Hello All,
i have not posted hear in years, For all of you that have an interest in Robinson In-Flight breakups, I have news.
May 1, 2006 R44 Helicopter ferrying from Torrance to Ontario Canada broke up inflight.
Untitled Page for a reminder
We now have some answers that i feel compeled to let others know and decide on there own.
News Brief:
Families of 2 men killed in crash settle with Robinson Helicopter - The Daily Breeze
Family hopes good comes from tragedy - Chatham Daily News - Ontario, CA
Robinson settles case one day into trial: No pilot error or Passenger Input caused this crash.
Defective Rubber Mounts
This might put into perspective on this "chugging" and ramifications of experiencing violent shaking.
Thank-fully this pilot was not too high in the air as was able to come safety down.
http://www.aaib.gov.uk/cms_resources...FR%2010-07.pdf
Was not the case of the New R44 Helicopter ferrying to Canada.
These were the same part # rubbers that were on this fatal crash helicopter.
Softer rubbers, better ride. Harder (seasoned ) Rubbers- rougher ride
The Helicopter was violently shaken apart in air. Tailboom tearing and extruding straight rearwards on the stbd side followed by a some bending or crimping before tearing on the edges of the port side" that is what it was.
the swashplate broke, then pitch link let go, found 800 ft away from crash site. blades out of normal rotation, struck the cab several times prior final blow to cockpit.
pilot shut down everything, and was 200ft from ground.
In a despostion from Robinson's Chief Engineer , he admitted that a vibration in the main rotor mast of the R44 could cause the gear box to shake violently,. Robinson knew about this problem of mast rocking or " chugging" as it is sometimes called ,
since 1993 and continued selling the helicopter while making only minor adjustments to the rubber mounts and not informing pilots of the procedures to follow if such a problem occurred. Also in 2006 the time this helicopter was manufactured in the Robinson Factory, a batch of soft main Rotor gear box motormounts were used in R44's, making this self-exciting "chugging" problem more severe when and if it occurred.
This only confirms that it was neither Frank Verellen (pilot) or Leo Straatman (passenger) caused the accident to happen, only affirming what we already knew.
We are hoping with this outcome that it spurs enough inquiries to Robinson Company , NTSB and FAA to make changes in order to prevent another tragic accident from happening to a well-loved pilot.
Nothing can bring back our loved ones but if this trial and investigation helps save even one life our struggles and hard work will have been worth it.
Many more R44's and now R66's are showing same ugly traits. Let's keep informed!!!!