09-19-2026, 01:29 AM
Those tubes have a big flange on them as I recall. Manu times the builder will get the clamp installed in the wrong location allowing the hose to come off.
As for the landing gear, I’ve always said tell me how you’re going to crash and I’ll tell you which gear I want. With straight legs forward as hard as he apparently hit would have just transferred the load to the frame and it would be damaged up top, WHICH MAYBE ALREADY! I’ll bet the frame tubes may be crushed from the front hoop rotating up and into the bottom of the frame tube. Have seen it more than once. Found one rebuilt ship that they had filled the crushed tube with bondo and painted over it!!
The front hoop is bolted to the frame horizontally. The only thing keeping it from rotating is the bottom of the frame tube and the skids themselves. This is why you see ships with the skids bowed up in the middle. One too many hard landings.
Any style gear will allow run on landings. The biggest problem is in a real engine out forced landing for pilots who haven’t practiced autos is, they are always trying to stop that last few mph of forward speed and hit with the nose UP! NOT FLAT! Then the ship rocks up on the front skids and if it’s too hard, the skids can break. If they don’t break then it will rock back and many times hit the tail rotor. Somewhere there is video of that exact thing happening to me after the engine quit after a power recovery auto attempt when I rolled power on quickly and the carburetor engine coughed and died. You can me pull back on the stick and lift the nose trying to bleed off that last little bit of speed I had just after the engine died. If I had just held the attitude I had it would have been a perfect full touch down auto, nice and flat with a little slide.
As for the landing gear, I’ve always said tell me how you’re going to crash and I’ll tell you which gear I want. With straight legs forward as hard as he apparently hit would have just transferred the load to the frame and it would be damaged up top, WHICH MAYBE ALREADY! I’ll bet the frame tubes may be crushed from the front hoop rotating up and into the bottom of the frame tube. Have seen it more than once. Found one rebuilt ship that they had filled the crushed tube with bondo and painted over it!!
The front hoop is bolted to the frame horizontally. The only thing keeping it from rotating is the bottom of the frame tube and the skids themselves. This is why you see ships with the skids bowed up in the middle. One too many hard landings.
Any style gear will allow run on landings. The biggest problem is in a real engine out forced landing for pilots who haven’t practiced autos is, they are always trying to stop that last few mph of forward speed and hit with the nose UP! NOT FLAT! Then the ship rocks up on the front skids and if it’s too hard, the skids can break. If they don’t break then it will rock back and many times hit the tail rotor. Somewhere there is video of that exact thing happening to me after the engine quit after a power recovery auto attempt when I rolled power on quickly and the carburetor engine coughed and died. You can me pull back on the stick and lift the nose trying to bleed off that last little bit of speed I had just after the engine died. If I had just held the attitude I had it would have been a perfect full touch down auto, nice and flat with a little slide.