Originally Posted by
noooby
Could you perhaps expand on the "all other manufacuters fit a safety mechanism" passage please? Specifically, which aircraft models have this safety mechanism and what exactly is it?
The Elastomerics on the 169 are pretty stiff and help with self centering a bit. I'm trying to think what other tail rotors do for self centering if the control linkage is broken and I can't really think of anything.
Remember, the servo got disconnected. No point in centering an item that isn't part of the control system anymore.
Yes I believe you are correct, those types that have centering mechanisms (such as Super Puma family and S76) still require the TR Pitch change rod to be attached to the servo!
One area that puzzles me is there is no analysis of the different outcome in survivabilty if the landing gear had been down at impact, other than this statement:
Cockpit voice recording revealed that the pilot had asked the front seat passenger to select the landing gear up, indicating that he did not take his hand off the collective lever to do so himself. The call to raise the landing gear came after the pilot had committed to the CTO. The investigation did not consider raising the helicopter’s landing gear before reaching climb speed to be a contributory factor in the accident or in its survivability.
I know the gear would have stroked and the underside would still have contacted the wall, but I would think there would at least be some energy attenuation by the gear, which may have reduced the fuselage disruption?