While practicing auto-rotations during a military night training exercise a Huey Cobra screwed up the landing and landed on the tail rotor. The landing was so hard that it broke off the tail boom. However, the chopper fortunately remained upright on its skids, sliding down the runway doing 360s.
As the Cobra slid past the tower, trailing a brilliant shower of sparks, this was the radio exchange that took place…
Tower: “Sir, do you need any assistance?”
Cobra: “I don’t know, tower, we ain’t done crashin’ yet.”
I had a similar experience. On my first solo cross country, on my last leg, I took off out of the airport, heard an odd noise and dropped a hundred or so feet on the climb-out. So, I called into the ATC and said “…. Tower, Cessna….. Request permission to land runway ____” (Names are being omitted for legal purposes). Then I realize I should tell them the reason why, so I say after no response “Tower, I think there’s something wrong with the aircraft” . To which I got. “Cessna…. cleared for landing. Do you need assistance?” My response… Read more »
Remember alwyas….
Aviate
Navigate
Communicate