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Prompted by title of an excellent chapter in the book I am reading, I was apt to think that this was another example of a close shave.

Close haircut, Shirley?

What happened to "STAND CLEAR!" ?

Boac wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 04, 2023 1:17 pm

Close haircut, Shirley?

A number 3 with the clippers at the very least!

And you can call me Brenda...

A very lucky guy! The S-76 is just as bad for taking heads off. During my S76 conversion in 1980 we landed at Houston Hobby at night to refuel. At that time the pumps were fixed installation and as we taxied up to them a guy appeared from nowhere and walked towards the front of the rotor disc. How the rotor blades missed him I'll never know. It was very early days for the S-76 and the low disc danger ahead of the nose for that type was not yet widely known.

The Bristow 'solution' was the cyclic guard which was flipped down from the bottom of the right hand pilot's instrument panel and stopped the unintended forward positioning of the cyclic and resulting very low sweep of the blades in the 12 o'clock. It was used when the aircraft was loading and unloading at flight or ground idle and sitting with chocks in during rotors running refuels. It kept the blades at 12 o'clock up at about 8 ft or more.

It wouldn't have stopped this dreadful accident though - the helideck is very dangerous in bad weather.

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/75237

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/125 ... y-is-told/