Fear of helicopters

Been watching the news of Kobe Bryant’s death from that helicopter crash. How sad. How’s That poor man and his daughter did not deserve to die. For some reason, I never trusted helicopters. There’s something about helicopters in general that seem kind of unnerving to me. It makes me think about other famous people who died in helicopter and plane crashes like Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper, Stevie Ray Vaughan, John Denver and Randy Rhoads.

6 Comments

Post a Comment

Hell Ya

Jan 27, 2020 at 2:19am

Danger is my middle name.
Fly me to the moon.
Im not afraid to die.
Have fun.

Bricks with engines

Jan 27, 2020 at 7:42am

Mom used to work for Boeing Helicopter back in the day. They lost 3 entire crews in testing within a couple of years, on larger units (so more crew people required). About twenty people died.
Helicopters have the glide angle of a brick. Just a box with propellers, really. No wings, no glide path. When the blades stop, you go bye-bye. If the main keeps going for a bit, they can manage a controlled crash. If the tail quits, it's a spinny kinda death, usually.
Good reasons why we're seeing prototype passenger drones with four rotors or more, and triple-redundant systems.
Helos are best used only in extremis, like when somebody's already dying or might get killed by other stuff, like wars and natural disasters. But Sea Kings and the like are built, priced and maintained to different standards.
Civilian ones are strictly a take-your-chances affair, to me. But I dislike single-engine planes, too, so what do I know, right? Still... Pass.

Riding in Cars

Jan 27, 2020 at 9:58am

Is many multitudes more dangerous than flying in planes.
Even walking down the street is more dangerous than flying.

All you mentioned were in planes crashes except SRV.

Mr. Homer

Jan 27, 2020 at 12:30pm

But what are your thoughts on car travel? Your chances of dying in a vehicle accident are many times more likely than a flight accident.

Bricks with engines

Jan 27, 2020 at 2:25pm

... Also, yes, the chances of death in cars are higher.
But much of that is because wheeled land vehicle travel is the norm. Helicopters are a rarety for everybody except the less than one percent of one percent of humanity in any given decade. I'm obviously including airmobile troop units.
Additionally, when a car engine stops working, the vehicle doesn't stall in midair and plummet to the ground. Use the parking brake and hazard lights, and it'll probs be ok.
Fortunately, the first commercial airships have already been commissioned.
I'm very much looking forward to that. Modern air travel of all sorts is mostly sh*t and extremely wasteful. Except for the elite - they take limos everywhere, even to the skies.

reminiscing

Jan 27, 2020 at 3:52pm

I've only been in one car accident and one helicopter accident and the car accident was more damaging to my body, but I realize that is a low sample size. Yeah helos are pretty crazy. They are inherently unstable and just a bitch to trim, and the maintenance...ooof. I don't like them much. At least a plane with a dead engine is a glider.

Anyway, this Kobe conversation, sad as it is, isn't as fraught as Twitter. We are nicer in Vancouver, or something.

Join the Discussion

What's your name?