PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Why not operating an russian helicopter?
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Old 3rd September 2005 | 00:30
  #47 (permalink)  
Shawn Coyle
 
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 1,835
Likes: 3
From: Philadelphia PA
To add my several cents worth to the discussion

W-3A - very nice machine. Lots of potential - fully de-iced machine, nice square cabin - the Polish operator who used it in Spain for firefighting had no problems with it - only problems with the factory. Management of the company still stuck in the Stalin years from my encounters with them. No threat to any western manufacturer.

KA-32 - you wouldn't get a KA-32 to 190 Kts downhill with a following wind - if the vibration didn't get you, the incredible nose down attitude would have. And probably the two rotor systems would have started to touch each other. The Vne is pretty hard to reach in level flight with maximum power, so I'd be very surprised at the 190 Kts.
But unsurpassed for lifting heavy loads.

The Poles told me that they knew of Mi-2 helicopters that would be chained to a tree, and every spring the battery would get charged, the various fittings that needed grease would get greased, the engine would get de-preserved, fuel would be added and then the helicopter would get flown for 10 hours to spray the collective farm's cherry trees. And then the engines preserved and the helicopter parked again, outside by the orchard for the rest of the year. Blades tied down - maybe. Engine covers - maybe. But no other attention till the next spring.

'Russian helicopters are Russian solutions to Russian problems.'

And just like our helicopters have difficulty surviving in Russian conditions (no hangars, spare parts difficult to find), theirs will have difficulty surviving in our (economic and technical) conditions.
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