EC225
JimL,
I took this quote from your most informative post from below.....
It begs the following question in my feeble, alcohol ravaged mind....
How can your statement hold true re Gulf of Mexico Oil Support operations and the mindset extant we see down there? Are you forgetting about the GOM on purpose or did you really retain a UK CAA/JAA-JAR focus naturally with no conscious thought about the US FAA/GOM situation?
Sorry...that is two questions!
I took this quote from your most informative post from below.....
Even if such changes to the operational code are not made (which is unlikely), customers are likely to require such performance as part of their duty of care to their passengers and responsibility to their share-holders.
How can your statement hold true re Gulf of Mexico Oil Support operations and the mindset extant we see down there? Are you forgetting about the GOM on purpose or did you really retain a UK CAA/JAA-JAR focus naturally with no conscious thought about the US FAA/GOM situation?
Sorry...that is two questions!
EC 332 &225
EASA EAD 2011-0189-E: EUROCOPTER: AS 332 and EC 225 helicopters; Fuselage
Appear to be a reoccurring problem, are EC picking up the bill & down time
Appear to be a reoccurring problem, are EC picking up the bill & down time
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Use of OFS in the EC 225
Normally on the EC 225 the Offest is on automatically in small angular increments and is a function of several parameters as sensed by the aircraft. There is also an OFS switch ithe sub panel where the pilot can manually engage the offset Reason why I am starting thread is to find out if the are operators that manually engage this OFS instead of automatically waiting for the aircraft to do it. I have experienced the POOP sound whiLe lifting off to the hover over the runway with a crosswind component from the left.
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I have always thought it would be prudent to manually select the offsets, certainly in the North Sea, landing or taking off from turbulent decks. The view in Bristow was that pilots were so thick that they would leave the offsets on, and burn up all their fuel before they got home! I would think the answer now would be that it hasn't been a problem, so no need to bother. Yeah!
What is that "automatic offset" you are talking about... 
Can anyone confirm that you can't really brake the wheels without one hyd. sys. ?
CHC EC225 makes controlled emergency landing on North Sea platform | Helihub - the Helicopter Industry Data Source
Regards
Aser
Can anyone confirm that you can't really brake the wheels without one hyd. sys. ?
CHC EC225 makes controlled emergency landing on North Sea platform
Helihub RSS Feed
Statoil
13 Jan, 12 A scheduled helicopter en route from the Deepsea Bergen drilling rig to Kristiansund made a controlled emergency landing on Åsgard B at 16.45 on Thursday afternoon.
The incident happened when the helicopter alarm system alerted the pilots of loss of pressure in the left hydraulic system.
After the landing, the helicopter came into motion due to lack of braking power on the wheels, but it was gradually stabilised.
The passengers were evacuated through the emergency exit. None of the people on board were physically injured in connection with the incident. The affected have been taken care of and accommodated on Åsgard B.
Two technicians have arrived on the platform and are now examining the helicopter to make it ready for service.
Statoil’s emergency preparedness organisation on Åsgard B and onshore was mobilised in connection with the incident.
There were 19 passengers and a crew of two on board the helicopter, a Eurocopter EC225, which is operated by CHC.
Both CHC and Statoil will implement separate investigations of the incident.
Helihub RSS Feed
Statoil13 Jan, 12 A scheduled helicopter en route from the Deepsea Bergen drilling rig to Kristiansund made a controlled emergency landing on Åsgard B at 16.45 on Thursday afternoon.
The incident happened when the helicopter alarm system alerted the pilots of loss of pressure in the left hydraulic system.
After the landing, the helicopter came into motion due to lack of braking power on the wheels, but it was gradually stabilised.
The passengers were evacuated through the emergency exit. None of the people on board were physically injured in connection with the incident. The affected have been taken care of and accommodated on Åsgard B.
Two technicians have arrived on the platform and are now examining the helicopter to make it ready for service.
Statoil’s emergency preparedness organisation on Åsgard B and onshore was mobilised in connection with the incident.
There were 19 passengers and a crew of two on board the helicopter, a Eurocopter EC225, which is operated by CHC.
Both CHC and Statoil will implement separate investigations of the incident.
Regards
Aser
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Hi all
You can force the bleed threshold to the offset value manually with the latchswitch on the sub panel if your unlucky and loose both APM's, as its these modules which calculate the open/close thresholds.
Lplates
You can force the bleed threshold to the offset value manually with the latchswitch on the sub panel if your unlucky and loose both APM's, as its these modules which calculate the open/close thresholds.
Lplates
Lplates is absolutely correct, the primary reason for the manual offset button is for the case of double APM failure or triple air data failure, both of which are pretty unlikely.
If the OFS captions are showing on the VMS it makes no difference to manually press the OFS button. It might be appropriate to use manual OFS when landing offshore through turbine exhaust (Ninians etc) but personally I have never had to do that.
On the CHC event, the accumulator should hold hyd pressure for many applications of the wheel brakes and rotor brake. That it didn't could be explained by a few possibilities, such as:
The crew attempted to lower the undercarriage using the normal method;
The accumulator one-way valve was leaking badly;
The accumulator gas pressure was severely depleted.
At this stage I have no idea which if any of the above applied.
By the way, it was low level, not low pressure (never believe what you read in the press!). Low level detection causes ancillaries to be isolated in an attempt to contain the leak and preserve fluid for flight controls.
HC
If the OFS captions are showing on the VMS it makes no difference to manually press the OFS button. It might be appropriate to use manual OFS when landing offshore through turbine exhaust (Ninians etc) but personally I have never had to do that.
