While hovering one of our early Chinook aircraft at Philadelphia International Airport there appeared to be a loss of control, resulting in the loss of the right main landing gear. Initially it appeared that there was a failure in the Stability Augmentation System. The aircraft was returned to our hangar via crane and repaired.
There
was a lot of discussion regarding the cause of the accident. I think there were
some who felt it was pilot error and some who thought otherwise.
The
SAS system was removed and taken to the lab for examination. I happened to be in our coffee shop when the
pilot of that aircraft was notified by
the chief pilot that there was nothing wrong with the stability system. He told the chief pilot what he could do with
the job and departed.
Charles Kessler is a retired flight test engineer for
Boeing’s Vertol helicopter division (formerly Piasecki Helicopter Co.). He
joined Piesecki in 1947, in the company’s fourth year, and retired from Boeing
in 1983. During his 37-year career he took part in the testing of prototypes
and alterations of such models as the CH-47 Chinook and Sea Knight, the H-16,
HRP-2, and the V-107. He taught the stability augmentation system to the German
Luftwaffe. He has written about his experience in a blog called “Early
Helicopter Years,” which can be found at http://helicopterstory.blogspot.com/.
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