AH-64 Apache

This story happened a few years ago while I was still in the military. I've held on to this story and photos since then and feel like it's time to share. I'm not going to release Unit info, people involved, nor location. This write-up will include details and photos of the incident from my perspective. It is in no way official and I haven't been able to find any official report. Luckily, Reddit will tell me where I'm wrong. TL;DR at the bottom.

Well, no shit, there I was. Spending my last few months left in the Army repairing Apache helicopters as an Airframe Technician (15G). I was in a Maintenance Company, just like practically all "Back Shop" personnel were. Anyway, our Company was having a sports day before the weekend. About 30 mins into sports day, I received a call about some Airframe issues a Flight Company was having. I was the lead 15G in the shop, so I excused myself from all that fun to go work on some metal.

After changing back into uniform and arriving at the hangar, I find that the damage is just a few corroded and "working" rivets on the horizontal stabilator. Hey, no biggie. Just pop a few rivet heads off and replace said rivets. In 'n' out, 20 minute adventure. Even better, the Apache is on the wash rack just outside the hangar doors. So, I grab my tools and parts and got to work.

Job done. Now I just gotta prime/paint the bare metal and do the write-ups for the work I completed. I'm a tall dude, so my favorite place to do write-ups on the airframe laptop is on the ledge where the pilots walk to board/un-board the crewmember stations. At this point, I should mention that there was another Apache conducting post-maintenance test flights. The maintenance test pad is adjacent to the wash rack. Shouldn't be an issue, since the wash rack sits about a foot higher in elevation than the maintenance pad; also, the pad is situated far enough away from the wash rack that it shouldn't have any issues with spinning blades.

Above is roughly what the the two helicopters looked like next to one another. You'll notice how close the helicopters are located to each other. My memory is a bit hazy on this detail, but either the Wash Rack Apache was parked too close to the right-side curb (black line), or the Maintenance Apache was parked too close to the Wash Rack, or both. Either way, they were parked close enough that each Apache had a Main Rotor Blade's diameter overlapping the other Apache's Main Rotor Blade's diameter by a couple inches.

Back to the story, I was doing maintenance write-ups in the maintenance laptop with crewchief 2 standing near me. Crewchief 1 was doing the ground pre-flight ops while the Maintenance Apache pilots started their engines and began doing checks before taxiing for take-off. I'd been working on the flightline for about five years by this point. I was used to helicopters spinning their blades near me. Having my back towards a running Apache wasn't any significant event anymore. While doing my write-ups, I hear the Maintenance Apache going through a series of increasing power and decreasing power. I figure they're just making sure the engines and flight controls were working properly before taxiing.

I'm finishing up my write-ups and hear the Apache spool up and feel the increase of rotor wash. Subconsciously, I knew this meant that they were changing the blade pitch so that they could backup the aircraft and flip a 180 to taxi outbound. Remember how I said the blades were overlapping each other by a couple inches? When the Running Apache's Main Rotor Blades pitched up high enough to be at the same elevation as the Wash Rack Apache's Main Rotor Blade, the two blades collide.

What I remember hearing was a loud *crack*, kinda like a super firecracker. I turned around to see wtf was going on. By the time I had turned around, all I can describe is a 12,000 lbs angry Apache break-dancing itself apart just a few yards away from me.

Crewchief 2 and I flipped around and started sprinting away from the Maintenance Apache. I had the laptop in my hands for some reason and threw it on the ground running in the opposite direction of the suicidal Apache. After a few seconds of running and having blade/panel/structural material flying past my head, I heard probably the loudest sound I've ever heard. Two turbine engines finally broke free of the driveshaft and were now running free. My guess is that when they were released from the driveshafts, they spun up fast enough that the internal components failed after a couple seconds. I only know crewchief 1 ran south because I spoke with them a couple days later.

