Originally Posted by
topendtorque
Two quotes above do indicate a bit of confusion, the only lawn as far as I have been told is down in the park pad, so I guess you are referring to techniques of difficulty on both pads by junior drivers. Now I am not wanting to be too harsh but if I was involved with tourism in oz I think i would be fairly perlexed and making representation to somebody to get both operations sorted out to a much safer degree. Where in fact is each chief pilot? It is quite inexcusable to have war stories as such.
In short a jolly good crash at either location would put at risk ALL of your heli-tourism colleagues in OZ and probably very unfairlay have the pollies and public suggesting that the local FOI's were a tardy and slack mob as well..
TET,
It seems that I may not have made myself as clear as i had hoped. We are NOT the operator in the park. We are located on the road to the park. We have a roped off lawn area, which when the wind exceeds the SAFE limits for each pilots capabilities, can be used as an alternative landing area (as it faces 180 degrees to the other pad). We prefer to use the existing gravel pad on the edge of the airstrip as much as possible, which means landing with the tail into wind on the days that we have wind, as it is hard enough to keep the lawn green with out the burn marks on the lawn from the 44.
Each pilot has differing abilities, and are encouraged at all times to make safe decisions, and are never ridiculed for doing so, as with some other places I have seen. We have regular ramp checks here, as all the FOI's go through Kath on their way to other places, and they are all very happy with the way our operation runs. Chief pilot is located at VRD, as he has always been to oversee the main mustering base.
Meanwhile - back to the thread. It seems there is a common point of fore and aft oscillations at 80 - 85 knots after the machines are strobed in the hover and smooth at high airspeed. Why not put the accelerometers back on the machine and just see what is happening.
I believe that speed was not a factor with NAH's 44. They had been cruising on 110 or so for about 15 mins, and in a gentle right turn the oscillation began. In the following decelleration and righthand turn to the landing area (next to the sewerage ponds) it dimished somewhat. I have yet to talk to the pilot who was flying on the day, except over the radio, and look forward to having a beer with him to find out more.
I am also interested to find out if they have changed the rubber compostion or size of xmsn mounts for the Raven II's as perhaps they have a particular resonant freq that slipped under Franks nose un-noticed. Sadly my experience with the newer 'flasher' 44's is limited to seeing them fly past me, doors on, aircon cranked, whilst I blat around trying to get enough wind thru the doors to dry the sweat off, with out flying out of balance all day.
I have to admit that i am quite attached to our old Astro though, after all these years. Hopefully someone with more R II knowledge can fill me.....
chop.