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Old 2nd Nov 2001, 15:09
  #87 (permalink)  
Nick Lappos
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for Steve76:
The procedure is based on an actual failure that occurred about 15 years ago, where the input gear attachment bolts lost torque and the separation that you describe actually occurred. The gear was redesigned, and no repeat failure occurred. The flight crew noted the problem as noise and rumbling, a momentary upspeed of #1 engine, a swing to the left (extra tail thrust) and then back to normal, with very low #1 torque and high #2 torque.
After a bit of discussion, the crew left well enough alone, and flew home without shutting down #1 (what a good pair of guys! If it works, leave it alone!).

When they landed, they noted that the failure, in that the tail rotor was not connected to the main rotor.
We id'd the problem and fixed it asap, of course, and no repeat has occurred. We inspect all boxes on overhaul for signs of lost torque on that gear to see if any recurrence is creeping back, and everything is fine now.

For Nr Fairy
The above is not like a more common failure that NR fairy notes, where the engine shaft going to the transmission can fail, and N2/Np can go up while torque goes down. In that case, you have an engine power loss, but a healthy rotor drive train otherwise. That can be confusing because the engine rpm on the triple tach goes up, but the rotor goes down. The rotor is your closest friend, so it is wise to make it happy first, of course. Crews can get confused when those needles, always stuck together before, start to disagree.

Also, I am surprised that any A's are flogging around with disconnected electric overspeed systems. They were a pain in the early days (1979) but should be healthy now. The normal governor will catch these failures we describe, I think, so it is not essential to the failures on this thread, but the electric overspeed is helpful for internal engine failures where the power section can unbutton from the compressor, the internal engine overspeed can get very high and engine rupture is possible.