The EC120 is a good machine and once you get some time on it you will find it is not a problem operating it at max weight. pilot + 4 pax + baggage with 2+ hours fuel and cruise at 120 kts normally not a problem. Maintenance not that expensive. I thought that maintenance in the states was supposed to be much cheaper than europe? I know someone that had a 12 year done recently and i cost less than 40k stg
I'm helping my friend on his "homework" and the homework is about EC120, more exactly climb performance. The task requires to take-off with external cargo TOM = 1300kg at 1.000m, 8ºC and climb to 2.500m, -1ºC (ISA temperature gradient) to unload the cargo.
From the start, I really don't understand the origin of "corrected mass" but I must be getting the charts wrong as I get more climb performance at 2.500m than at 1.000m.
Anyone know how to remove the wall between cabin and trunk to put skis in baggage area? I have found several pins there, but it semms to me, that the rear seats shoud be removed first.
Yip! Remove the rear seat, then pull the panel towards the cabin and release the quick release pins and the panel is off. You can reinstall the rear seat no problems but just be aware that if you have any fuel leak or sweating on your transfer tubes between the upper and lower tank you will have a fuel smell in the cabin.
We recently had the hammers (anti vibration weights) tuned on our ec120' Which has made a vast improvement, although as I trundle round at 70kt I think I need to retune to 412 rrpm and not the 414rrpm we set them at !
My question now that I understand what the two under the cab do, is what does the third weight which is horizontal and under the instrument panel do ?
How is this one tuned ? What vibration will it take out ?
The third hammer is also for 3 per rev. vibration, but for lateral. I have found with most 120's that if the aircraft needs work on the lateral hammer, the ride quality will have an "edge" to it that is more noticeable than a vertical 3 per. (Of course, I may just be the overly sensitive type when it comes to laterals!)
What kind of equipment is your Engineer using to tune with? Do you have the later style hammers with adjusting washers or the older shifting mass style? I would recommend upgrading if the answer is the older, as the newer style does make for much easier/more effective tuning.
Our aircraft had its six year service and had to have the head completely stripped down, which of course may have disturbed a few things, so I had the track and ballance done at maintenance, which resulted in most of the washer weights on the blades being removed. Track and ballance were just about bang on, but it gave the aircraft some very unusual vibrations through the floor.. Which I later found out it needed the 3per doing. So we went to have them done with the microvib II, Again it turned out that they were way out, we tuned them to 414 rrpm, which I think may need doing again at 411/412 rrpm as that's what I trundle round at ...
So when we do the underneath hammers next time is it worth doing the one in the front ? And is it tuned in exactly the same way as the others ? Eg. 3xrrpm ?
What size Ski's are you using that require that amount of room? I echo 'victor papa' comments on the smell, as i've done a bit of cargo work in a 120. Make sure you're windows are wide open and vent the cabin as much as possible. Or alternatively buy shorter skis NiBsy.
If you have a fuel smell in the cargo area, in addition to checking the transfer tubes take a look at the torque settings of the screws in the suspension plate in the top of the lower blader; where the bladder top is attached to the lower cargo floor. I don't mean the torque settings of the two bolts through the cargo floor.
If the screws are over-torques then the inner-bladder and outer-bladder metal plates can distort downwards in the centre and ease their edge-grip on the fuel bladder, and fuel can weep as a result. This would be more noticable when fuel quantity exceeds the volume of the lower bladder (about +240 KG? someone can correct me if that figure is wrong, I don't have the manual with me just now)
I read about some quite different figures when it comes to the 12Y inspection on a Colibri. According to this post back from Jan 2011 it is around 100-120k USD if nothing unusual arises, then in Jan 2012 somebody posted he heard about the same being done at 40k Sterling. So EUR 48,000 to EUR 90,000 leaves quite some room.
I am interested to hear about any other bills as there should have been a lot more 12Y inspections being done since beginning of 2011. I guess it is one reason why there are quite a lot of EC120 on the market before they hit the 12 year 'deadline'.
Furthermore could somebody confirm the time needed to be around 2-3 months (300 man hours plus availability of parts from EC)?
My machine is 100hrs along the process. Now stripped, and MRG cracked.
Anticipated 450 hrs scheduled work. Mandetory parts currently £10k. Plus VAT. Plus anything they find in the inspection. Plus any touch-up (or repaint) afterwards.
I will let you know when I get her back, and whether I recommend the maintenance outfit
