I received the following email from Jim Hall, Chairman of the NTSB:
Dear Mr. Zuckerman:
The page from the R44 Pilot's Operating Handbook that you are referring to resulted from Safety Board recommendations A-94-143 and A-95-1 through -7 to the Federal Aviation Administration. As a result, the FAA issued Priority Letter Airworthiness Directive 95-02-03. This AD required operators to insert an update page in the end of the Normal Procedures section of the POH. This update page contained information intended to prevent loss of main rotor control. The AD was sent to all owners, operators, and pilots for compliance. The Robinson Helicopter Company did not publish the page, so it would not have a page number in the Robinson Helicopter Company POH.
Since the issuance of the recommendations, there have been two additional Robinson Helicopter accidents in the U.S. involving main rotor loss of control. On October 26, 1998, an R22 crashed in Littlerock, California, and on August 18, 2000, another R22 crashed in Watsonville, California. In addition, there have been four similar accidents outside the U.S. and the possibility that a recent accident in Denmark that may be related. The Safety Board will send a representative to assist in that investigation later this month.
In light of these events, we will be reviewing the effectiveness of the corrective action taken by the FAA and other airworthiness authorities. Additional recommendations may be forthcoming.
Thank you for bringing your concerns to my attention.
The following message prompted Mr. Halls' reply.
-----Original Message-----
From: Lu Zuckerman [mailto:
[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, October 06, 2000 10:35 PM
To:
[email protected]
Subject: Follow up to email regarding page from Robinson Helicopters POH
Dear Mr. Hall,
About a month age I sent you a copy of a report I had submitted to the NTSB in 1996. This was several days after a Robinson helicopter lost its' rotor in an accident in California. A day or so later you sent me an email telling me that you had turned the report over to four of your investigators whom I assume were assigned to the California accident.
The page I sent in the email preceding this one comes from a Robinson R44 Pilots' Operating Handbook. Contrary to FAA procedures the page is unnumbered and there is no indication of it being a part of the book as indicated in the LOG OF PAGES APPROVED BY FAA TYPE CERTIFICATE NO. H10WE. This is mandatory as it indicates what the FAA has signed off as the operating instructions for the helicopter. The same situation exists in the R22 POH.
I have been participating in a forum called Pprune or, Professional Pilots Rumour Network which has a subset called Rotorheads.
In the Rotorhead forum I have offered the report to interested helicopter pilots. About 60 of them requested the report and after an appropriate period I started getting feed back. Most of the pilots told me that the page I sent you was not in their POHs for the R22 and the R44.
A lot of them indicated that they quite often flew outside of the restricted envelope referenced in the unnumbered page and some from Australia stated that in mustering cattle they almost always flew outside of the restricted envelope.
Now I am getting feedback that the restrictions are only suggestions and have no weight because they are not indicated as a warning. Not following the specific instructions can lead to high flapping loads resulting in mast separation . This is especially true for flying out of trim and sideslipping the helicopter. The wording is such that the pilots that do have the page don't pay any attention and those that do not have the page just keep on trucking until the have an accident.
I would think that the FAA should take the necessary action to have the page properly registered as an approved page and that the page be numbered and included in the Normal Procedures section (4) of the two POHs. As it stands now, the page is unnumbered and is placed as the last page of section 4 of the POH.
The UK CAA has requested the report and have indicated that they are checking why this page is not included in the POHs of UK registered Robinson Helicopters. One of the respondents to my postings in the forum indicated that he specifically asked the Robinson Pilot who was instructing a safety seminar in the UK about the restrictions relative to side slip and out of trim flight and the Robinson pilot told the student that there were no such restrictions.
I honestly think the NTSB is missing the boat on the Robinson problems. The highway safety board is having a field day because of defective tires. There have been 32 Robinson helicopters lost due to rotor separation and many more lost for unexplained reasons. Both types of failures are covered in my report.
Speaking about the report, I have made several additions to include a diagram that will help explain several points made in the body of the report. I have added two comments/notes and they are easy to recognize as they are in bold type. I am sending you a copy of the amended report.
With warm regards,
S L Zuckerman
RMS Engineering
In Responce to Mr. Halls' email I sent the following:
Dear Mr. Hall,
Thank you for your recent email regarding the unnumbered page in the R22 and R44 Pilots Operating Handbook. Robinson did in fact publish the contents of the FAA Priority Letter dated 13, January 95. In doing so, it became a permanent entry into the handbook and as such (per FAA regs) should have a number and be noted in The LOG OF PAGES APPROVED BY FAA TYPE CERTIFICATE NO XXXXX (R22 AND R44). Even if it was not a requirement to number the page the problem still exists that this information was not promulgated very well outside of the United States. I had email contacts with around fifty pilots in the UK and Australia that indicated that they had never seen the page nor, were they aware of the FAA Priority Letter that set the operational restrictions in place. When I made reference to the restrictions I was told that they operated the helicopters outside of the restrictions on just about every flight.
The page was published on the internet and the pilots were advised to check it out. They then argued that since the wording did not specifically state that sideslip and out of trim flight were forbidden that they said there was no weight behind the recommendations.
I contacted the UK CAA safety office and they stated that they were looking into why the page was not included in all POHs for the R22 and R44 helicopters registered in the UK. The CAA is also presently investigating the large number of small helicopter accidents including those involving R22s and R44s and I assume they will see if there is any relation of these accidents to the material covered in my report.
I can't emphasize this point too much. There is a problem with the Robinson rotorhead design that can cause these accidents. There is also a major problem with the rigging procedure of the R22 and R44 that can lead to blade stall and mechanical binding in the flight control system.
The above attached report is the same one I sent to you but I have added a diagram and two passages in BOLD TYPE.
Finally, if your investigators do not consider the points I made in my report I will guarantee that they will never get to the bottom of the problem. In saying that, I will make you an offer. I normally get paid for my services but if your organization will bring me down to your facilities in Washington and pay the transportation and living expenses for two days I will explain to your investigators exactly what they should be looking for. At the same time I will go through my report and explain why the R22 and R44 should have never been certificated.
With warm regards,
S L Zuckerman
RMS Engineering
Note: On a previous post someone asked me why I kept pushing my point when so many people said I was wrong. I don't know how to answer that, other than to say, maybe some day the people that make the final decisions will think I am right. If "they" tell me I'm wrong, I, like a good dog, will drop the bone I have had in my mouth since 1996 and start digging for another bone.
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The Cat
[This message has been edited by Lu Zuckerman (edited 20 October 2000).]
[This message has been edited by Lu Zuckerman (edited 20 October 2000).]
See also ..... Robinson Technical Questions