When crewchief 2 and I heard the engines finally die, we both ran back to see how we could assist the flight crewmembers. I went down around the tail of the Wash Rack Apache. As soon as I got to the red X on the diagram, I stopped. What I saw was an Apache crewmember station that was cut in half. I stopped because I was worried I'd have to see a pilot cut in half. As soon as I finished that thought, the gunner pilot shot up and screamed, "What the fuck?!". I mean, that's pretty justified. WTF was felt all around.

I called 911 while a couple nearby personnel assisted in getting the flight crew out of their crewstations.

Before I post the other pictures, I figured I'd share my perspective on what happened to the Apache. Ok, first, let's talk about the rotor blades on helicopters. The main rotor blades provide the lift for the aircraft. Simply put, in order to achieve lift, they gotta be spinning pretty fast. Looking at the silhouettes above, we can see that the Apache Main Rotor Blades spin counter-clockwise. This would cause the airframe of the Apache to want to spin the opposite direction (Newton's 3rd Law). So, to counter this tendency, the Tail Rotor Blades push the tail just enough to counter the airframe's natural motion to spin opposite of the Main Rotor Blades.

Why is this info important to understand? Well, as soon as those two Main Rotor Blades collided, this caused the Maintenance Apache's Collided Main Rotor Blade to bounce down. As that blade was deflected downwards, the remaining energy of the spinning blade continued spinning and collided with the front half of the pilot crewstations. When the Main Rotor Blade collided with the Gunner Crewstation, this caused the main rotor blade to break in half. Even thought the majority of the blade was broken in half, the two blade pieces were held together with the leading edge rod. This caused that Main Rotor Blade to become a bit longer than the length of a normal Main Rotor Blade. As that elongated blade spun around towards the Apache's tail, it collided with a Tail Rotor Blade. That Tail Rotor Blade instantly separated from the Tail Rotor System and flew across the flightline.

With the Tail Rotor Blade system now INOP, Newton's 3rd Law comes into play. The Main Rotor Blades still had some engine power and lots of energy built up and continued to spin, causing the airframe to spin opposite of the Main Rotor Blades. Each time the Maintenance Apache airframe spun a revolution across the grass/washrack/pad, the tail would collide with the curb of the wash rack. The first time it passed, it sheered the tail wheel from the Apache. The second time caused significant damage to the tail. The third time it passed the curb, it caused some separation of the tail from the rest of the Apache Airframe. I think it only made three airframe revolutions before it finally came to rest, resulting in the nose pointing south, or towards the hangar.

Looking at the above photo, you can see the clear extent of the damage the Apache caused to itself. Every aircraft had to be 100% FOD inspected and my airframe team and I worked in shifts around the clock to repair the damage received on a few other Apaches. We did have the support of the other MOS's during those hours, but the majority of the damage was airframe related.

The gunner crewmember did get hit by the Main Rotor Blade. When I saw him pop his head up, his flight helmet was missing. That's because the blade did come into contact with his head and sent his helmet flying. If anyone has worked with flight helmets, you know that there's practically nothing to them. Mostly a thin layer of fiberglass and noise suppression. Gunner Pilot was truly lucky.

After the investigation concluded, I requested that our company be able to use the beyond repairable Apache for training. Airframe personnel are supposed to be able to repair blades, but we're only trained for a couple days on blade repairs in AIT. I thought it'd be a good way to get some more hands-on and realistic training done. I was also able to get my hands on that Tail Rotor Blade that flew across the flightline. We can't do hardly any repairs on the tail rotors so I figured I'd make a going away plaque for myself.

Explaining the plaque above, I used hinges to mount the Tail Rotor Blade to an aluminum plaque I made from scraps. That large indent is where the Main Rotor Blade collided with the Tail Rotor Blade. Thought that'd be a neat place to show off some of the coins I earned while in service.

Before anyone asks, I do not have the time to make rocket beer mugs anymore. I was close to getting some stuff worked out with my local Apache unit, but then I started college, flight school, and worked-full time at the Air Force base. The mug on the right is mine and the mug on the left was my grandpa's. After he passed the mug was given back to me.

