Bell 214 (Archive)
Iconoclast
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214s then and now.
I would like to know how the 214 Bs compare to the original 214. I was involved with the introduction of the 214 into service with the Imperial Iranian Army Aviation back in 1975-76. The original 214 was a dog and a high consumer of maintenance man-hours. Some of the problems were poor build quality where hundreds of Cherry type rivets would lose the pull pin and they would drop down into an inaccessible area around the cockpit. Another problem was that the blades were not grounded to the airframe with the grounding being prevented by the elastomeric teeter bearing. This cause a build up of a high static charge and it effected the standby magnetic compasses rendering then useless as an alternate compass. The static charge also effected the operation of the VOR.
The rotorheads and blades were very difficult to static balance using a Marvel balancer. Once balanced the rotor blade assemblies were installed and then dynamically balanced using a Chadwick-Helmuth system, which could not always bring the rotor system into balance without exceeding the limits of balance weights. Many of the rotor systems had to be disassembled and parts exchanged to make an assembly that could be balanced.
Having a Noda Matic suspension system the transmission moved in relation to the fixed engine. This movement caused the short shaft couplings to move in and out in relation to the engine and the transmission. This movement forced grease out of the coupling. This grease would plate out on the engine inlet bell and sand would build up on the grease. This film of sand and other small debris caused a disruption of the airflow and the engine would suffer a compressor stall. This prompted frequent inspections of the driveline and the engine as well as on the airframe. This resulted in the change-out of many parts. The problem was solved locally by very frequent engine washes.
Surprising, as this might seem the 214 was not adequately tested prior to the introduction into service. The helicopter was billed as a heavy lifter but the greatest weight it ever carried in service was a pilot and two or three students. I spent 30 days with the 214 observing and documenting the maintenance of the 214s at our base. The maintenance man-hours per flight hour varied between 60-70. I prepared a report stating the high MMH-FH and my boss altered the report to state that there were 13-16 MMH-FH. This report was forwarded to Bell and they entered it into their brochures and they sent them to the oil companies.
Many 214s were purchased by the oil companies and pressed into service in Central and South America. On these assignments the 214s were operated at Max AUW and things started to happen. There were structural problems, they had the compressor stalls and the rotorheads never exceed 500 hours and they had to be removed and some scrapped.
I had several rides in the 214s after they passed the Chadwick-Helmuth balancing and I have to say it was the smoothest ride I ever had in a helicopter. During the flight I looked at the movement of the transmission through an inspection port and it scared the hell out of me.
My question is how is the 214 B by comparison?
The rotorheads and blades were very difficult to static balance using a Marvel balancer. Once balanced the rotor blade assemblies were installed and then dynamically balanced using a Chadwick-Helmuth system, which could not always bring the rotor system into balance without exceeding the limits of balance weights. Many of the rotor systems had to be disassembled and parts exchanged to make an assembly that could be balanced.
Having a Noda Matic suspension system the transmission moved in relation to the fixed engine. This movement caused the short shaft couplings to move in and out in relation to the engine and the transmission. This movement forced grease out of the coupling. This grease would plate out on the engine inlet bell and sand would build up on the grease. This film of sand and other small debris caused a disruption of the airflow and the engine would suffer a compressor stall. This prompted frequent inspections of the driveline and the engine as well as on the airframe. This resulted in the change-out of many parts. The problem was solved locally by very frequent engine washes.
Surprising, as this might seem the 214 was not adequately tested prior to the introduction into service. The helicopter was billed as a heavy lifter but the greatest weight it ever carried in service was a pilot and two or three students. I spent 30 days with the 214 observing and documenting the maintenance of the 214s at our base. The maintenance man-hours per flight hour varied between 60-70. I prepared a report stating the high MMH-FH and my boss altered the report to state that there were 13-16 MMH-FH. This report was forwarded to Bell and they entered it into their brochures and they sent them to the oil companies.
Many 214s were purchased by the oil companies and pressed into service in Central and South America. On these assignments the 214s were operated at Max AUW and things started to happen. There were structural problems, they had the compressor stalls and the rotorheads never exceed 500 hours and they had to be removed and some scrapped.
I had several rides in the 214s after they passed the Chadwick-Helmuth balancing and I have to say it was the smoothest ride I ever had in a helicopter. During the flight I looked at the movement of the transmission through an inspection port and it scared the hell out of me.
My question is how is the 214 B by comparison?
Iconoclast
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Aren't there any 214 B pilots on this forum?
If there are, please respond
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Lu,
I flew the 214B from 78 to 86 in the Sultan of Oman's Air Force.
