Agusta AW139

[maeroda]

The picture shows snow skids.
Considering two technicians working on the early type of skids for fitting it takes about 2 hours as helicopter has to be lifted up with 4 hydraulics yokes; 2,5 hours if also they have to perform fine adjustments.
Removal takes 1,5 hours.
There are some new skids allowing the helicopter to be rolled on them by pulling it with tractor without using lifting yokes and saving time, say taking 1 our manwork.

Maeroda

[bandit19]

snow skids

I'ld like to try them in the sand. Probably help from burying the FLIR

[S.M.S]

I'ld like to try them in the sand

[noooby]

There are Slump Pads available for use on soft ground. Basically smaller Snow Skis. Check your IPC, they are in there

[mario139]

AW139 Vibration

Hey funderrc,
Just thought I'd let you know about a "roaring vibration" in our AW139. Starts all of a sudden in cruise flight (sometimes!), and carries on until slow down below 100 KIAS. Very noticeably by all on board including the wide-eyed pax. (Offshore config). Thought about nose gear door, but cycling gear had no effect. Start getting worried about roof cowl etc etc. However, finally tracked it down to port side liferaft manual handle canvas flap. Velcro which holds it closed gets worn out (remember AW told us not to open it on pre-flight because it only wears it out!). Anyway the flap starts to resonate like a drum and really gets a good tune going. Repaired it with some duct tape (lasted about 10 minutes) then re-velcroed plus added domes, and sweet as. The only hard bit is taking the whole front liferaft fairing down to the canvas shop to get it sewn up.
So if you are tracking on odd, intermittent loud vibe, check out the liferaft flap.

[bandit19]

Life raft flap

Sometimes the velcro stays in place and the flap itself blows out at once. It will definitely get your attention if it happens in cruise. So take a look, if they are showing wear you might avoid that uncomfortable "WTF was that" moment in the cockpit.

[A_gusta_Wind]

Wake Vortex Category

Anyone out there know the WTC for the AW139. "Light" is 7000Kg or less, but does the fact that its a helicopter shift it up a category? And where might I find the official reference to it? Haven't found it in the RFM so far.

AGW

[JackAirman]

interesting attachments on the Irish 139's

[Captain Gartmort]

From the RFM

BASIS OF CERTIFICATION

This helicopter is certified by European Aviation Safety Agency
(EASA) in accordance with JAR 29 for Large Rotorcraft Category A

and B.

[maeroda]

139 roars

Mario139,

Our 139 roars as yours but without life rafts!
And rear bulkhead do vibrate as an old 1954 "Falcone" Moto Guzzi over 135 IAS.

Any idea?

maeroda

[spinwing]

G'day Gents.....

An interesting problem .... the FMS seems to be easy enough to load BUT .....

... how about the "custom" database ... has anybody been able to come up with the easy way to re-load and maintain the custom database on the Honeywell FMS without haveing to manually reload each waypoint individually.

The prospect of having to reload 400 odd waypoints after a "box" changeover or a corruption of the database is more than daunting ... in fact could drive me back to my old mate "Capt Morgan" (and his "Spicey Rum") made even more terrifying if one has to care for 10 or so 139s!


The books do not seem to tell of the easy way and the "Greenies" don't seem to be interested enough to find out???

[Shawn Coyle]

Spinwing:
Did you ask Honeywell - this sort of thing should be pretty easy. I know that Universal had something like a custom database for their UNS-1 system, and I would have thought Honeywell would too.
Have you checked with any folks at Bluecoat Digest? - it's a forum for FMS related stuff - mostly big FW stuff, but the Honeywell is a big FW FMS...

[spinwing]

Thanks Shawn,

I'll try checking that "Bluecoat Digest" .... thus far nobody seems to be able to help .... at least with the old "steamdriven" Freeflight 2101 we could maintain a "Custom Data Card" which would fix any corruptions literally in a "flash" ... so far our new "high tech wetdreams" have been a bit frustrating!

Cheers

[funderrc]

In flight vibration

It appears that our aircraft is a one of a kind. We have the long nose version with additional support to house a FLIR. When it is installed, it acts as a very nice air dam and the vibration is not that bad.

Once it is removed, we do notice it above 130 KIAS, but by adjusting the mass dampers, Agusta was able to reduce the vibration. We still get an increase noise due to the gear door being removed, but with our FLIR rail, we can not have the doors installed.

Thanks for the imput and we will keep the Raft cover in mind. We have noticed with our 109's that the Italians can not make a decent glue. I guess that ate all of the horses

[RVDT]

Tell the lads at Vergiate to wander up the road to CH and see how they modify the doors to close them after fitting Ski's / Settling pads as on the 109.

Look here - A109E

[BellBoy796]

FMS Custom Waypoints

I've been told by my Avionics department a data card reader/writer is available for the B777 the Primus Epic was designed for but there's nothing like it for the FMS installed in the 139. There is a way to clone from one MAU box to another, so if you have a spare MAU you could use it as a very expensive datacard to load and back up your Custom Database. Otherwise it's a manual process one entry at at time. Agusta - you listening?

[bombiter]

BellBoy796 & Spinwing:

Our latest 139 is delivered with a Data Transfer Unit, which has an optical drive and Smartcard slots. Until now I was not able to play with it, but I suppose it can be used to load all the software and data which would be installed with a laptop via the LAN bus in the older 139’s.

[spinwing]

Mmmmmm ....

Yup that'd probably do it! Thanks ....

[BellBoy796]

Thanks for that, Bombiter. I'll check again with Avionics. We have a new aircraft waiting for assembly behind the hangar and perhaps it has the Data Transfer Unit you mentioned. I sure hope so. ANY corruption in the MAU or somebody hitting the wrong button on the MCDU and that manually entered database evaporates.

[FlybeJoe]

Data Loader Unit

Sorry,

I believe that the Data Loaderr Unit delivered is for the HUMS not for the FMS - I believe there's a way using the CMS system to download (to PC) user waypoints try getting the greenies to investigate "File Transfer" of Database module)