Originally Posted by
bellblade2014
During HAI i went and looked at the 505 they the hat-eating curmudgeon is referencing. It had only a very small weight on the aft ballast point. So the CG was so in a ferry condition suitable for sitting in the static exhibit and flying back to Texas. So of course it would not be as well suited for 5 heavy folks in the front. It’s really no different from the Astars or other light helicopters with the whole cabin in front of the rotor flapping hinge.
And the lifting listed above was described by an actual 505 cargo hook user. He said they were slinging 1700 lbs over and over again and pushed it up over 1900 without using much of the takeoff power range on the PSI.
Someday you will really have to eat your hat...
Good Lord, are you still prattling on about that? How childish. Let it go, man. And by the way, I was there all three days, hanging around the 505 at the Bell booth. Didn't see *you* there, BellBlade. Maybe I should've checked the bar.
Look, don't try to pretend that 505CQ was just a demo ship with no flight time on it that ferried over from Ft. Worth. If you'd looked, you would've seen that the paint was chipped off the (external!) tailboom attach bolts and all of the hardware securing the aft engine cowling. This tells me that 505CQ's tailboom has been off at least once, maybe more. It's been around. And it's probably been giving rides.
You can static balance an aircraft like the 505 two ways: 1) for a full cabin load; or 2) for an empty cabin with a light pilot. If you do either, you'll probably be out of c.g. with the opposite loading. If you balance it for a full cabin, then a lightweight pilot will have to carry a big bag o'ballast with him. Or a hard copy of my pilot logbook. Not to mention that there'll be a lot of weight at the back of the ship. The 505 allows you to put a total of 40 pounds (
40 pounds!) on those cable thingees behind the t/r gearbox. So obviously we have some balance issues.
40 pounds?! Damn. And of course, the more weight you put on as ballast is weight that must be deducted from the useful load.
And it's not even about "five heavy guys." I did a c.g. workup with two 200-pounders up front, a 200-pound male in the left-rear, and two 150-pound females (portly, I'll admit, but maybe one of them was Mrs. BellBlade) in the other two back seats. Total cabin weight: 900. Result? OUT OF C.G. We might note that these days, a 200-pound male would not really be considered "a heavy guy" but rather "a comparatively skinny Walmart shopper." Just out of curiosity, what do *you* weight, Mr. Blade?
And yes, my dear Blade, the 505 *is* different from an Astar. But with your limited knowledge of rotary-wing aviation and lack of real-world experience in operating helicopters, I'm not surprised you missed this. The Astar has a baggage compartment in the tailboom to help with the balance. Too nose-heavy? Stick some weight back in the baggage! A case of oil or bottled water...the ground-handling wheels...my porn video collection...something. But you can't do that with the 505 because the baggage compartment is right under the mast and weight there does not affect the c.g. So you're stuck. So while *you* may want to minimize the 505's balance issues as
"just like an Astar!" you are....umm, what's the word? "Wrong." Again.