Tec
The HUMS as it stands is no more than a bolt on set of accelerometers, and I would say that the locations of said accels could be better, however, at least someone has had the balls to go ahead and start the ball rolling with an introductory system.
Vibration monitoring is only part of HUMS, but thats better than nothing. I was shown the system, and I offered some constructive comments which were well received. Once we got over the initial "Them and us" thing (To be expected when an Engineer gets hauled out from the UK to Russia) I found our Eastern Friends very friendly and great to work with. I work daily with a sophisticated Integrated CVFDR / HUMS system, and as such I was in a position to cast a certain amount of judgement of what they have now, and where they are going in the next 12 months. I would say that the current system is basic, and lacks a couple of key elements, High Speed shaft vibration would be nice, Torques and / or T's & P's as well are a must. They also have a lovely cockpit display, which is pretty pointless and doesn't work in sub zero temps. That said though, its not a bad first attempt, and they will improve it significantly by year end.
As you correctly pointed out though, this particular system is retro fit and therefore easily adaptable to Kamovs.. we'll see what the next 12 - 24 months bring.
So you didn't have a flight engineer to start the APU and warm up the ship before you got in? He didn't get the aircraft turning and burning for you so all you had to do was a little stick work?
You'll be telling me you had to do your own re-fuelling next
Returning to the Mil 8 MTV / 17 in July, will keep you posted, and yes the tips received by you and others were very helpful. Thank you.
Regards
Flytest
Just been reading the Mi-17 down thread on Rotorheads.. Not suggesting HUMS would have prevented the accident, but surely any kind of safety improvement is worthwhile? As a friend at Shell said recently.. "If you think flight safety improvement is expensive, just wait til you kill somebody, then you'll find out what expensive really is.."