We suffered the same compressor stall problem, which we 'solved' by an engine wash/bleed band setting check, every day. This still didn't prevent a stall leading to a T/R drive shaft snapping as one of our guys was lifting a sling load. The only saving grace was the inertia in the M/R system allowed him to pickle the load, close the throttle and move a few yards before landing without further mishap!!
We also suffered from 'Nodal Beam Bounce', occasionally the airframe underwent an 'anti-harmonic' with the beam! That was interesting too!
As far as MMH/Fh ratio, ours was high, in fact, at one stage we were known as the 'Static Display Team', with a motto of 'The Sky Shall Not Have Them'
Still, I found it a good beast, and once you'd spent a few days balancing the system, it was the smoothest heli by far.
Maybe now you should be asking if Bell got it right with the 214ST??
I flew the 214B from 78 to 86 in the Sultan of Oman's Air Force.
We suffered the same compressor stall problem, which we 'solved' by an engine wash/bleed band setting check, every day. This still didn't prevent a stall leading to a T/R drive shaft snapping as one of our guys was lifting a sling load. The only saving grace was the inertia in the M/R system allowed him to pickle the load, close the throttle and move a few yards before landing without further mishap!!
We also suffered from 'Nodal Beam Bounce', occasionally the airframe underwent an 'anti-harmonic' with the beam! That was interesting too!
As far as MMH/Fh ratio, ours was high, in fact, at one stage we were known as the 'Static Display Team', with a motto of 'The Sky Shall Not Have Them'
Still, I found it a good beast, and once you'd spent a few days balancing the system, it was the smoothest heli by far.
Maybe now you should be asking if Bell got it right with the 214ST??
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Lu,
I've never flown a 214, but several friends who have told me the only difference between a 214 and a 214B is a limitation change to a max gross weight of 12,500 lbs. in the case of the 214B. This to avoid the requirement for a type rating and a two-man crew. No mechanical difference between the two types.
If this is duff info, I've been had by the best!
I've never flown a 214, but several friends who have told me the only difference between a 214 and a 214B is a limitation change to a max gross weight of 12,500 lbs. in the case of the 214B. This to avoid the requirement for a type rating and a two-man crew. No mechanical difference between the two types.
If this is duff info, I've been had by the best!
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The difference between the B and B1 is only the data plate, this was done for CDN operators for the aboved mentioned licensing requirements. The Difference between the original A's are considerably different from the B's. Starting up top with metal blades vers fiberglass on the B's thus increasing the gross internal weight limits. There have been many other mods that help the performance and maintenance. The B's are a great machine, yes they to require the odd band ajustment pending on Alt & temp variations on the job, but not many at all. The overhauls ie GP wheel shimming is critical for both fuel burn and efficiency ....... this can cause problems during power changes ie. popping. With 3000 hrs on the B's and 8 other endorsements she is still my favorite and probably will be till the day I TX. Your aircrew is what makes or BREAKS this aircraft, cowboys can hurt her fast!!
Bell 214 (Archive)
I am interested in the B214 ST, and would love to hear some stories. Why are there so few of them now? Why are they disappearing from offshore contracts? Were they any good? How about power, maintainability, reliability, supportability, etc?
Were they all SPIFR? I did see a pic on the rotorheads at work thread with one sitting next to a bucket on the fires....are they good platforms for this work? How do they compare to the 214B/...and lots more questions: I am interested in all aspects of the aircraft,
thanks, hf.
Were they all SPIFR? I did see a pic on the rotorheads at work thread with one sitting next to a bucket on the fires....are they good platforms for this work? How do they compare to the 214B/...and lots more questions: I am interested in all aspects of the aircraft,
thanks, hf.
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Bell reportedly destroyed the jigs, so they can't build any more. None were ever SPIFR, AFAIK. The FARs don't allow flying something that size single pilot, even VFR, in commercial ops. Maybe someone has overseas. They're a maintenance nightmare, and it takes at least one spare to keep one working full time. They're all getting old, and parts are hard to come by. Newer aircraft are faster and more reliable. Both Air Log and PHI still have a few flying offshore, but I don't know how long that will last. PHI now has the S92, and reportedly orders for more, and this will likely replace the few 214s left in service there.
The 214ST is the ultimate UH1 stretch. From what I hear, it was never meant to be a commercial model, just a one-off in a few numbers for Iran, but more were built and sold before Bell discovered the error of its ways. I doubt they ever made any money from them in the long run, because of support costs.
