I reported that Major Roberts died after crashing into the Potomac river --- correction

[Robert W]

I met then Captain Milton Roberts in Germany when I worked at the Schweinfurt Army Airfield with him. He and I chatted one time about my dating a German woman. I thought he died in the Potomac river but he died in the Chesapeake bay. I was an enlisted soldier and appreciated the Flying officers at the field due to them being very friendly to me and other enlisted men. We were talked to like normal and not like officers to us.

This is my tribute to Major Milton Roberts a very fine man who was this nations loss when he crashed.

MAJ Milton R Roberts was a potential VHPA member who died after his tour in Vietnam on 01/22/1971 at the age of 34.4 from A/C accident
Patuxtent NAS, MD
Date of Birth 08/29/1936
Served in the U.S. Army
This information was provided by Noel Garland, TAGCEN Casualty database. Jerry Leadabrand
More detail on this person: Milton R Roberts age 35 born in 1936 died Jan 22 1971 at Patuxtent NAS, MD from a training accident at Patuxent Naval Air Station. His helicopter crashed into Chesapeake Bay. He couldn't release his safety harness due to a hand injury and drowned.

He was a graduate Civil Engineer from Texas A&M College in 1958 and a native of Dallas Texas where he graduated from Technical High School. He reached the rank of Major before his death in a helicopter accident.

Survivors: May have had a wife, 2 children, data unconfirmed.

Graduate of Texas A&M College, 1958, Distinguished Military Graduate, Major USA, test pilot program at Patuxtent NAS. Two tours in Vietnam as Air Rescue pilot, company commander, got injured in a rocket attack at Danang AB, coming out of mess hall. Information from his mother.

 

[whitehall]

A training accident? RIP nevertheless
























a training accident?

 

[Robert W]

I read a report about Milton Roberts who was an Army Major when he died. Let me start this way. Milton had a co pilot with him. He flew the helicopter up to very very high and I believe let it autorotate down. Normally he got the engine going again and this time he did not and it hit the water where it sank. And underwater he got trapped.

This will help us understand the crash in January into the Potomac by learning about flying helicopters and fix wing airplanes. Roberts had thousands of hours flying the Huey Helicopters that have powerful jet Engines.

This will bring us all up to date by reading this report on his crash. It the DC crash interests you, check out this link to learn more about crashes of helicopters. The DC helicopter flew directly into the side of the passenger jet causing an explosion and an immediate crash of both aircraft into the water.

Information on ROBERTS MILTON R

Let me highlight part of that report.

You mentioned 30 flights in fixed wing aircraft, and 30 flights in rotary wing aircraft. Why was it necessary for experienced helicopter pilots to take 30 additional flights in helicopters when the fixed wing pilots did not have to accomplish that?

This is opinion : It would be preferred that all test pilots be trained as unrestricted (ie. certified to test anything, fixed or rotary wing). But the reality was that the test flying of a helicopter was much more dangerous than that of a fixed wing aircraft. Having fixed wing pilots become qualified as rotary wing test pilots would have greatly heightened the fatality rates (which was already 10-20% per class, I believe). Finally, while I believe based on thousands of hours of flying helicopters that they are just as safe as airplanes, their inherent instability makes them far harder to fly in test regimes beyond normal flight parameters. Thus survival doing such tests depends significantly upon experience, which the fixed wing pilots would not have had. All of Class 58's helicopter students had at least 1000 hours of flying time in helicopters and had flown in combat.

 

[Robert W]

A training accident? RIP nevertheless

I read the full story of Roberts crash well over 7 years ago. I know I don't recall each detail but he was killed as you say in a Training accident.

Robert's crash has bearing on the later DC crash in January since the discussion will explain more about the problems the Capt flying the recent chopper had to endure. Those helicopters might seem stable but they are to the very experienced pilots and still some of them do crash.