On the CHC event, the accumulator should hold hyd pressure for many applications of the wheel brakes and rotor brake. That it didn't could be explained by a few possibilities, such as:
The crew attempted to lower the undercarriage using the normal method;
The accumulator one-way valve was leaking badly;
The accumulator gas pressure was severely depleted.
At this stage I have no idea which if any of the above applied.
By the way, it was low level, not low pressure (never believe what you read in the press!). Low level detection causes ancillaries to be isolated in an attempt to contain the leak and preserve fluid for flight controls.
HC
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Wheel brake leak
CHC incident
An even simpler reason would be a brake line fitting leak.
Park brake on (Offshore landing) would mean a permanent leak of the lefthand system until the low level switch cut off the "non critical" consumers. The accumulator would empty itself out the brakeline, and presto, you have a very interesting scenario on your hands. No brakes, no rotorbrake, and no AP hydraulics.
Torcher
An even simpler reason would be a brake line fitting leak.
Park brake on (Offshore landing) would mean a permanent leak of the lefthand system until the low level switch cut off the "non critical" consumers. The accumulator would empty itself out the brakeline, and presto, you have a very interesting scenario on your hands. No brakes, no rotorbrake, and no AP hydraulics.
Torcher
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Hi Ref the OFS question...in my company we do not use the manual OFS but we are considering using the manual OFS esp on runway departures where there is a crosswind. Passengers get frightened when the POP sound happens and in the 225 it is quite loud!
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In another 225 question I wonder if all the operators use the check list in a challenge and resppnse manner for pre start, starts, taxi and ALL the checks. Rather a boring affair and I have been pestering my company to change to the "flow" method of doing prestarts, start and after start check. From Pre Taxi onwards, challenge and response. I got shot down on this issue many times!
Gnow, the Bristow Aberdeen EC225 fleet has amassed about 40,000 hrs and, despite strong crosswinds being normal, we have never had a pop on takeoff. Perhaps it is to do with the ambient temperature, very rarely above 20C here!
When you get the pop, is OFS still showing, or is it after the heli has passed 35kts or so and no OFS showing. If the former, pressing the manual button will have no effect.
On checklist use, Bristow policy is that startup checks are carried out from memory, but everything from pre-taxi to after-landing is done C&R from the checklist. Shutdown checks are done from memory.
I don't see that C&R for startup is intrinsically very bad, but it is surely slow and what do you do for a ground run - do you have to have 2 pilots? I think with a flow method you are less likely to omit something. Reading from a checklist is no guarantee that items will not be missed, but to some extent leads to the perception that the pilot making the actions is absolved from having to think about it. I am sure there are arguments both ways.
When you get the pop, is OFS still showing, or is it after the heli has passed 35kts or so and no OFS showing. If the former, pressing the manual button will have no effect.
On checklist use, Bristow policy is that startup checks are carried out from memory, but everything from pre-taxi to after-landing is done C&R from the checklist. Shutdown checks are done from memory.
I don't see that C&R for startup is intrinsically very bad, but it is surely slow and what do you do for a ground run - do you have to have 2 pilots? I think with a flow method you are less likely to omit something. Reading from a checklist is no guarantee that items will not be missed, but to some extent leads to the perception that the pilot making the actions is absolved from having to think about it. I am sure there are arguments both ways.
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Helicomparator,
I do agree with you about the flow method of starting. In the good old days when we were flying S61N and L2s we used the flow method. A few years ago the auditors (I was told by my management) would like us to use the challenge and response method. Yes..the challenge and response is slow, tedious and pilots tend to miss out items esp on a hot afternoon in 33 C and that is your third start of the day! I will still continue to crusade for the company to adopt the flow method.
On the POP sounds it actually happened over the runway with the wind from about the 8 o clock position. Maybe some setting could be wrong ...anyway thanks for the response.
I do agree with you about the flow method of starting. In the good old days when we were flying S61N and L2s we used the flow method. A few years ago the auditors (I was told by my management) would like us to use the challenge and response method. Yes..the challenge and response is slow, tedious and pilots tend to miss out items esp on a hot afternoon in 33 C and that is your third start of the day! I will still continue to crusade for the company to adopt the flow method.
On the POP sounds it actually happened over the runway with the wind from about the 8 o clock position. Maybe some setting could be wrong ...anyway thanks for the response.
If the pop happens when you are effectively hovering with wind in 8 o'clock, unless there is something wrong with that particular airframe then using the OFS button will not achieve anything. Without wishing to sound facetious, maybe you should consider taking off into-wind!
Out of interest, which version of FADEC software do you have installed?
Out of interest, which version of FADEC software do you have installed?
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I think we are using V 12 software. At this time of the year we do get crosswind take off from the runway. The take off with 8 o clock wind was for hover taxi to back track. Since then we ground taxi and the problem has not reappeared
Just interested in the software because v12 has a modified bleed valve law above 4000' density altitude. Depending on the elevation of your airfield and the pressure, with OAT in the mid to high 30s you are getting close to 4000'DA. Obviously in Aberdeen we never get near that so have not experienced it, but there is always the chance of a software issue eg around the transition zone at 4000'DA reducing the surge margin too much.
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EC225 TRU3 CHECK
can i do the emergency supply check （TRU3 CHECK)during the washing engine after offshore trip(both engine switch is idle)?there is NOT mention doing this check after start from flight manual. as you know it is save time and economy for company.looking for your reply.many thanks!