"Nick" wrote in message
...
Thought you guys might be interested

http://www.videosift.com/video/Helic...s-A-Close-Call

But why wouldn't he have kept some negative collective to keep it nailed
to the deck?.... how far would the tips 'dished' down?.....not enough to
cause the crew more worries than they already had??

It seemed very light on the skids on the previous couple of swells??


Negative collective? .....ROTFLMFAO! Boy I dont think I have that option on
mine.

My armchair analysis is that the helicopter appeared to have a forward CG
and the deck was pitching as much as 15 degrees and rolling about 7 or 8. I
don't think the pilot really ever "wanted" to take off. It looked to me like
the deck pitched forward a whole lot and he thought the helicopter would
nose over if he didn't take off. The deck angle was pitched very far
forward at the moment of the tail strike, and the camera gives the illusion
that the helicopter was at far less level pitch that it was.

I'm thinking that the pilot was taking the lesser of two evils and got bit
by one of them. Its clear to me that he was pretty skilled because doing a
totally successful hovering auto to that platform like that couldn't be done
by an unskilled pilot. The only bad piloting in this incident appears to
have happened way before the engine started when someone decided that it was
ok to take off in seas like that.

Bart