To: Nick Lappos
You do have a novel way of showing everybody how dumb I am by telling everybody how smart you are. I have mentioned this on several occasions asking you not to personalize your comments about what I say whether I am right or wrong. On these various threads I have been told by many pilots that my theories are pure bunk and when they offered me their theories on the subject and much of it was pure crap and it indicated that they did not know what they were talking about. Much of the criticisms from the pilots regarding my theories were based on how they were taught as opposed to how I was taught. I accepted those differences as an alternate theory to mine and hopefully those contributors to this forum felt the same way about my theories. In every case there was technical discourse and no name-calling. That is until you started to post and peppered your comments with accusations about my mental capacity, that I was an idiot or better still a total fool. With your comments towards me, and the positron you occupy, they felt that they could also join in.
When the original comment was made by another contributor regarding the bumps on the S-76 one contributor said it was to accommodate the servos. A second contributor stated that the casting of the gearbox and the servo attachments were offset from where they should have been. In other words what he was implying was that Sikorsky screwed up. This went completely unchallenged. Some time later in one of your posts you indicated that you had to perform tests to develop the ideal control linkage but at that time you did not explain why. What you have to understand is the nature of PPRuNe (Rotorheads) in that it is not designed for technical discourse on the finite principles of engineering. Technically I should not be able to contribute because I am not a helicopter pilot. The nature of this forum is that it allows individuals to pose questions and get answers, to offer opinions and await comments from the other contributors and most threads will deviate from the original thought that was posted and although it might aggravate the original poster it is the nature of the beast.
In several of my posts I made statements dealing with control lead of the pitch horn and the servo adding up to 90-degrees on most Sikorsky helicopters except the S-76. This too went unchallenged.
I will state the following and then I will ask a few questions. Please do not personalize your comments and disable the capital letter I on your keyboard.
Question: In reference to the longitudinal axes of the S-76 what are the positions of the fore and aft and lateral servos? Are they offset 45-degrees from the control axis of the servo or, are they disposed in a different manner from other Sikorsky designs?
Question: If the servos are not disposed in the same manner as other Sikorsky designs what was the design theory that caused this difference?
Question: In a previous post you explained the testing of the mixing unit linkage to provide a better ride at speed. Was this developmental testing related in any way to the possible mispositioning of the servos?
I will accept any answers you provide but please do not attempt to obfuscate the facts.
I personally believe that you are entirely too defensive about Sikorsky products. I firmly believe that they are the best and Sikorsky products built by Agusta are even better. However Sikorsky is not immune to screwing up and one example of that is the blade design on the S-76. If you want other examples I will gladly provide them.
One final note. About my comments about the design of the Robinson rotorhead and control system you accused me of defaming Frank Robinson and his design. Many Robbie pilots told me that since I had never flown in one or had actually piloted one that I had no standing on the subject. I asked you to familiarize yourself with the control system, the rigging procedures as well as the rotorhead design. If you have not done that then you have no standing on the Robinson helicopter no matter how many other helicopters you have flown.
[ 18 December 2001: Message edited by: Lu Zuckerman ]