albatross
28th Feb 2006, 14:03
A friend and I were talking of the old daze and he sent me this picture of Ice on the blades of a Bell 47.
I think it may be an eye opener for some folks.
Imagine the effect on smaller profile blades.
I have included his remarks.
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e68/midcanada/8c9fc28a.jpg
"Blade icing on Bell 47 G4A CF----, January of 1976. I happened to time myself from entering the ice fog, which rolled in behind me over camp when I was out dropping off a crew, 3 minutes!
When I landed back at camp on the lake I could not move the helicopter to reposition, couldn't get enough RPM.
That's when I shut down and took this photo. It's not like I wanted to go
all the way back to camp, there was just no other place to land between camp and crew drop off point."
The effect on powered flight is bad enough but it goes without saying that in the event of an engine failure ice build up would have made an autorotaion impossible. A lesson for us all.
I think it may be an eye opener for some folks.
Imagine the effect on smaller profile blades.
I have included his remarks.
http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e68/midcanada/8c9fc28a.jpg
"Blade icing on Bell 47 G4A CF----, January of 1976. I happened to time myself from entering the ice fog, which rolled in behind me over camp when I was out dropping off a crew, 3 minutes!
When I landed back at camp on the lake I could not move the helicopter to reposition, couldn't get enough RPM.
That's when I shut down and took this photo. It's not like I wanted to go
all the way back to camp, there was just no other place to land between camp and crew drop off point."
The effect on powered flight is bad enough but it goes without saying that in the event of an engine failure ice build up would have made an autorotaion impossible. A lesson for us all.