did I miss the post?

caught on video, in the news...

https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/police-1-dead-following-helicopter-crash-in-mesa

one eyewitness claimed there was a sustained period of normal flight after separation.

that can happen at 80kts plus right?  pilot flew to clearing and lost authority once slowed?

eta:  video looks like he was already really slow...   RIP

Should have rolled the throttle off, and entered an autorotation....

Take the torque off the system, and you don't need the tail rotor.....

Plus, IF the tail rotor gearbox separated from the air frame, there would have been an abrupt shift in CG.....

You Might be able to slip stream it with forward speed, but, there comes a point where you can't.....Roll the throttle off and autorotate

yes, I saw the tailrotor and top of the tail assembly gear box on the ground in video yesterday.  it did leave the ac earlier, just not sure when from the video perspective.

You still have to keep a minimum air speed while in autorotation, but it's far less than with power up. Still, slide on landings in a huey can be a little tense.

300? feet agl too high then.  and forward air speed was gone it looked like.

thankful for a survivor at least.

It killed a very good friend of mines buddy. Apparently they had decelerated to land or PL. So losing a TR at OGE is bad....

There's no guarantee of survival losing one IGE, but at least you don't have far to drop.

Nope.

I personally know 1 UH60 pilot that lost the tail rotor coming back thru ETL after shooting an instrument approach. I believe it was 3 rotations and PCLs to idle. Landed flat, no damage. Insane.

Let me get this straight; 3 rotations of yaw?

Ill re-read the report, but that is what I remember from it. It was at Bragg in 2016.

That would be a rush of adrenaline.

The same helicopter lost an engine and crashed in 2008 in Wyoming and had what was described as substantial damage

Yeah, but what happens when you dump 100lbs (hell, maybe more, I’d wager a TR, gearbox, and half a vertical fin weighs a bit on a UH-1) on an arm that long? Pretty gnarly CG shift as you mentioned, right? And what’s a crucial part of an autorotation? A flare, right?

So if he’s already got the cyclic buried deep in the seat to keep the ship level, do you think he’s going to have much, if any, aft cyclic left to flare so he can bleed off AS and slow his descent?

We can all play armchair QB here, but to my knowledge, a complete TR separation in flight is pretty freaking hard to fight, and none of us were there to see just how much cyclic Chip had to use to get that ship over the park instead of over the houses or the US60 freeway just south of him.

The tail rotor was found over a mile away, and a portion of the gearbox went through a warehouse roof. He didn’t have a ton of options for places to put down. I think, based on what little we know so far, that Chip did a damn fine job with what cards he was dealt. May he rest in peace.

For regular LTE, sure, auto. For complete TR separation in flight, that’s a tough sell, IMO.

For a Tail Rotor Gear Box separation, you are truly screwed.....

The CG Shift, the other damage that happened, I wouldn't have wanted to have been there.

They did a damn good job getting it to an open area....

I Wish that it didn't happen.....

Could have been much worse....

Helicopters SUCK when things go bad......

But I miss flying them....