407 Rotor blades and NOT made of metal (from 407 Wiki: The blades and hub use composite construction without life limits). Maintenance should inspect the blades.
Correct, they're nomex honeycomb with fibreglass skins and spar. The only metal in them is the stainless steel leading edge guard and the titanium trim tab
Like others have said, it's usually a landing gear limitation, specifically based on auto rotation performance. At how fast the aircraft falls in an auto, the landing gear can only absorb the impact with 1500lbs on board, but the aircraft can physically lift 2000lbs. If there was an engine failure with a sling load and you had to auto you would jettison the load and bring your weight back down to what the landing gear can handle. Internal cargo isn't as easy to jettison.
This is by far the simplest solution. There's no shame in it, and it can be great fun. It's the norm in a lot of countries too. In New Zealand most people live with flatmates right up until they have kids. I'd never lived on my own until I moved to Canada
If if some smart person does come up with a ratio like that, they're looking at total man-hours across a long period of time, it's not like we need to spend an hour fixing it up after an hours flight.
Doesn't have to be construction trades either, I fix helicopters on a fly in/fly out rotational schedule. I get to live wherever I want, and the company will fly me to where they need me, so I also get to travel all over the country. I get paid by the day, with a bonus for how much my helicopter flys. Last year I made $105k and only worked for half the year, 4 weeks on 4 weeks off.
That was certainly one of the main differences between the RNZAF and ADF NH90 fleets. New Zealand bought all their NH90s from the factory in France, and continued to work with them for support and spares. They even bought a 9th airframe to have as a reserve and to kick-start their spare parts pool.
Super common for flights into the Canadian Arctic too, I always see coolers, Rubbermade totes and cardboard boxes being as checked bags, lots of people from northern communities don't have the money for good luggage but they want to load up on cheap food while they're down south so they'll do what they can. On my last flight up the lady in front of me checked in a case of pepsi
When yall say missed, I am completely lost as to how working out of the FAR goes but for mil documents on inspections it would be a carded item as a part of some form of letter check I’m assuming. With each card needing the equivalent of an ia signature verifying that all the carded items were done and documented. Is there no requirement to do the same? As in “inspect elv trim tab aft pully for serviceability”? With an overall “‘MDS’ airframe due A-check xxxxxhrs”?
Military and airliner manuals tend to be much more detailed and idiot proof, but once you get in GA aircraft or helicopters, you'll see a lot more vague instructions that rely a lot more on the system knowledge of the guy doing the inspection.
Apparently it's quite nice, a coworker bought one but I don't even know if he's used it yet. I haven't bothered, realistically it's actually too small for what I'd need it for
Yep, Seasprite has them too, although they're the primary controls so they're actually called servo-flaps, although they're also what we'd adjust to track the blades
sadly this is true. there's a few sections of hwy 17 between ontario and manitoba where it's the only connection for the entire country. if something happens to the road, the entire country is effed
I've been screwed before trying to get to Geraldton when highway 11 gets closed after Cochrane. That was a 10 hour detour along highway 101 then back up the 17
Yeah 0.020" top skin, it's very soft, although the floor in a UH-1 isn't much better. In New Zealand we built our own floor protectors to go over the floor, and they were absolutely fantastic. They gave the drawings to NHI so they could pass them on to other militaries, but I don't know if they ever did anything with them.
Depends on what side you're on, rotary or fixed wing? I'm on the rotary side of things in Calgary and there's more work then people by far. If you're licensed take your pick. Not sure how the apprentice positions are doing these days.
Yes that's kind of what I'm getting at. I would imagine some helicopters could basically fly themselves. I don't want to sound rude to any pilots etc, I know there's a lot more than just keeping the thing in the air so again, I don't mean to disparage anyone's skill.
The vast majority of firefighting helicopters have no automation at all, or maybe just some basic stability assistance and the helicopter equivalent of cruise control.
It's just a big valve on the bottom, when the pilot hits the release button it opens and the water drops out. It won't reset until the bucket is refilled. It's up to the pilot to aim the bucket and time the release to put the water where he wants it
Wait you find the 412 less maintenance intensive than the 212? How so? I haven't turned a wrench on a 412 but I am dreading their eventual arrival at my work.
The 412 looks like a lot but once you learn it it's great. The rotor head seems complex but it's super rugged, with fewer moving parts than a 212 head with the stab bar and dampers, and most parts are on condition, or have massive airworthiness limits. There's a grand total of 2 more grease fittings on the aircraft, but you use half the grease because you're not purging those huge grips every 50 hours. The swashplate is the same, but instead of the scissor assy that needs shimming and has bearings that disbond and wear out you have rephasing levers that float on their bolts and have sacrificial thrust washers that last hundreds of hours. Track and balance can be a pain (6 points of adjustment per blade), but the Bell HUMS system is great once you learn how to work it. I've never done it with anything else though.
