Pop Out Floats

[Elvis]

Maybe this is why it hasn't sunk it is on the bottom now

 

 

 

“A couple of smaller open fishing boats got in close and got them,” he said. Vineyard Haven harbor master Jay Wilbur later got a line on the crashed aircraft and towed it to shallow water.

 

 

[bugdriver]

If I remember the floats can only be armed for flight below 500 feet and speeds below 80 knots.

If he was going higher and faster then the floats should not be armed........stupid, I know.

The reason the floats are not to be armed above 80 knots is for aerodynamic reasons, inflating the floats above that speed results in severe pitch down of the nose of the helicopter.

I can't understand why the floats would not have been inflated before touchdown, unless the pilot was overwelmed by the situation he found himself in. I fly over open water all the time, and constantly visualize my plan of action in the event of an engine failure over the sea.

Time will tell as to why the accident pilot did not deploy the floats.

[T tail]

I have never flown floats and since I have a severe allergic reaction to flying over water I hope I never need to. So my question is... where is the deploy button/switch?? and do you have to do a manual arm on the console as well before you hit the button?

 

TT

[dimit]

On the 206: Deploy lever is on the underside of the collective where yer index and middle fingers naturally land. Sometimes a second switch on the cyclic. Arm switch usually a big honkin' one on the c/b panel.

 

D!ck

[southern canuck]

to all, make no mistake, you can get VERY messed up by inflating floats. trust me on this as i have personally installed many "first article" installs for apical, test inflations and test flights and have blown myself clear across the hanger, fortunetly i hit nothing solid.

my office is in there building and around here we take float inflation testing with extreme caution. be very careful around floats and always check the tension of the float bottle straps, cable slack (if mechanical) and binding on the release mechanism. in the shop, PIN the bottles, everytime!

 

btw, packing floats sucks

[TwistedSpar]

decide for yourself if they inflate with tremendous force

 

[widgeon]

Elvis , do you recall someone at FTE doing an inspection of float bags ( Bk117 if i recall correctly ) and forgetting to put a pressure relief valve in the line. As i recall it was a very loud bang when they burst and the mech needed new undies.

 

 

[widgeon]

Pop out floats aren't like airbags, they don't actually inflate fast enough to break any bones.

 

 

http://tubearoo.com/articles/90795/Mythbus..._Evolution.html

 

See above link.

fwd to about 32 minutes.

 

[WTF_was_that]

Arming and inflation speeds vary between float manufactures. Our astar floats can be armed for cruise flight and no real altitude restriction. The long dogs can't even be armed above 500ft or 80knots. Bad things happen in the long ranger if inflated when going to fast.

[Murdoch]

pilot probably felt pretty silly once they were all out and swimming around an upside-down Astar.

 

I should have looked at the picture a little more carefully. Jet Ranger, clearly. I'll go sit in the corner for a while. Who's got one of those pointy hats for me?