First close call cornhole pucker moment

Story to follow:

Soooo no sh1t, there I was. Minding my own fkn business when my aircraft tried to kill me.

As a few of you know, I am currently in the bag. I figured if nicholas cage can make it thru the bag, then so can I.
Well, I was flying second yesterday and had just swapped out with my stick buddy. So as usual, I closed the canopy so I could start dark adapting and get my nvs optimization and run up checks done. My IP tells me he is gonna jump out and run to the stagehouse to take a whiz. So while he's out I just carry on with my sh1t. I usually keep an engine systems page up on my left mpd (lcd display) to monitor my system temperatures in case something gets too hot. Both engines are shut down, but I have the APU on (apu is a smaller 3rd engine that puts out a few hundred horsepower to run all the a/c systems while the main two engines are off).

All of a sudden, it starts to smell funny. I hadn't farted or anything so I figure it had to come from the outside. The air coming into my cockpit comes from the aft deck of the bird right where the APU is. It smelled like something was burning. So I glance over at my left mpd and notice all the temps are within normal ranges. In my head i'm thinking "ahhh sh1t I think I broke it".

I check the environmental control system so if maybe the heater was set too high but its showing 65 degrees. Then the smell gets real bad. So i'm thinking, something has to be really wrong. Then suddently bright light fills my cockpit as my IP opens up the canopy from the outside.
(remember, I cant see the world outside of the cockpit because the canopy is 100 percent covered with black velcro all around).

He isn't wearing his helmet or plugged up to the intercom so he yells at me to shut it down immediatly. So I turn to the left panel and shut the APU down and he yells at me to get the hell out. As I am unstrapping myself I notice smoke everywhere as it starts to fill into my cockpit from the outside thru the canopy door. I jump out as the fire trucks come up to the bird and turn around to see smoke coming from the aft deck right behind and underneath the main rotor blade.

Well what had haaaaappened was... the bird has a rotor brake (works just like a cars brakes with pads and a rotor) to quickly stop the rotor from turning during shutdown. It uses hydraulics from a 3000 psi accumulator that sits behind the APU. The hydraulic line to the rotor brake burst and was spewing out hydraulic fluid all over the deck and APU. Thankfully this happened on the ground because in the air, the bird has only about 30 seconds of emergency hydraulics after which the flight controls wont work anymore and if you crash and die if you arent on the ground yet. So the bird was close to lighting up but i managed to shut it down just in time. I hadnt gotten an aft deck fire indication because the fire sensors are based on flames themselves, not necessarily heat.

Anyways, thats my story and I'm sticking to it. I'm just glad I didn't become the first recorded victim of the bag. A fiery death is not my idea of going out in style.

And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids....

S7 Epic wrote:And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids....

well played

Um, how bout "if you're gonna go down, go down in smouldering hydraulic fluid?"

Glad to hear all is well and it was not a result of something you did wrong.

Whew that's kinda crazy! Glad your ok and that your buddy didn't take a sh1t, he might not have made it back in time. You guys need to do a 360 walk around inspection before take off.

Glad everything turned out OK as far as your safety. I mean who else is gonna talk as much sh1t to me as you do?

Glad you are alright Nate!!

Crazy tico, good thing you were warned in time. I imagine that's a pretty spendy repair too.

happy to hear your ok man!!! better it being on deck then at a hover

d@mn glad you're ok - that could have been terrible. Good thing it happened on the ground. Be careful up there bro!

Glad to hear you are safe bro

glad you know to waste tax payers doll hairs , and yeah you to

S7 wonky wrote:glad you know to waste tax payers doll hairs , and yeah you to

were is panzer when we need him

wonky i will just pretend that you never said that because if u were here in front of me I would break your front row of teeth.

Everyone else, thanks for the words.
I didn't realize how much it affected me till i had a few bad dreams and couldn't sleep at all last night. I guess at the moment I was still riding on adrenaline but thats all but faded now.

i now realize that living dangerously is not really fun

I do not envy your job at all, but am grateful you do it for us all. Glad you are OK, and I can see how that adrenalin would be flowing with a close call like that.

~mrmiller

i'm glad you are ok tico

S7 wonky wrote:i'm glad you are ok tico

thanks andrew

Glad you survived Tico! I was involved in my fair share of close calls when I was on the flight line myself!

Well done on not ending up well done. I'm glad that you got out without any injuries. The closest I come to danger in my job is one of my douchecanoe customers going off and trying to attack me or my staff because we're breaking up a fight or we're chasing them around because they're stealing or something.

S7 Tico wrote:wonky i will just pretend that you never said that because if u were here in front of me I would break your front row of teeth.

Everyone else, thanks for the words.
I didn't realize how much it affected me till i had a few bad dreams and couldn't sleep at all last night. I guess at the moment I was still riding on adrenaline but thats all but faded now.

i now realize that living dangerously is not really fun

The blessing from that is it happened before you lifted off, I'm glad your ok. I totally understand the danger part, I've had my close calls to in my line of work. Locomotives + things to run into = No Bueno!!! Plus sometimes things malfunction and all you can do is react with no hesitation to stop what could happen. Every now and then I'm reminded of the what could happen, I'll experience a little anxiety then go back to being the King of making it do what it do, lol...I always keep a sober mind knowing the Lord has blessed me to be good at what I do.

S7 Tico wrote:wonky i will just pretend that you never said that because if u were here in front of me I would break your front row of teeth.

Everyone else, thanks for the words.
I didn't realize how much it affected me till i had a few bad dreams and couldn't sleep at all last night. I guess at the moment I was still riding on adrenaline but thats all but faded now.

i now realize that living dangerously is not really fun

Holy sh1t brother, sure as sh1t good thing it happened on the ground. If the canopy was up, would you have been able to see the smoke out the windows? Faulty readings from a systems monitor is a scary way to be in a sh1t situation real quick, glad you aren't Tico BBQ after that.

S7 Vision67 wrote:Tico BBQ

I like TICO BBQ it taste like chicken with a little cilantro mixed in with it.

S7 SecurityGuy wrote:

S7 Vision67 wrote:Tico BBQ

I like TICO BBQ it taste like chicken with a little cilantro mixed in with it.

No, no, no SG, those are BBQ tacos not Tico.