That's fair. For it's worth I've spent a lot of time on our 412 working in the Northwest Territories in wintertime and haven't had any AFCS problems, definitely less than our old Sperry AFCS 212s. If you have any problems in the 412, you can pull the fault codes, which gives you a big leg up in troubleshooting
Sounds like you've never had to replace one lol. The T53 had a lot going on, but they were easy to work on. PT6s are great, but it's still a pair of aeroplane engines stuffed into a helicopter they have no business being in, access is just terrible to do anything on them, but they're great to actually fly.
Have it SEM’d for material type. Kinda looks like thin chrome plating peeling off somewhere inside like a bearing journal which isn’t good. I hope you come back to share the results.
Depends on the engine. For the ones I work on, silver flakes like this aren't a biggie, just requires an oil flush and further monitoring. They know if comes from the bearings but so long as that's all you're getting the manufacturer doesn't care
Don't try to mislead me. Yes, I directly might pay less than I receive. Indirectly, the cost of EVERYTHING increases because of this. It's a terrible policy.
Yes that is literally the point, and it gives companies something else to compete on. One company that chooses to eat the cost or ideally lower their carbon usage can sell their products for a lower price and get more business. You can even choose to use less fuel yourself and pay less, it's literally an incentive.
Pretty neat little unit. No idea what it could be from, but I've seen similar fittings on the tail of NH90 helicopters, to send hydraulic fluid through to the actuator for the tail rotor while still allowing the tailboom to fold. Very different generation, but same idea. Maybe these are for some kind of landing gear system? Not sure where else it could be used on an aeroplane.
The main sport I follow is NBA basketball. They don't wear black and white stripes either. I know it varies from sport to sport, but typically, teams avoid wearing black & white stripes on their jerseys anyway to avoid this type of confusion.
407 Rotor blades and NOT made of metal (from 407 Wiki: The blades and hub use composite construction without life limits). Maintenance should inspect the blades.
Correct, they're nomex honeycomb with fibreglass skins and spar. The only metal in them is the stainless steel leading edge guard and the titanium trim tab
Like others have said, it's usually a landing gear limitation, specifically based on auto rotation performance. At how fast the aircraft falls in an auto, the landing gear can only absorb the impact with 1500lbs on board, but the aircraft can physically lift 2000lbs. If there was an engine failure with a sling load and you had to auto you would jettison the load and bring your weight back down to what the landing gear can handle. Internal cargo isn't as easy to jettison.
Yes. Sharing rent among more people is the cheapest way. Students have been doing this for a long time because it's more affordable.
This is by far the simplest solution. There's no shame in it, and it can be great fun. It's the norm in a lot of countries too. In New Zealand most people live with flatmates right up until they have kids. I'd never lived on my own until I moved to Canada
We used stick actuator
Or seat to stick interface
I've heard that you have to do an hour of maintenance on a helicopter for every hour it has flown. Do you know if that's true or not?
If if some smart person does come up with a ratio like that, they're looking at total man-hours across a long period of time, it's not like we need to spend an hour fixing it up after an hours flight.
The trades. Its hard work and its something you have to stick with. I'm not rich but I make decent money and live relatively comfortably.
Doesn't have to be construction trades either, I fix helicopters on a fly in/fly out rotational schedule. I get to live wherever I want, and the company will fly me to where they need me, so I also get to travel all over the country. I get paid by the day, with a bonus for how much my helicopter flys. Last year I made $105k and only worked for half the year, 4 weeks on 4 weeks off.
Explain that to inspection.
Or half the commenters on this subreddit
Please do keep in mind it was not only Airbus. It is a collaboration between Airbus, Leonardo and Fokker.
That was certainly one of the main differences between the RNZAF and ADF NH90 fleets. New Zealand bought all their NH90s from the factory in France, and continued to work with them for support and spares. They even bought a 9th airframe to have as a reserve and to kick-start their spare parts pool.
As a former ramp agent, coolers are very common. Typically for fishing trips or Alaska for salmon trips.
Super common for flights into the Canadian Arctic too, I always see coolers, Rubbermade totes and cardboard boxes being as checked bags, lots of people from northern communities don't have the money for good luggage but they want to load up on cheap food while they're down south so they'll do what they can. On my last flight up the lady in front of me checked in a case of pepsi
When yall say missed, I am completely lost as to how working out of the FAR goes but for mil documents on inspections it would be a carded item as a part of some form of letter check I’m assuming. With each card needing the equivalent of an ia signature verifying that all the carded items were done and documented. Is there no requirement to do the same? As in “inspect elv trim tab aft pully for serviceability”? With an overall “‘MDS’ airframe due A-check xxxxxhrs”?
Military and airliner manuals tend to be much more detailed and idiot proof, but once you get in GA aircraft or helicopters, you'll see a lot more vague instructions that rely a lot more on the system knowledge of the guy doing the inspection.
I see Blackcomb takes inspiration from F1 cars for their paint jobs. So many logos!
I love that they've got a adjustable crossfoot
Apparently it's quite nice, a coworker bought one but I don't even know if he's used it yet. I haven't bothered, realistically it's actually too small for what I'd need it for
I think any Kaman helicopters for that matter.
