View Full Version : R 22 Blades
justinga
16th Mar 2007, 11:39
Im new too spreading the word,
but have you guys heard of the latest R22 blade delamination yesterday in the Cairns area
rotorspin
16th Mar 2007, 12:05
nope.......
topendtorque
16th Mar 2007, 12:06
Negative justinga, go ahead details please.
justinga
16th Mar 2007, 12:14
@ mareeba yesterday with a well known CFI instructor doing a flight test.
blades had 500 odd hours,pilot was in auto at 200ft,big vibration,pulled power and recovered to put it down with no harm to man or futher damage to machine. End result.....15inches of blade peeled back and now on there way to the states
topendtorque
16th Mar 2007, 13:02
Can only assume that you refer to one very respected, very experienced CFI / Instructor gentleman from that area.
I guess his phone will be running hot tomorrow.
Be very interesting to check out the machine history / ownership before too many assumptions are made.
justinga
16th Mar 2007, 13:11
Yes we are talking about "that man". Dont think that the focus should be on him,i think (but dont know) that he is over that.
I have thrown the subject up more for general knowledge for pilot saftey.
RWJackOfAllTrades
16th Mar 2007, 13:21
So how long before RHC completely redesign their blades?
Seems to be just too many of these type of occurances of late and I for one will always feel a little nervous when I fly one of these machines here and there. Eek!!!
justinga
16th Mar 2007, 13:33
Thanks RW,
Thats the angle, big questions need to be asked of RHC.....what do they intend to do.
I just have an intrest in human life and believe that RHC, despite there best intention to design a cheap heli, have done just that.
Might be handy to know too that Aus officialdom dont seem too intrested at this stage
JimBall
16th Mar 2007, 16:28
Here we go - generalising from the particular:
I just have an intrest in human life and believe that RHC, despite there best intention to design a cheap heli, have done just that.
How many R22s been built ? 4000+ ?
How many blade delaminations ?
How many blade delaminations in Australia ?
Keep it real.
See here (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=222289)
SilsoeSid
16th Mar 2007, 23:30
Am I correct in thinking that Mr Robinson had some special sets of blades made for aircraft supplied for the 2000 Sydney Olympics?
http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g11/silsoesid/r22blades.jpg
http://www.bcgames.org/images/Other/Sydney_Olympics_logo.gif
wg13_dummy
17th Mar 2007, 00:46
Jimball, surely one delamination is one too many?
Mr Silsoe. We meet again. Mwahahaha. :D
As a matter of interest, do any other helicopters have blade delamination problems? Or is it unique to the Robinson design?
AB139engineer
17th Mar 2007, 07:47
15'' just suddenly pulled apart eh?
I think somebody needs to be taught how to do a proper daily inspection
on the R-22. I would be willing to bet the blades were wrinkled before the seperation.
http://www.pprune.org/forums/images/icons/46.gif
nigelh
17th Mar 2007, 15:18
OH well that makes it fine then :ok: I guess it must be the pilots fault after all. Buy cheap buy twice i say
skid shoe
17th Mar 2007, 21:32
AB139Eng.
I understand your scepticism but as previously mentioned by TET, the CFI on board at the time is very experienced and very respected. He didn't get the experience or the respect by doing things poorly. This incident happened on a check ride so the CFI would have been all eyes & check-lists.
It is possible that something was missed during the daily/preflight, but given the professionalism of the CFI and the circumstances of the flight I think it is highly unlikely. Also, the machine had just come out of maintenance so the engineers would have had to miss the signs as well. With so many people (CFI, Student and Engineers) looking, it would be unusual for "nobody" to see anything.
My info is that the aircraft had -4 blades fitted.....significant????
ss
topendtorque
17th Mar 2007, 21:41
It's all about who pays for lunch.
On the first similar occurrence on a separate machine in a separate state some months ago, i may be prepared to think that there had been a previous strike. the photographs of that episode were poor but it did look as though there was prior buckiling and what appeared to be a bent spar.
On this occurrence, we have yet to see any photographs, or hear of any prior incidents, or indeed who even owned and operated the A/C
it would be unusual for "nobody" to see anything.
especially as how topical this subject is,
tet
BGRing
18th Mar 2007, 01:36
Nick (I am new here) Hi, I was kinda hungry for info. and so i hear u are a Knowledgeable man. I was looking at the R44 pictured above, and was wondering , Whats wrong with the tail Blade ?
Hope you have time to Help me solve this one.
Thanks in advance
JimBall
18th Mar 2007, 08:21
News just reached me about a new helicopter design for Australia. 57,000 tons of steel and 6 million rivets.
Oh - sorry - that's Sydney Harbour Bridge. Happy 75th.:D
MSP Aviation
18th Mar 2007, 15:56
BG, it's an effect of the camera. On some cams, the shutter slides across, the opening thus showing the blade at a different location on different parts of the "film" (or digital image).
Unless that was sarcasm, which was wasted upon myself.
AB139engineer
18th Mar 2007, 20:39
my apologies to the CFI, it is so frustrating hearing such stories in the field, as rotary engineer with 30 years of experience ( I once maintained the worlds highest time Beta with 16,000 hours TT) it troubles me to read about this kind of stuff going undetected, perhaps its time to call for a repetative non destructive test for delamination / debonding on these blades.
flyagain
19th Mar 2007, 01:02
Perhaps it's time we that sit our behinds in them every day think about
"JUST SAYING NO" as I'm sure many have before. Seems it's coming down to making a choice as a pilot. Bit too close to home...
Scissorlink
19th Mar 2007, 02:50
Wonder if PMA build the blades for RHC or maybe RHC build blades for PMA
HA HA
SL
BGRing
19th Mar 2007, 05:32
MSP Av
it was kinda Sarcasim, But i am above that :rolleyes: .
I knew about the Shutter. It is a top to bottom duel shutter operation. Guessing by Blade warp style. I was truely perplexed over the tail blade for a day. (Or 5 min as i was looking at it.) I was thinking (Being not refreshed in R44 Tail rotation direction) that the blade was suposed to go forward at top and back at bottom, and so was looking at it with :suspect: is this photoshop edited.
All;
I saw a Pic of a blade delaminated (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=268532) in another thread here and was wondering, Where is the overlap? (No wonder it delaminated.) Is this planed obsolesance. or just bad Designe. Are other blades different. (Would this account for a better TBO ???)
Ne way. Glad if wasnt on the top side eh :}