PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - CHC 332L Rollover Event at Boundary Bay
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Old 8th Jan 2011, 03:10
  #28 (permalink)  
BedakSrewet
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: across the equator
Age: 79
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The Pelita 330J Puma I was referring to was the rollover mentioned to have occurred in Sumatra ( must have been '70 -'71... ) and was a write off.

One has to remember that the 330 was originally designed for the French Army and had to 'fit' in a C-160 Transall for transporation to 'conflict areas' ( such as Cote Ivoire... ) and the main gear location -and width- was designed in accordance with the cabin / body width of the Transall.

Whoever was with Pelita in Indonesia that time, will recall the inherent 'Goyang Madura' movement of the Puma when the rotor started to spin up.

For the records, Pelita was the first civil operator of the 330 commencing ops in late '70 - early '71. Among the various operations performed extremely well by the 330 was 'moving' heli rigs in North Sumatra whereby 2 Puma's ( and a Alouette 3 to carry the sling cables back ) were operating in excess of 11- 12 hours per day over a period of 5-7 days ( if I remember well ) without stopping the rotor / engines ( yes, 'hot refueling' was done, and change of crew at the same time ) which contributed to the -almost- 100 percent serviceability of the Puma, which shows that the more frequent you fly them, the less technical problems one has.

Those were the days......
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