A well tracked 500 is one of the smoothest aircraft out there, but it can take some time and practice. We had a 500 come to us for a Cof A that had been maintained elsewhere.
It was decided to carry out the airtest prior to maintenance. The vibration level was so bad that the airtest was abandoned. As part of the process it was tracked and balanced with the old vibrex system.
The owner came to collect it, took off flew a circuit, and came straight back.
He just couldn't believe how smooth it was. Apparently the previous maintenance company had told him that 500's vibrated much worse than a 206 and he had just accepted what they said.
Over the years I have found that the biggest problem normally lies with the skill level and the lack of knowledge of the individual doing the job. On commercial operations throw in time and crew availabilty.
I remember my first day on the North Sea with Bond. Job to do was tracking and balancing a 105. Thinking I was going to the leading edge of the helicopter business I was horrified to be told that we would wait for dark as "the chadwick doesn't work in daylight".
I soon found out why they had this problem. They were using the dolls eye reflectors supplied by MBB which were not compatible with the chadwick gear. This carried on for some time (as nobody was interested in what I had to say) until the vibrex packed up and the rep from Environmental Equipment (who I knew) came up from Coventry. I cornered him before he got into the hangar and told him what was going on. He produced a set of of reflectors and all was well. As the aircraft was starting up for a tracking run I turned to the quality manager and said that I had used this type of reflector on 500's and they were great. He snarled at me "HOW DO YOU KNOW ITS THE SAME ON A BOLKOW" and walked off.
Pretty much summed up the attitude and why the 105's were shaking to bits.
Oddly enough a few years later I had to use the MBB supplied gear and the dolls eyes on a job in Africa. Worked fine in daylight!!!!
Last edited by ericferret; 20th Mar 2017 at 12:58.