply mean that the helicopter
initially nosed down, and then in a subsequent overcorrection, the tail
rotor dug in.

Alternatively, it's possible that a rapid nose-down motion induced a
left
roll (precession), with then resulting in an uncommanded yaw that caused
the
tail rotor to strike the ground.

Whatever the case, from the words in the description it's obvious that
some
information is missing and/or the description is at least partially
incorrect. Less than a week after the incident is too early to be
trying
to
learn anything from the incident.

Pete



Well, actually, I wasn't questioning the validity of the statement, I was
really just wanting to know if a "nose heavy" rotorcraft would dig the
tailrotor as stated. That didn't seem right, so I was just asking.

You do make some good points though on over correction, etc.

But, in normal circumstances, a nose heavy rotorcraft would "nose down"
instead of, ummm, well, tail down, for a lack of better words?


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