Quote:
Originally Posted by GGTharos
The Vortex Ring condition is a pretty standard helicopter phenomenon.
So, what we have is three crashes due to poor parts/QA, for which the blame rests squarely with the manufacturer, and another which is essentially pilot error (the pilot is supposed to be trained to anticipate the VRS and avoid it - it is a KNOWN phenomenon of rotary-wing aircraft)
So then, the pilot should have done his transition at speed and altitude - the only two things that let you recover from VRS, or allow you to avoid it completely (especially speed). Helicopter pilot face THE EXACT SAME PROBLEM.
If they need to descend quickly they must have a lot of forward speed, -then- slow down and go into hover or near-hover like descent.
|
If I was reading it right the VRS is not as serious an issue for most helicopters as they can recover from it. The V-22 because of the way the rotors are configured supposidly cannot. If I read it right when one rotor loses lift the other rotors basiclly flips the V-22 and sends it into an unrecoverable death spiral.
In the case of helicopter VRS you simply lose lift for a moment then regain control. It apparently happens all the time in Afganistian, the concern I suppose is what happens if the V-22 operates in the thin air in A-stan.