I was an aircrewman in a helicopter mine sweeping squadron in the Navy,RH-53Ds in HM-14 and was told to never stand under the rotor disc while it was coming up to speed lest one desires to become 4’ tall.I was watching Army helos turning up on youtube and alot of crewman were standing inside the rotor arch during rotor speed up, is this normal now? seems nuts to me.
Good point sir, my limited rotorwing experience can’t give a definitive answer however I know that our helicopters( EC135) don’t droop much and as they are powering up the disk flattens out then cantilevers when they pull power. I try hard to only approach from the 3 or 9 o’clock in full view of the pilot. Good practice to hold short while those big eggbeaters are spooling up.
Rotor blades can and have dipped down during start up hence the possible modification in height if standing under the rotor arch.
You sir are correct, I do think about it when approaching our aircraft and still get a little unnerved standing next to the fuselage while on maintenance runs. Guess I’m more afraid of our fixedwing props than a half a million tight fitting parts spinning at ferocious speed 4ft above my melon. Could it be just the angle the shot was taken?
No,these guys sre standing 2 ft from helo.i saw a video of a guy under the rotors of a ch-47, 3 ft from ramp while starting up.
2-3 feet away from the fuselage should be safe. It’s when you are that little bit further and the droop becomes more pronounced. That’s when a crewcut is most likely.
I agree with both of you, sounds like the fella in the video may have gotten away with a potentially fatal lack of situational awareness.
Closer the better.
My one story on this.
Some years ago when my father still had his mind intact, he and I went on a fathers day trip in the Collings Foundation B-24.
First flight of the afternoon. The young man who was the flight engineer asked for a volunteer from the nine of us who had paid for the flight.
No idea why, my arm goes up.
My task was to pull the props through on the right side while he did so on the left.
Nine pulls each engine.
On the second, the pilot turned on the electrical, which made the pumps in the engine wind up.
That really scared the shit out of me. Seriously.
The payoff was that I got to sit in the RO seat for take off, and later go sit up front in the turret, crawling over the still revolving nose wheel.
I took a ride in their B-17G some years ago,well worth the $450.00.we must respect the machine we deal with or it can bite you real hard.