We just lost a pilot at my field. Helicopter pilot. Sketchy details around it. Helo had battery power problem. They hooked up an APU (auxillery power unit) and got it running. The pilot brought the blades up past idle speed and got out of the helo to unplug the APU. Left the unrated passenger (a fixed wing flight instructor friend, not my close friend that I speak of) inside. The helo got unstable and did a bit of a wobble causing the blades to flex and decapitate Sal , the pilot. I saw Sal a few times a month at lunch. They don’t know why it happened. Whether his getting out reduced enough weight that the hello became near lift weight or whether the unrated rightseater did something. Mistake. Pilot never gets out of running aircraft unless another rated pilot has taken control. Even then Pilot in Command should have rightseater get out. Maybe he felt the other didn’t know how the APU hookup worked. Should have gone to idle neutral. Maybe was thinking that reducing power might have reduced the electrical charging. It was ugly. Pilot decapitated and head thrown into hangar. A damned shame event.
My aircraft had a minor issue. The tach started jumping about 75 RPM. Wasn’t steady as usual. My mechanic buddy and I pulled the cable and found the key that engaged the gearteeth was worn after 50 years of flying. Ordered new cable. So I flew with a friend on a small group flight for lunch at another field. We were in the air about 5 minutes when the engine got rough and dropped about 350 RPM. Did a quick switch of the magnetos with no difference. Checked fuel selection. Tried carb heat with no difference. We decided to return to field and called tower. I did radio work while he flew the plane. Kept announcing to each other forced landing procedures and checklist and picking locations if we couldn’t make the field. Made it back and did straight approach to runway with a not fancy landing. When our mechanic buddy looked at he found an exhaust valve spring broken and wound up pulling the cylinder and piston. Much worse than we initially though. Spring broke because exhaust valve stuck open. That was the cause of the broken spring. Burned the valve which came apart and was beaten around in cylinder and chewed up the piston face before the now small pieces went out the exhaust port. Chances were as good as not that it could have seized the engine. We were on the lucky side of it didn’t.
My new tach cable came in and we installed today. Good test flight of it.
New cylinder, piston, valves, pushrods, springs, keepers, plugs, etc done on buddies plane. Check of oil filter and drained oil found nothing bad. Borescope of the crank and other cylinders found nothing bad. So he test flew it with good results.
So I have had an eventful week at the airfield.
And that’s what happened.
Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
Someday your life will flash in front of your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.
