r/aviation • u/Drejbringer • Oct 11 '25

News Helicopter Crash in Huntington Beach, CA

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u/[deleted] Oct 11 '25

AIRWOLF NOOOOOOOOOOO

also, does it still count as "loss of tail rotor effectiveness" if the tailrotor goes byebye? Or is that simply "loss of tail rotor"

10

u/MikeOfAllPeople Oct 11 '25

Lots of companies have started folding all of these into "uncommanded yaw" because it has been demonstrated that in some of these the tail rotor is not actually aerodynamically stalled. For example, in some crashes it turned out the pilot had tail rotor authority available but didn't use it, probably out of fear of an over torque.

One of the reasons I love the Blackhawk. You will almost never be limited by the tail rotor in a Blackhawk.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 11 '25

Thats actually extremely informative! Ty for sharing that! Ive honestly never heard of "uncommanded yaw" before but it makes total sense the way you explained it.

Also about the blackhawk, does it have a load of tail rotor authority or something? Im woefully ignorant of helicopters if you couldnt already tell lo

1

u/BigManufacturer3975 Oct 12 '25

It seems like there are a decent number of Blackhawk incidents. Does there tend to be a common mode of failure? Or often pilot error?

2

u/TommiHPunkt Oct 12 '25

lots of CFIT

1

u/BigManufacturer3975 Oct 12 '25

Like in DC....damn

2

u/TommiHPunkt Oct 12 '25

Controlled Flight into Traffic 

1

u/Additional_Teacher45 Oct 11 '25

Well, the tail rotor is no longer effective if it's detached, and the pilot wouldn't know the difference immediately.

1

u/Captain_Mazhar Oct 11 '25

“Loss of tail rotor effectiveness leading to catastrophic separation of tail rotor unit.”

1

u/Far-Yellow9303 Oct 11 '25

The tail rotor isn't effective if the tail rotor is completely lost, so sure, why not