So, yup, that's my drawn out story of that one time an AH-64 Apache almost killed me.

TL;DR: Two Apaches were parked too close to each other and collided with one another. I was standing between the two aircraft and almost died. Then I made myself a plaque. Reminds me of Happy Gilmore. "Remember that gator that got your hand? Well, I got it's head!".

My previous post sparked a fun engagement between Cobra's and Apache, where the majority opinion was that Apache>Cobra in somewhat close battle. However, I think an even better matchup could be the Apache (let's say the latest Echo version) vs the DAP. While the Apache is the premier attack helicopter for the US Army and numerous parts of the world, the utility and speed of the impromptu Black Hawk definitely has its benefits. Which is better, based on experience or in theory?

This story happened a few years ago while I was still in the military. I've held on to this story and photos since then and feel like it's time to share. I'm not going to release Unit info, people involved, nor location. This write-up will include details and photos of the incident from my perspective. It is in no way official and I haven't been able to find any official report. Luckily, Reddit will tell me where I'm wrong. TL;DR at the bottom.

Well, no shit, there I was. Spending my last few months left in the Army repairing Apache helicopters as an Airframe Technician (15G). I was in a Maintenance Company, just like practically all "Back Shop" personnel were. Anyway, our Company was having a sports day before the weekend. About 30 mins into sports day, I received a call about some Airframe issues a Flight Company was having. I was the lead 15G in the shop, so I excused myself from all that fun to go work on some metal.

After changing back into uniform and arriving at the hangar, I find that the damage is just a few corroded and "working" rivets on the horizontal stabilator. Hey, no biggie. Just pop a few rivet heads off and replace said rivets. In 'n' out, 20 minute adventure. Even better, the Apache is on the wash rack just outside the hangar doors. So, I grab my tools and parts and got to work.

Job done. Now I just gotta prime/paint the bare metal and do the write-ups for the work I completed. I'm a tall dude, so my favorite place to do write-ups on the airframe laptop is on the ledge where the pilots walk to board/un-board the crewmember stations. At this point, I should mention that there was another Apache conducting post-maintenance test flights. The maintenance test pad is adjacent to the wash rack. Shouldn't be an issue, since the wash rack sits about a foot higher in elevation than the maintenance pad; also, the pad is situated far enough away from the wash rack that it shouldn't have any issues with spinning blades.

Above is roughly what the the two helicopters looked like next to one another. You'll notice how close the helicopters are located to each other. My memory is a bit hazy on this detail, but either the Wash Rack Apache was parked too close to the right-side curb (black line), or the Maintenance Apache was parked too close to the Wash Rack, or both. Either way, they were parked close enough that each Apache had a Main Rotor Blade's diameter overlapping the other Apache's Main Rotor Blade's diameter by a couple inches.

Back to the story, I was doing maintenance write-ups in the maintenance laptop with crewchief 2 standing near me. Crewchief 1 was doing the ground pre-flight ops while the Maintenance Apache pilots started their engines and began doing checks before taxiing for take-off. I'd been working on the flightline for about five years by this point. I was used to helicopters spinning their blades near me. Having my back towards a running Apache wasn't any significant event anymore. While doing my write-ups, I hear the Maintenance Apache going through a series of increasing power and decreasing power. I figure they're just making sure the engines and flight controls were working properly before taxiing.

I'm finishing up my write-ups and hear the Apache spool up and feel the increase of rotor wash. Subconsciously, I knew this meant that they were changing the blade pitch so that they could backup the aircraft and flip a 180 to taxi outbound. Remember how I said the blades were overlapping each other by a couple inches? When the Running Apache's Main Rotor Blades pitched up high enough to be at the same elevation as the Wash Rack Apache's Main Rotor Blade, the two blades collide.

What I remember hearing was a loud *crack*, kinda like a super firecracker. I turned around to see wtf was going on. By the time I had turned around, all I can describe is a 12,000 lbs angry Apache break-dancing itself apart just a few yards away from me.