The 214ST is the ultimate UH1 stretch. From what I hear, it was never meant to be a commercial model, just a one-off in a few numbers for Iran, but more were built and sold before Bell discovered the error of its ways. I doubt they ever made any money from them in the long run, because of support costs.
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The Old Days
I love them too........Beasty Machinery.
I remeber a pilot I friend when I was a child use to fly them for Lloyd Helicopters (CHC). And use to enjoy Rotor flapping them over his mates houses.
I remeber a pilot I friend when I was a child use to fly them for Lloyd Helicopters (CHC). And use to enjoy Rotor flapping them over his mates houses.
Iconoclast
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Bell 214 (Archive)
To: Gomer Pylot
I monitored the introduction of the 214 into service. They were designed and produced for the Imperial Iranian Army Aviation. They were rushed into production and were inadequately tested by both Bell and the US Army. As indicated in one of the previous posts they were a maintenance nightmare. In the month that I was involved in their introduction I calculated that there were over 70 Maintenance Man-Hours per flight hour. On one helicopter it took over four days to static balance a rotor system. We ended up swapping both blades and a rotorhead to get the rotor system in balance and even then we used more balances washers than allowed by the Maintenance manual to achieve balance.
The fuselages were poorly assembled and most of the blind cherry rivets lost the center pin resulting in opening the skins to get the pins and then we had to reinstall new rivets.
The rotorhead had no means of bleeding the static charge from the blades and as a result the magnetic field around the rotor system resulted in magnetizing the main mast which caused spark erosion on the internal gears and bearings. It also effected the standby compasses and the VOR system.
I issued my report outlining the problems including the 70+ MMH/FH and the director of product support changed the figure to 13-MMH/FH and Bell used this figure in their sales brochures resulting in several 214s being sold to oil companies. These 214s were pressed into service in Central and South America.
In service in Iran the 214s were mainly used to train Iranian pilots and as such only carried two or three students and a pilot. They were never operated at max gross weight nor did Bell test them at max gross weight. The oil companies did operate them at max gross weight and they had to replace the rotorheads at several hundred hours and the transmissions didn’t fair much better. They also had a lot of structural problems including loss of rivets.
The transmission was supported on a Noda Matic ™ suspension system, which permitted the transmission to move up and down in relation to the fixed engine. The short shaft moved in and out with the movement of the transmission and it turned into a grease pump. The grease that was extruded from the couplings plated out on the engine inlet bell. The grease attracted dirt and small debris and caused a disruption in the airflow into the engine resulting in compressor stalls. Each time a compressor stall was reported a full structural inspection was performed and in many instances major dynamic components were changed.
The overall build quality sucked.
The term DOG comes to mind.
The 214ST is the ultimate UH1 stretch. From what I hear, it was never meant to be a commercial model, just a one-off in a few numbers for Iran, but more were built and sold before Bell discovered the error of its ways. I doubt they ever made any money from them in the long run, because of support costs.
The fuselages were poorly assembled and most of the blind cherry rivets lost the center pin resulting in opening the skins to get the pins and then we had to reinstall new rivets.
The rotorhead had no means of bleeding the static charge from the blades and as a result the magnetic field around the rotor system resulted in magnetizing the main mast which caused spark erosion on the internal gears and bearings. It also effected the standby compasses and the VOR system.
I issued my report outlining the problems including the 70+ MMH/FH and the director of product support changed the figure to 13-MMH/FH and Bell used this figure in their sales brochures resulting in several 214s being sold to oil companies. These 214s were pressed into service in Central and South America.
In service in Iran the 214s were mainly used to train Iranian pilots and as such only carried two or three students and a pilot. They were never operated at max gross weight nor did Bell test them at max gross weight. The oil companies did operate them at max gross weight and they had to replace the rotorheads at several hundred hours and the transmissions didn’t fair much better. They also had a lot of structural problems including loss of rivets.
The transmission was supported on a Noda Matic ™ suspension system, which permitted the transmission to move up and down in relation to the fixed engine. The short shaft moved in and out with the movement of the transmission and it turned into a grease pump. The grease that was extruded from the couplings plated out on the engine inlet bell. The grease attracted dirt and small debris and caused a disruption in the airflow into the engine resulting in compressor stalls. Each time a compressor stall was reported a full structural inspection was performed and in many instances major dynamic components were changed.
The overall build quality sucked.
The term DOG comes to mind.
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HF - Just looked up on Helicas and here is what it says as to who has what.
