PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Robinson helicopters added to safety watchlist
Old 15th Nov 2016, 12:34
  #132 (permalink)  
TTSN
 
Join Date: May 2005
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Originally Posted by [email protected]
If you have a specific car that has a serious defect causing deaths then yes, you would recall it.

You have to decide if the vehicle is fit for purpose or not.

Most people killed in cars are the victims of accidents of a variety of causes, very few of which are serious technical defects caused by design or manufacturing.
If the car manufacturer had a uniquely designed steering system that on quite a number of unexplained instances caused the vehicle to drive into the central reservation at motorway speeds then I'm quite sure it would be recalled until rectified.

Robinson has a unique design of rotor head (teeter and coning hinge layout) and it also has a unique problem that happens very occasionally and is as yet largely unexplained. A number of people feel the issue lies is in the balance between the teeter hinge and coning hinges (including some of the recognised world experts in the field). If someone unloads the rotor slightly (not as in an extreme low G situation) changing the coning angle and a coning hinge has any kind of change in standard resistance (sticks slightly / reacts slower for any reason) things can get out of hand very quickly. Unexplained rotor divergence is in the Robinson rotor head design - no other manufacturer has the unique design and no other manufacturer has the problem. Yes, we all know a Bell 206 can mast bump under extreme low G like any 2 bladed system but the Robinson is unique in that it has a history of largely unexplained rotor divergence incidents.
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