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Beatrix_-_Kiddo t1_jb4ox2r wrote

Do helicopters ever not crash? Seems like there's a helicopter accident every month these days.

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Gockel t1_jb4p6h8 wrote

helicopters are the motorcycles of the sky

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Denziloe t1_jb4qqxa wrote

The accident rate of helicopters is much lower than cars.

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ppitm t1_jb529xf wrote

Most helicopter accidents don't involve scratching some paint on the parked car behind you.

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TwiceYourSize t1_jb4vrpf wrote

So what’s the number of accidents per car and what’s the number of accidents per helicopter? You comment seems kinda obvious to me since there are way more cars then helikopters. I bet the chance to survive a car crash is bigger then a helicopter crash tho

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higgy87 t1_jb4xypv wrote

They said rate, not number

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TwiceYourSize t1_jb4y9nn wrote

Thx for pointing that out, I guess that’s my non-native English failing to understand.

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WeSnawLoL t1_jb59hot wrote

To be fair a huge reason for this is that there are less things in the sky than on a road. A road has more obstacles, some of those obstacles are occupied by complete idiots, while a pilot licenses is expensive and offers a lot of training.

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Riegel_Haribo t1_jb8dw8i wrote

To be fair, a helicopter has one big obstacle below it that causes the most fatalities.

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heroinsteve t1_jb5ry7e wrote

I mean it’s still disingenuous to compare imo. There is significantly less air traffic than cars have to deal with. A better comparison would be planes and helicopters as they both use air space and are far closer in trips than cars.

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S-Markt t1_jb4vsbo wrote

one major problem is that you can do a lot of crazy things with them, but non of those is as simple as it looks. hovering near a powerline for example is risky, chasing cattle in the australian bush too. our airrescue pilots here in hamburg managed to land old hueys on streetcrossings without ever crashing.

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slashthepowder t1_jb5f3pk wrote

The other thing you need to look at is the jobs helicopters perform. I have heard of a ton of helicopter crashes when they work on power lines.

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antantoon t1_jb5isgi wrote

Well this is a video from the helicopter crash in Australia a few months ago, not a new crash.

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Alan_Smithee_ t1_jb5xx7g wrote

Yes, it’s a repost.

And why is the pilot in the left seat? I thought helicopter pilots sat on the right.

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Tdagarim95 t1_jb5jorb wrote

Unfortunately, the things helicopters can do outweigh the dangers associated with them. Planes can glide if something goes wrong. But something as little as a loose nut on just the right component in a helicopter immediately kills everyone on board.

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PoxyMusic t1_jb61y7j wrote

Helicopters can glide also, sort of. Autorotation is the way you can still land when you have a complete engine failure in a helicopter. You harvest the remaining energy in the rotor for one last landing.

I guess a crude analogy would be, you immediately put it into neutral, then throw it into reverse at the right moment.

In the best case scenario, it's safer to lose your engine in a helicopter than an airplane, because at least you get to choose your landing area, and you aren't landing with 60 knot forward speed.

IANAP, just an enthusiast so grain of salt.

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Tdagarim95 t1_jb62bxb wrote

Absolutely. All of that is dependent on if the tail rotor and the driveshaft is still intact though.

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itypicallyjustlurk00 t1_jb6o0oz wrote

Fun fact, no anti-torque is required during autorotation. No tail rotor required! The drive shaft is also largely unnecessary due to the sprag clutch.

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