Air Logistics - 4
Bell Helicopter - 1
Bristow UK - 1
CHC Heli Service Norway - 1
Global Rotors Inc - 1
Iraqi Air Force - 43
Ken Guthrie - 1
Kensetsu Sho (Japan) - 1
North Slope Borough SAR - 2
Oman Police Air Wing - 4
Peruvian Air Force - 1
PHI - 4
Privatair (Saudi Arabia) - 2
Royal Brunei Air Force - 1
Royal Thai Navy - 6
Saudi Aramco - 4
US Leaseco - 2
Unknown (Peru) - 1
Unknown (Korea) - 1
Venezulean Air Force - 1
Hope that helps. Have heaps of photos of the Oman Police 214STs if you want them. Unfortunately I dont have any photos of crewies holding up "Show Us Your Tits" in the doorway.
Air Logistics - 4
Bell Helicopter - 1
Bristow UK - 1
CHC Heli Service Norway - 1
Global Rotors Inc - 1
Iraqi Air Force - 43
Ken Guthrie - 1
Kensetsu Sho (Japan) - 1
North Slope Borough SAR - 2
Oman Police Air Wing - 4
Peruvian Air Force - 1
PHI - 4
Privatair (Saudi Arabia) - 2
Royal Brunei Air Force - 1
Royal Thai Navy - 6
Saudi Aramco - 4
US Leaseco - 2
Unknown (Peru) - 1
Unknown (Korea) - 1
Venezulean Air Force - 1
Hope that helps. Have heaps of photos of the Oman Police 214STs if you want them. Unfortunately I dont have any photos of crewies holding up "Show Us Your Tits" in the doorway.
The Royal Brunei Air Force lone example was bought by the Sultan for his father, who'd abdicated to let the 29th member of the dynasty accede. I believe the old boy popped his clogs before the aircraft was actually delivered, though...
It was a total hangar queen for most of my 3 years there, so much so that the RBAirF had to bring Bell over to re-train the pilots as they'd become completely uncurrent. The Bell/ Flight Safety (I forget which...) engineer had plenty of interesting pre-1991 Iraq stories to tell.
It was a total hangar queen for most of my 3 years there, so much so that the RBAirF had to bring Bell over to re-train the pilots as they'd become completely uncurrent. The Bell/ Flight Safety (I forget which...) engineer had plenty of interesting pre-1991 Iraq stories to tell.
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Memories? Yeah about nearly twenty years ago - Bell 214 ST Problems
None of it was ever conclusive yet you may find it interesting.
None of it was ever conclusive yet you may find it interesting.
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214 ST
The Norwegian one is the a Bell 214ST and works SAR off of Statfjord B in the North Sea.
These photo's were taking last summer when it dropped a patient in from Heidrun, who had fallen down a shaft and was on its way back to the Northsea. I knew the pilots and was at the Air Ambulance base in Bergen, when it was going back and i got a ride and hence the phots. It was being sponsored by Statoil and being operated by CHC Helikopter Service A/S.
MD
Thanks guys. Very Interesting. I guess they will be cheap comming from Oman like that Pheonix - and thanks for the helicas info: didnt know that sort of info was available.Cheers.
Anyone know how do they compare to the 214B for lifting/speed/range?
Giovanni, I cannot get your link to work.
Anyone know how do they compare to the 214B for lifting/speed/range?
Giovanni, I cannot get your link to work.
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HF
Link should work now. For info it is a link to avsaf.org and is a report on 2 ST's which were lost while being operated by Okanagan back in '85. The second one was lost while testing to figure out what happened to the first one. Pretty tragic circumstances and as I said previously, not entirely conclusive.
A Kiwi outfit operated one on logging for a while but possibly not that successful and they did have a B prior so there are possibly guys around who could tell you the difference. PR aka Ned should have some contacts - I left there about 20 years ago.
Link should work now. For info it is a link to avsaf.org and is a report on 2 ST's which were lost while being operated by Okanagan back in '85. The second one was lost while testing to figure out what happened to the first one. Pretty tragic circumstances and as I said previously, not entirely conclusive.
A Kiwi outfit operated one on logging for a while but possibly not that successful and they did have a B prior so there are possibly guys around who could tell you the difference. PR aka Ned should have some contacts - I left there about 20 years ago.
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HF - The one that was in NZ was based out of Taihape and operated by Alan Shannon, Rego was ZK-HKW. Wasnt around for that long and not sure where it went, probably stateside again. From what I remember Simon Green, who was killed in the crash of Wanganui Aero Works Bell 205 was the pilot back then.
Will see if I can dig up any photos of them.
Will see if I can dig up any photos of them.
Lu, or anyone else for that matter, Do the 214B's suffer any of the problems that you say the ST did? There seems to be a few operating around the world. Please excuse me if this has been covered before.