R22/R44 Safety Alert

[vaqueroaero]

Just found this link on another site - don't know if it has been posted here already, but thought I would post incase it hasn't. Apparently more issues with rotorblades debonding.
http://www.robinsonheli.com/srvclib/sa_blade_debonding.pdf

[scooter boy]

Thanks - I hadn't received word of this SA despite subscribing to the Robinson update service,

SB

[i4iq]

I got my SA. Must be a postal thing SB but it makes you wonder why they don't do it via email too... maybe they do?

[MLH]

I got mine in the mail a few days ago. The postmark was Jan 4th, the same day the alert was issued.

I remember seeing pictures of an R44 blade that debonded at the tip, looked like a foot of skin peeled back. I read the accident report a month or more ago but, I can't remember what website it was on. I believe the location was Oz, no injuries. Seems like the paint was well eroded with bare metal exposed in the area of the debond if I recall correctly.

Even though my Raven II is new, I'll admit that I've been more closely examining the blades during preflight, even before the alert was issued.

[Out of Date]

My mate's Raven 11 has just been out of the air for two & a half months whilst waiting for a matched replacement blade. His ship had done 385hrs & was 25 months old when it started to debond.
The final bill was just over £14K to replace (for one new blade & two lots of bearings) and airfreight so even if you do find any debonding be prepared to foot the bill yourself as in this case The Factory denied any warranty cover.

[Graviman]

Have the new blades been redesigned or could this fault re-occur?
Is there is no preventative modification for this?

Mart

[robsrich]

Just some accident data from Australia.

Hope this helps our newbees to be extra street wise.

Oz has around 1350 helicopters of which 600+ are Robinsons.

Ratio of R22 to R44 is 3:1. However the gap between the R22 and R44 is closing, as is the case in the global aviation community.

The government data is interesting and provides some insight into the accident causes. For example from Jan 2000 – December 2005 (312 weeks) there were 215 helicopter accidents in Australia.

Or one every ten days.

Of the 215 accidents, 97 were R22 and 14 involved R44.

R22. Summary of 97 accidents:

Tail rotor strikes – 18
Low level downwind turns – 12
Dynamic roll over – 12
Training touchdown autos – 8
Hitting obstacles (excl wires) – 7
Running into cattle – 6
Hitting fuel drums on takeoff – 5
No pilot at controls – 4
Fuel exhaustion – 4
Water in fuel – 3
Wire strikes – 3
Belt failures – 3
Flying into smooth water – 2
Grass catching on fire – 2
Engine failures – 2
Hot refuelling fire – 1
Oil line failure – 1
Night loss of control – 1
Passenger walked into tail – 1
Governor overspeed on start – 1
Suspected engine icing – 1


R44. Summary of 14 accidents:

Grass fires from exhaust – 3
Downwind low level turn – 2
Overweight or out of CG – 2
Wire strike – 2
Blade failure – 1
Dynamic rollover – 1
Heavy landing – 1
Engine failure – 1
Last light into IMC low level – 1

Hope this helps instructors to reassure students the machines are very safe; however, over 90% of accidents are pilot error.

So be careful – the greatest threat to your safety is the nut behind the wheel! This maybe you!!

PM if you need 2006 data to add onto the six year period. Also NZ data is nearing completion.

[Drumpump]

Where are the blade separations in the R22 data?