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Old 10th Apr 2005, 17:34
  #397 (permalink)  
HeliComparator
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Aberdeen
Age: 67
Posts: 2,094
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Nick

Yawn - round in circles again. Why not ignore me but answer Joe Dodds question instead?

Oh - silly me, that's because the 92 doesn't have any specified dry run time with no pumps - the flight manual makes that quite clear.

Actually your comments about certification does raise an interesting point, namely that mere compliance with the latest certification requirements isn't the recipe for the perfect helicopter. Putting aside the dry running issue for a moment, I don't think there is a certification requirement to have 2 MGB oil pumps, nor consequently a requirement for means of identifying when one has failed (Nick please don't hold back to correct me if I'm wrong here even though this isn't an anti-Sky point!).

There is a requirement for 30 mins dry running time at Vy, but that only gives a still-air range of about 35 miles. There are plenty of places in the N Sea, which is not the biggest open water in the world, where you would be out of range of a landing site (ships excepted perhaps) and could end up ditching following a single-point failure such as a crack in the gearbox casing causing all the oil to run out.

Thus what will make the helicopter that people want to fly in is not necessarily the one that meets the latest version the certification requirements, but the one that has the proven reliability not to have the flight-terminating single point failure. Whether that is the 92 or the EC products remains to be seen.

HC

ps, great deals going on 225s at EC......well I've got to get my bonus to pay for all the frogs legs and fois gras somehow!
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