Discussion:
What else would you name a Black Hawk helicopter?
(too old to reply)
j***@gmail.com
2015-10-07 04:16:49 UTC
Permalink
Can any readers please suggest any (preferably humorous and witty)
alternative name/s you'd give to a Black Hawk helicopter, instead of
the Black Hawk name
and any reason why you like that better.
Nick Lappos,

1/227 AVN
UH-60A #86-24549
WARNING: Clicking on this icon will display graphic image of crash site.
A/C was on a C&C mission and about 1 minute after takeoff flying at 20' AGL and 70 KIAS, master caution light illumniated. Fuselage struck a boulder and crashed at 0400 hours 14 mi NE of Ft Irwin during a training exercise. Crew were flying with night vision goggles (ANVS-6s). Crash was due to a stabilator failure causing it to lock in the down position.
j***@gmail.com
2015-10-07 04:18:08 UTC
Permalink
"CrashHawk"
Mike
Well, it was known as the Lawn Dart after it first came out, due to the
tendency for the stabilator to go to full down and nose the aircraft into
the
ground....
The belief that Black Hawk stabilators caused a bunch of accidents is
an old wive's tale. The problem was whenever an accident happened in
the early days, the Army sent out a message to inspect the stabilator
(nervous reaction) and that triggered the natural response in the
field that the stab must be the culpret. To set the record straight,
ther have been two accidents that in any way involved the stab. A
test aircraft, early in the program had a fatal, due to the fact that
the stabilator electronics were not connected to the airspeed probes,
due to maintenance error where the airspeed sensor cannon plugs were
left disconnected during an engineering test, and not reconnected. I
was there, and lost three friends in that one. The crew made a sporty
takeoff, and pitched nose down for a rapid takeoff, which caught them
badly when the stab stayed in low speed mose (it never knew the
aircraft was accelerating). Not a stab fault, really.
The second was a foreign aircraft that went into severe icing
conditions, with the pitot heat off. Same outcome, with the crew
quite confused as the airspeed slowly bled off.
In short, there have been no accidents where the stabilator caused an
accident, but there have been two where other errors made the
stabilator a contributer. That reflects about 4 million hours among
2500 Hawks.
For the record, the Black Hawk has the best safety record of any Army
helicopter, ever, even though it does the typical nasty night missions
that the Army has to do.
Nick Lappos
WORWAC 69-5
D 1/1 Cav 1969-1970
1/227 AVN
UH-60A #86-24549
WARNING: Clicking on this icon will display graphic image of crash site.
A/C was on a C&C mission and about 1 minute after takeoff flying at 20' AGL and 70 KIAS, master caution light illumniated. Fuselage struck a boulder and crashed at 0400 hours 14 mi NE of Ft Irwin during a training exercise. Crew were flying with night vision goggles (ANVS-6s). Crash was due to a stabilator failure causing it to lock in the down position.
j***@gmail.com
2015-10-07 04:19:15 UTC
Permalink
"CrashHawk"
Mike
Well, it was known as the Lawn Dart after it first came out, due to the
tendency for the stabilator to go to full down and nose the aircraft into
the
ground....
The belief that Black Hawk stabilators caused a bunch of accidents is
an old wive's tale. The problem was whenever an accident happened in
the early days, the Army sent out a message to inspect the stabilator
(nervous reaction) and that triggered the natural response in the
field that the stab must be the culpret. To set the record straight,
ther have been two accidents that in any way involved the stab. A
test aircraft, early in the program had a fatal, due to the fact that
the stabilator electronics were not connected to the airspeed probes,
due to maintenance error where the airspeed sensor cannon plugs were
left disconnected during an engineering test, and not reconnected. I
was there, and lost three friends in that one. The crew made a sporty
takeoff, and pitched nose down for a rapid takeoff, which caught them
badly when the stab stayed in low speed mose (it never knew the
aircraft was accelerating). Not a stab fault, really.
The second was a foreign aircraft that went into severe icing
conditions, with the pitot heat off. Same outcome, with the crew
quite confused as the airspeed slowly bled off.
In short, there have been no accidents where the stabilator caused an
accident, but there have been two where other errors made the
stabilator a contributer. That reflects about 4 million hours among
2500 Hawks.
For the record, the Black Hawk has the best safety record of any Army
helicopter, ever, even though it does the typical nasty night missions
that the Army has to do.
Nick Lappos
WORWAC 69-5
D 1/1 Cav 1969-1970
1/227 AVN
UH-60A #86-24549
WARNING: Clicking on this icon will display graphic image of crash site.
A/C was on a C&C mission and about 1 minute after takeoff flying at 20' AGL and 70 KIAS, master caution light illumniated. Fuselage struck a boulder and crashed at 0400 hours 14 mi NE of Ft Irwin during a training exercise. Crew were flying with night vision goggles (ANVS-6s). Crash was due to a stabilator failure causing it to lock in the down position.
Jonathan St. Cloud
2015-10-07 20:51:52 UTC
Permalink
The Seahawk/Blackhawk/Jayhawk has been a great airframe and mission capable aircraft, with a great name. Also, I had not seen a Nick Lappos post in a long time, great to see you are still keeping on eye on this newsgroup.

Years ago I was a regular contributor/learner from this site and we had a bunch of very experience pilots. Then the group slid off the deep end due to many spam posts. A few months ago I started looking at this news group again and every time I see a hateful post I report it to get it removed from the site.

Glad to see Nick post again. For a few that may not know Nick has had a very storied career in aviation, and when he says something I keep my ears open and mouth shut.
The belief that Black Hawk stabilators caused a bunch of accidents is
an old wive's tale. The problem was whenever an accident happened in
the early days, the Army sent out a message to inspect the stabilator
(nervous reaction) and that triggered the natural response in the
field that the stab must be the culpret. To set the record straight,
ther have been two accidents that in any way involved the stab. A
test aircraft, early in the program had a fatal, due to the fact that
the stabilator electronics were not connected to the airspeed probes,
due to maintenance error where the airspeed sensor cannon plugs were
left disconnected during an engineering test, and not reconnected. I
was there, and lost three friends in that one. The crew made a sporty
takeoff, and pitched nose down for a rapid takeoff, which caught them
badly when the stab stayed in low speed mose (it never knew the
aircraft was accelerating). Not a stab fault, really.
The second was a foreign aircraft that went into severe icing
conditions, with the pitot heat off. Same outcome, with the crew
quite confused as the airspeed slowly bled off.
In short, there have been no accidents where the stabilator caused an
accident, but there have been two where other errors made the
stabilator a contributer. That reflects about 4 million hours among
2500 Hawks.
For the record, the Black Hawk has the best safety record of any Army
helicopter, ever, even though it does the typical nasty night missions
that the Army has to do.
Nick Lappos
WORWAC 69-5
D 1/1 Cav 1969-1970
b***@gmail.com
2018-03-21 00:51:52 UTC
Permalink
Can any readers please suggest any (preferably humorous and witty)
alternative name/s you'd give to a Black Hawk helicopter, instead of
the Black Hawk name
and any reason why you like that better.
NightHawk...should B obvious why. :)
b***@gmail.com
2018-03-21 00:53:42 UTC
Permalink
Can any readers please suggest any (preferably humorous and witty)
alternative name/s you'd give to a Black Hawk helicopter, instead of
the Black Hawk name
and any reason why you like that better.
NightHawk....it should B obvious Y. :)

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