Engine Stall Points?
Re TM's post with the following para. courtesy of Airbus:
"This type of engine compressor stall (« Popping ») is a known transient phenomena on turbine helicopters. It is characterized by a noise which can be followed by transient vibrations. In itself, such “popping” does not represent any direct risk to subsequent continuation of the flight.
An information Notice on compressor stall describing the phenomena and both operational and maintenance recommendations is currently being prepared and will be issued over the next days."
Maybe the translation from the original French conveys the wrong impression when reading these words? The implications are more than interesting, anyway.
During the fly-off between the SA and the Boeing UTTAS aircraft, one had a consistent stall problem at one point ( Boeing ) and one did not ( SA ). GE issued a memo to Boeing containing a criteria for their stalls. Depending on the power and alt/temp conditions, each stall event earned so many points. Eleven points and the engine came out. Boeing made a mod to their inlet eventually and the problem went away. Reason we ( SA ) knew about it was that the Army made us duplicate all of the precise BA stall conditions ( got the impression that Boeing initially proposed that it was an engine problem, not an aircraft interface issue ).
The trouble with generalizing with compressor stalls is that they can be a nuisance occurrence or a major #*&$ issue. Some decades ago I had one of the latter in a B model UH-1 at an inopportune time/section of the flight envelope in a warm environment that certainly required immediate reaction, so I am inclined to wait for details to see how this story turns out.