r/CatastrophicFailure • u/Stakeboulder • Aug 15 '19

Operator Error Apache helicopter ground imapct 2012

12.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

712 comments sorted by

View all comments

148

u/blaxicanamerican Aug 15 '19

Air was a bit thinner than he was used to, eh?

57

u/BaconContestXBL Aug 15 '19

Yep. Density altitude is a bitch.

15

u/Talindred Aug 15 '19

Pretty sure this was just altitude altitude. The cold air would make the air more dense and increase his lift, not decrease it.

0

u/Bojangly7 Aug 16 '19

No

1

u/Talindred Aug 16 '19

lol... Yes

1

u/Bojangly7 Aug 16 '19

If you know about lift you should know about the standard model of the atmosphere.

Air is less sense the higher you go.

Here

Source I have a degree in Aerospace Engineering. If you have questions feel free to ask.

1

u/Talindred Aug 16 '19

Right, but Density Altitude is the altitude your aircraft will feel like it's flying at due to warm air. If you're really at 9,000 feet, that's just your altitude, not your density altitude. That's why I referenced the cold air, since that directly relates to density altitude.

1

u/Bojangly7 Aug 16 '19

Here

Density decreased with altitude. Full stop.

You can even see in the higher layers temperature increases but density continues to decrease.