Thank F*** I was in a twin!

[jetfule]

Anyone have a story where a twin engine helicopter saved lives? ie. one of the engines failed or had to be shut down.

[Yankee]

Sanford air medical helicopter. Sioux Falls South Dakota. EC-145 at night, an engine fire caused by coking on the main bearings (I think)... able to divert to an airport SE.

It’s hard to find reports because this isn’t considered an accident.

Oh, and of course, many times in the simulator.

[Yakking]

Just out of curiosity;
Why are you asking this question?

There's nothing wrong with singles and in many circumstances they are better 'fit for purpose' than the Twins. In this day and age, they are very reliable as well. I remember reading some American literature somewhere, that if they did away with Autorotation training and just taught the "entry" and "glide", rather than the recovery and touch down, they would eliminate something like 70% of helicopter accident/incidents each year in America. (They would still teach the recovery/touch down, but only in theory or on a sim).

(I've been flying Twins for ten years, so this is not a tall poppy syndrome )

[Eric Hunt]

Never had an engine failure in a single or a twin in 15,000 hours from 1969 onwards. Never had anything that required a shutdown in flight.

Done a squillion touchdown autos, most of which would have achieved the training objectives by power terminating.
Spent a lot of time in the S76 sim in West Palm practicing OEI and other tricky stuff, and fortunately never needed to use it for real.

[havick]

Had to shut down an engine in a B412 coming back to Norfolk VA.

Was overwater coming back, and one of the oil return lines to one of the engines, developed a tiny pin poppet hole (as it turns out) and decided to empty itself of all its oil.

Happy to have had a second engine that day, made it pretty much a non event.

Still think the C/Box design in the B412 could have been better thought out, especially with the folk lore of apparently if it’s been overfilled with oil when it vents it will siphon all the remaining oil out?

[Eric Hunt]

Still think the C/Box design in the B412 could have been better thought out, especially with the folk lore of apparently if it’s been overfilled with oil when it vents it will siphon all the remaining oil out?

Similar to the B206, if you overfill the TXMSN oil, it froths up and shows zero pressure with associated heart attacks.

[bladepitch]

Yep.. Cbox issues more concerning.. nothing like having a Cbox chip light come on while you are tracking offshore.. gets the nerves on edge! .. hahahahah