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Old 10th February 2005 | 19:39
  #146 (permalink)  
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From: EGDC
Vince290 - the fatigue damage to the airframe certainly won't be visible in the video (are you waiting for the tail to fall off to show it was a bad thing to do?) Neither will the HUMs unless the aircraft has strain gauges and accelerometers all over it (which I doubt). If the Bell TPs are regularly doing aeros then that is a matter for them and Bell to discuss but the fact that the US Army pilots are doing them is a result of the belief that unless something goes pop or bang on the aircraft then you haven't overstressed it. One wingover/loop/pedal turn won't leave any obvious physical evidence of damage but it will have reduced the life of several components, if only by a small amount. So then when the next pilot does it, and the one after him and so on, each manoeuvre in isolation is not so significant but the cumulative effect is enormous.
Bell and other manufacturers don't sell the machines to do aeros they sell them to transport people safely from place to place - just because the machine can be looped doesn't mean it should be.
As I have said before on this thread, it doesn't take great skill to loop a helicopter - it is easy, just like flying really low - but the responsible of us resist the temptation.
crab@SAAvn.co.uk is offline  
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