Yep, Seasprite has them too, although they're the primary controls so they're actually called servo-flaps, although they're also what we'd adjust to track the blades
sadly this is true. there's a few sections of hwy 17 between ontario and manitoba where it's the only connection for the entire country. if something happens to the road, the entire country is effed
I've been screwed before trying to get to Geraldton when highway 11 gets closed after Cochrane. That was a 10 hour detour along highway 101 then back up the 17
By working both heavy maintenance and in the field. You want to see how it all fits together, plus how the systems work when you're actually in flight
Those are pretty cool but the composite floor is a bad idea for an assault platform.
Yeah 0.020" top skin, it's very soft, although the floor in a UH-1 isn't much better. In New Zealand we built our own floor protectors to go over the floor, and they were absolutely fantastic. They gave the drawings to NHI so they could pass them on to other militaries, but I don't know if they ever did anything with them.
Depends on what side you're on, rotary or fixed wing? I'm on the rotary side of things in Calgary and there's more work then people by far. If you're licensed take your pick. Not sure how the apprentice positions are doing these days.
Kelowna would be a good pick for helicopter work as well, but there's more work than people across the whole country right now.
Yes that's kind of what I'm getting at. I would imagine some helicopters could basically fly themselves. I don't want to sound rude to any pilots etc, I know there's a lot more than just keeping the thing in the air so again, I don't mean to disparage anyone's skill.
The vast majority of firefighting helicopters have no automation at all, or maybe just some basic stability assistance and the helicopter equivalent of cruise control.
So the release of the water is pure physics, not at all mechanical? Insanely impressive!
It's just a big valve on the bottom, when the pilot hits the release button it opens and the water drops out. It won't reset until the bucket is refilled. It's up to the pilot to aim the bucket and time the release to put the water where he wants it
Wait you find the 412 less maintenance intensive than the 212? How so? I haven't turned a wrench on a 412 but I am dreading their eventual arrival at my work.
The 412 looks like a lot but once you learn it it's great. The rotor head seems complex but it's super rugged, with fewer moving parts than a 212 head with the stab bar and dampers, and most parts are on condition, or have massive airworthiness limits. There's a grand total of 2 more grease fittings on the aircraft, but you use half the grease because you're not purging those huge grips every 50 hours. The swashplate is the same, but instead of the scissor assy that needs shimming and has bearings that disbond and wear out you have rephasing levers that float on their bolts and have sacrificial thrust washers that last hundreds of hours. Track and balance can be a pain (6 points of adjustment per blade), but the Bell HUMS system is great once you learn how to work it. I've never done it with anything else though.
The fewer flex couplings is nice, what I'm not looking forward to is the addition of SCAS and AFCS systems to fuck up in the cold and moisture.
That's fair. For it's worth I've spent a lot of time on our 412 working in the Northwest Territories in wintertime and haven't had any AFCS problems, definitely less than our old Sperry AFCS 212s. If you have any problems in the 412, you can pull the fault codes, which gives you a big leg up in troubleshooting
PHI?
No, but that would be cool. This is on a utility 212 in Canada
Sounds good. I think getting away from the Lycoming engine was a good move in the 212.
Sounds like you've never had to replace one lol. The T53 had a lot going on, but they were easy to work on. PT6s are great, but it's still a pair of aeroplane engines stuffed into a helicopter they have no business being in, access is just terrible to do anything on them, but they're great to actually fly.
Have it SEM’d for material type. Kinda looks like thin chrome plating peeling off somewhere inside like a bearing journal which isn’t good. I hope you come back to share the results.
Depends on the engine. For the ones I work on, silver flakes like this aren't a biggie, just requires an oil flush and further monitoring. They know if comes from the bearings but so long as that's all you're getting the manufacturer doesn't care
Don't try to mislead me. Yes, I directly might pay less than I receive. Indirectly, the cost of EVERYTHING increases because of this. It's a terrible policy.
Yes that is literally the point, and it gives companies something else to compete on. One company that chooses to eat the cost or ideally lower their carbon usage can sell their products for a lower price and get more business. You can even choose to use less fuel yourself and pay less, it's literally an incentive.
Pretty neat little unit. No idea what it could be from, but I've seen similar fittings on the tail of NH90 helicopters, to send hydraulic fluid through to the actuator for the tail rotor while still allowing the tailboom to fold. Very different generation, but same idea. Maybe these are for some kind of landing gear system? Not sure where else it could be used on an aeroplane.
I don't watch soccer, but I know many pro sports also give #s to their refs.
Refs don't universally wear black and white kit, that's an American thing
The main sport I follow is NBA basketball. They don't wear black and white stripes either. I know it varies from sport to sport, but typically, teams avoid wearing black & white stripes on their jerseys anyway to avoid this type of confusion.
Didn't know that, but I never watch basketball, just NHL and rarely NFL or CFL, along with football and rugby.
Wow!!! That’s a lot. 200 flight hours @70 per flight hr equals $14,000 plus $426 per day. I need this job. Can you help?
Do you have your AME licence?
Yes i do.
Then welcome to the wild world of utility helicopters. Lol.