Crewchief 2 and I flipped around and started sprinting away from the Maintenance Apache. I had the laptop in my hands for some reason and threw it on the ground running in the opposite direction of the suicidal Apache. After a few seconds of running and having blade/panel/structural material flying past my head, I heard probably the loudest sound I've ever heard. Two turbine engines finally broke free of the driveshaft and were now running free. My guess is that when they were released from the driveshafts, they spun up fast enough that the internal components failed after a couple seconds. I only know crewchief 1 ran south because I spoke with them a couple days later.

When crewchief 2 and I heard the engines finally die, we both ran back to see how we could assist the flight crewmembers. I went down around the tail of the Wash Rack Apache. As soon as I got to the red X on the diagram, I stopped. What I saw was an Apache crewmember station that was cut in half. I stopped because I was worried I'd have to see a pilot cut in half. As soon as I finished that thought, the gunner pilot shot up and screamed, "What the fuck?!". I mean, that's pretty justified. WTF was felt all around.

I called 911 while a couple nearby personnel assisted in getting the flight crew out of their crewstations.

Before I post the other pictures, I figured I'd share my perspective on what happened to the Apache. Ok, first, let's talk about the rotor blades on helicopters. The main rotor blades provide the lift for the aircraft. Simply put, in order to achieve lift, they gotta be spinning pretty fast. Looking at the silhouettes above, we can see that the Apache Main Rotor Blades spin counter-clockwise. This would cause the airframe of the Apache to want to spin the opposite direction (Newton's 3rd Law). So, to counter this tendency, the Tail Rotor Blades push the tail just enough to counter the airframe's natural motion to spin opposite of the Main Rotor Blades.

Why is this info important to understand? Well, as soon as those two Main Rotor Blades collided, this caused the Maintenance Apache's Collided Main Rotor Blade to bounce down. As that blade was deflected downwards, the remaining energy of the spinning blade continued spinning and collided with the front half of the pilot crewstations. When the Main Rotor Blade collided with the Gunner Crewstation, this caused the main rotor blade to break in half. Even thought the majority of the blade was broken in half, the two blade pieces were held together with the leading edge rod. This caused that Main Rotor Blade to become a bit longer than the length of a normal Main Rotor Blade. As that elongated blade spun around towards the Apache's tail, it collided with a Tail Rotor Blade. That Tail Rotor Blade instantly separated from the Tail Rotor System and flew across the flightline.

With the Tail Rotor Blade system now INOP, Newton's 3rd Law comes into play. The Main Rotor Blades still had some engine power and lots of energy built up and continued to spin, causing the airframe to spin opposite of the Main Rotor Blades. Each time the Maintenance Apache airframe spun a revolution across the grass/washrack/pad, the tail would collide with the curb of the wash rack. The first time it passed, it sheered the tail wheel from the Apache. The second time caused significant damage to the tail. The third time it passed the curb, it caused some separation of the tail from the rest of the Apache Airframe. I think it only made three airframe revolutions before it finally came to rest, resulting in the nose pointing south, or towards the hangar.

Looking at the above photo, you can see the clear extent of the damage the Apache caused to itself. Every aircraft had to be 100% FOD inspected and my airframe team and I worked in shifts around the clock to repair the damage received on a few other Apaches. We did have the support of the other MOS's during those hours, but the majority of the damage was airframe related.

The gunner crewmember did get hit by the Main Rotor Blade. When I saw him pop his head up, his flight helmet was missing. That's because the blade did come into contact with his head and sent his helmet flying. If anyone has worked with flight helmets, you know that there's practically nothing to them. Mostly a thin layer of fiberglass and noise suppression. Gunner Pilot was truly lucky.

So, yup, that's my drawn out story of that one time an AH-64 Apache almost killed me.

TL;DR: Two Apaches were parked too close to each other and collided with one another. I was standing between the two aircraft and almost died. Then I made myself a plaque. Reminds me of Happy Gilmore. "Remember that gator that got your hand? Well, I got it's head!".