Helicopter Self-Destructs — It Came Out of Nowhere

I was still doing everything I could to try to stop it and I was trying to stop the aircraft from spinning.

On this topic, it doesn't matter how good you are, how many years you've been flying. It happened to me. It can happen to any of us. And I just recently had this thought about how we have to always be taking our time and being cautious. I went through a bad accident and it can happen to anybody, even on the most beautiful day. And we'll get more into that with the video. Get right back to it in a minute. But first we want to tell you about our memorial day sale. 60% off. We have never, in 14 years, we've never done 60% off. Our monthlies that are normally 97amonth. You can get right now with the discount code $38 80. 80 cents a month. That is insane. Our yearly that Normally goes for 697 with the discount, that's $278.80. That's a full bag of groceries at.

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So. So we're going to get back to the video.

But just remember, doesn't matter how many years we've been flying, whether you're brand new or you've been flying a long time, bad things can happen to any of us very, very quickly. So we're going to get back to.

My accident in 2004. I was ejected from a helicopter suffering ground resonance. I don't have a video of it and it's probably a good thing, but I want to talk about it real quick today. Ground resonance. And I just want to make sure if you're flying a fully Articulated helicopter that you've reviewed this recently and this is on your mind because this could happen to you. And I do have a couple of visual aids today. Here's the pedal that came out of the aircraft that I was in when it was destroyed from ground resonance. And this pedal is bent. And I even spoke with the engineer from the manufacturer and they think I bent it when we were trying. When I was trying to save it, Even though I knew in my mind it was going to destroy itself, but I was still doing everything I could to try to stop it, and I was trying to stop the aircraft from spinning. So moral there is. You know, you do fly that thing all the way to the crash. You fly it all to the very end. And I will tell you, my law enforcement training came back probably more than whenever I was a cop where they taught us in the law enforcement academy, you never give up. No matter how bad you're hurt, shot, stabbed, whatever, beat up, you never give up. And that was ingrained in me as a young police officer. And I remember that day as the helicopter was destroying itself, I can remember thinking that here's cyclic too, by the way. All right, let's take a look at the video. I'll make sure about the link for this video down below in the description box so you can see the video yourself in full YouTube if you like. I will tell you, this is probably the most similar I can think of to what happened to us that day, except ours was even more violent than this. So let's just watch the video. Cool thing is everybody appears to get out and walk away. The difference in ours that day, it went on longer than that. The tail boom completely separated from the aircraft and was thrown, I'm saying, probably 50ft. It was amazing how far that tail boom ended up out away from the aircraft. Our skids were completely squatted out. I can't think of a good term for it, but I mean, the belly of the aircraft was on the ground. All of this was completely gone, scattered all over the ramp. And I was ejected this direction. Owner of the aircraft who I was training was ejected this way. And then in the backseat, a young man that was one of my students was in the back and he was strapped with what was left of the fuselage. And again, I. In a way, I don't know if I'd want to see a video of ours from that day, but everybody was on the ramp, all my friends and co workers. So after the fact, you know, we. I did of course, talk to everybody about it, the pilot, the Owner aircraft was ejected out to this side. I was ejected out that side. And I remember the aircraft starting to destroy itself. I remember trying to stop it. I remember thinking about my family and thinking that I was, you know, know, going to lose my life in this crash unless I could either stop it or be thrown clear. I was concerned about being thrown through the, up, through the rotor system because of that violent bouncing up and down. I was worried that that's what was going to happen to us. Again, I want you to refresh your memory. On ground resonance, if you're already flying and you're flying a fully articulated and you haven't reviewed it for a while, go to the helicopter flying handbook and review this. And of course, if your manufacturer's PoH Pilot's Operating Handbook or flight manual has anything, make sure you know it and make sure you understand what to do in the event of ground resonance. I want to roll it again. We know that when we got ejected, it went flying again after it threw us out. So we get ejected, the aircraft goes back up into the air and at some point comes back down, luckily doesn't crush either one of us because we're laying on both sides. And I remember opening up my eyeballs and I couldn't see my buddy in the back because of the fuselage was turned away from me, but I could see the legs of the owner on the other side. And it's pretty technical, you know, reasonings on what happened. I'm not going to go into all that because it's, it's even beyond what I understand. So the point I want to make is if you're flying a fully articulated aircraft, make sure you understand the corrective actions. And of course, on pre flights you're really looking at things like your dampers in the rotor system, your oleo struts. Of course, you know, a good pre flight is something we need to do anytime on any aircraft. But when it gets into the ground resonance, you know, it can involve the struts, it can involve parts in the rotor system. Again with different makes and models. Of course, there's a lot of reasons why something could go wrong. And again, I'm not going to go into that. And now I have to say, sure, it's part of my history, right? So I've worked through it, I've lived through it. It's part of who I am today. And maybe it's saved my life at some point since. Who knows from me being conservative and cautious and I'd been flying many years and a few years ago Somebody said, well, you know what they call you? And this is for the people that I fly with in the area. And they're like, well, they call you Cautious Keller. And I'm like, really? I didn't know that. And this pilot says, yeah, you're Cautious Keller. And I'm like, well, I'll take that versus, you know, yeah, that guy will go fly anything, and he's crazy, and we'll do anything crazy. So I okay with being called Cautious Keller. So again, you know, we know we learn through our experiences, right? So again, I just want to relay ground resonance. If you're flying a fully articulated system, make sure you know what items you're looking at on pre flight. Make sure you talk to your instructors about this. Make sure you understand what it says in the helicopter flying handbook. Make sure you know anything that might be in the poh Pot separating handbook from your aircraft. Just knowledge, right? And make sure that if you're flying an aircraft susceptible to this, that you know in your mind what to do.

When you feel the pressure to fly, but know the right decision is to stay on the ground. Hit the hogs. No, go and live to fly another day. Helicopterground.com.