PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Helicopter crash off the coast of Newfoundland - 18 aboard, March 2009
Old 7th May 2010, 21:56
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Horror box
 
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From a personal PAX perspective the S92 shakes badly, especially when icing occurs faster than the RIPS can handle, and has so much bad press that it will never be a preferred helo by PAX. Remember what happened to the Chinook back in the early North Sea days, they didn't last long in offshore use..
Sorry Max, but this does not cut it with me. Of course you are entitled to your opinion and I cannot tell you what to think, but I believe you are being a little paranoid. How on earth do you know how much ice the RIPS can handle, and when the blades are accreting that amount. I have flown the 92 in heavy icing quite a few times, and I can tell you it is damned impressive, in the fact that it can fly and deal with these conditions with relative ease. The Puma has only a limited icing clearance, in some ops and no blade de-icing capability at all. The 92 does shake when it accretes and sheds ice, and that is a good sign. It allows ice to build up, detects the rate, and commands a schedule to the RIPS to act accordingly in order to best deal with the type of icing experienced, and thus clearing the ice. The shaking you describe, is the normal process of ice shedding, and we consider a good sign.
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