’Copter falls apart on Army work

Press, 11 September 1989, Page 1

’Copter falls apart on Army work

By

DAVE WILSON

The Army’s recruiting officer in Christchurch, Captain Richard Lloyd, narrowly escaped injury when a civilian helicopter being used on an Army exercise disintegrated on landing near Feilding on Saturday.

The $lOO,OOO Hughes 300 helicopter had been hired by the Army for an aerial reconnaissance exercise.

.According to the helicopter’s owner, Mr Rick Lucas, the machine shook itself to pieces because of a phenomenon known as “ground resonance,” a harmonic vibration that occurs if the type is not landed in a particular way.

The Army pilot, Captain Peter Arneys, was in a satisfactory condition in Palmerston North hospital last evening, with head injuries.

Two other Army engineers, Captain Lloyd and Lieutenant Greg Wilson, escaped unhurt when the helicopter landed on a dead-end road near Feilding and began to vibrate. The police said a rotor blade sheared off, the tail broke in two, the perspex canopy shattered and the fuel tank was thrown from the machine.

Mr Lucas said “ground resonance” was a phenomenon recognised in the Hughes 300 and if not quickly corrected, by lifting off again, it could shake a machine to bits in two or three seconds. The three officers were making an aerial reconnaissance as

part of a course at the School of Military Engineering at Linton Military Camp in the Manawatu. Army sources said the force was increasingly having to hire civilian helicopters because Defence budget restrictions had prevented replacement of the Army’s Sioux helicopters, officially relegated to training tasks last year. Hiring civilian helicopters, a stop-gap measure, had become standard procedure, one source said.

Mr Lucas said the Army had used helicopters from his firm on several occasions this year, and Saturday’s crash would not stop him chartering machines. “Some very experienced pilots have been caught out in the past by ground resonance. I would have no hesitation in hiring machines to the Army again.”

The Sioux was the first military helicopter used in New Zealand, in late 1965, and only five out of 16 machines are still flying. The others have all been written off in crashes.

Although widely used by the Army for reconnaissance and battelfield support roles, the Sioux was relegated to the training area in August last year,

and no replacement type is in sight.

An Army spokesman, Captain Sam Bassett, said the need for such a helicopter was proved during Exercise Golden Fleece this year, when the Australian defence forces lent New Zealand R.A.A.F. observation helicopters.

“I understand that long term there is an intention to replace the Sioux, but nothing is currently proposed. In the meantime we are hiring civilian helicopters as and where necessary.”

This has led to concern within the Army with sources saying the military had little knowledge of, or control over, maintenance standards of civilian helicopters. When the Sioux was used, it was flown and maintained by military personnel. Captain John Sandman, the adjutant at Linton Military Camp, said the Army there had made regular use of civilian helicopters for exercises.

“Military helicopter resources available to us are very limited. We have to hire civilian machines and we must rely very much on the discretion of the owners of these helicopters to properly maintain the machines.”