Robinson helicopters added to safety watchlist

[TTSN]

Originally Posted by Birdy2

Yes JD, im sober now.
And for a blade to hit the boom is one thing, but to slice any part of the cab is way past the teetering range, shearing tusks n all.

While low/0 G is an obvious no no with teetering rotors, a couple of the listed breakups were at or near hover.
No bad air and no indication of a collective dump.
Iv spent alot of time watching and in mustering R22s, in all types of air.
These machines are under real stress, way over Franks intended use.
Most attention in the report is on blade instability because of its integrity and inertia.
Hell, what iv seen robbi blades do with a skilled mustering pilot, with never an inflight chop up, i think the tree they are barking at is the wrong one.
Just dont add up.

Time for more reaserch for me.


Didnt feel patronised in any way Crab, my skin is pretty thick mate.

I think the key difference here is airspeed, in a lot of instances the R22 is operated to extremes in the mustering environment but we never hear about low G mast bumping or in flight break ups with this type of use (unless someone can tell me different?). At the higher air speeds is where forces get to a point where catastrophic failures can happen extremely quickly if the rotor is unloaded for any reason (abrupt control movement, extreme turbulence). It is actually quite easy to exceed Vne in an R22 which makes me think what would happen if through momentary inattention someone was pulling excessive MAP and exceeding Vne when they hit a few small bumpy bits of air which would normally be within the aircraft capabilities? If for example R22's were always flown at 60kts (maybe even 70kts) then I don't think we'd have any of these mast bumping and in flight break up incidents.