Gents

Are there any AS355 operators still having problems with this inspection?

Anyone know of the pilot being authorised to conduct said inspection or does it still require an engineer?

Thanks

Right pain in the preverb.
We're lucky that aircraft is based where gingerbeers work but the flexibility of the beast is hampered for 'overnights'

Pilots are not auth'd to carry out the additional check - unless they're also a certified engineer

I was told this morning by a CAA maintenance surveyor that the decision of whom to authorise [pilot or engineer] was being delegated to the maintenance organisations...

Cheers guys.

I will chase it up.

Now....... where did I put that number.....

:O

I got told by a little dickie bird that the whole reason why this check can not be carried out by a pilot is because the A.D that was sent out did not say to be carried out by engineer's & crew on it like all the rest and it was supposed to be on there.

which mean's this whole knightmare is all down to a typing error.

Change
 

They are now letting pilot's carry out the A.D check if you get certified from a maintenence organisation.

I know McAlpine's are certifieing people to carry out this check

Hopefully no more messing around and that we can all get back to haveing a social life again .

Yep, likewise, back to auth'd pilots carrying out the check!
Not a good advert for EASA, CAA, Blah

EESDL

So True

As far as I understand Eurocopter have Given all operatores a choice.

You can either check the damper daily before first flight or you can have the damper removed all together.

It's only taken them over a month to come up with this solution.

They must of had half a dozen monkeys working around the clock on this one

Any opinions on this

AS350B3 floats
 

I am looking to buy a set of floats for the 350 B3 model. If you have any ideia of who may have one available for sale, please let me know. this is hard to find and to expensive if you buy new at Eurocopter. Any ideia!!!!!:(

Air Curiser and Apical. The advandage with the aircuriser is they pop on and off and the gas is in the float itself vs the aricraft. The Apical's are retty much permantly mounted on the skids, configured with several differnt bags.

good luck,

just remember never trust the floats, the electrial firing and alwys double check the rigging on the MANUAL release. Nothing more nerve racking than pulling the T handle and not hearing the floats go when your falling from the sky

rotorboy

Anyway these could be automated, in a similar manner to airbags, to save pilot workload?

The simplest system would be a float in a small chamber, that triggered a fast inflation. OK it wouldn't stop partial submerge, but it would stop it becoming a more serious situation like inversion. Once the pax and pilot had walked away, the heli would also be recoverable.

Maybe even link it into the hard landing airbag system suggested in an earlier thread, although airbag/float shape might not be compatible.

Mart

That really isnt practical. Most floats I have flown on an astar are fired by a trigger on the cyclic, that shoots a charge into the mechansim that inflats the floast (rather rapidly). There is usualy and secondary failsafe system ( I have seen fail) which is a mechanical linkage to the float firing device.

I as a pilot would rather have control of when the floats fire. Condiser the Autorotational charectaristics change dramatically with two huge airbags on the side. mo drag!

Floats may get you on the water but most of the time the a/c is lost due to capsizing.

rb

There have been a number of accidents where aircraft have impacted the water in an uncontrolled manner, the flotation equipment has survived the impact but has not been manually activated by the crew. Research carried out by Westland Helicopters in the UK and independently in the USA on behalf of the FAA has identified drowning to be the major cause of loss of life. Aircraft occupants having survived the initial impact then failed to safely escape from the hull.

In March 1992, an AS332L crashed into Sea State 7 conditions during an offshore night flight. Only 6 of the 17 occupants survived. Although the impact was severe, post crash investigation indicated that the flotation system may have survived and been at least partially available, had it been activated. The crew did not have time to manually activate it and there was no automatic means. The accident investigators considered that inflated flotation bags would have prevented the hull from rapidly sinking and assisted passenger evacuation from the inverted cabin by allowing it to float higher in the water.

In September 1996, an AS350B1 was carrying out low level overwater filming with 2 persons on board. For reasons unknown, but suspected to be inadvertent closure of the fuel control lever, rotor rpm dropped and the aircraft descended into the sea. Although the pilot attempted to, he did not have enough time to manually activate the emergency flotation equipment. The helicopter impacted the sea, inverted with the subsequent loss of the passenger.

Provision of a means to automatically inflate both ditching and emergency floatation equipment could have prevented loss of life in the above accidents.

Most helicopters working offshore in the North Sea now have automatic inflation of floats.

ADvantage of apical floats is you can take off again ( get a bit of spinning happening until the TR gets thrust ). The floats are fairly easily removeable it is just those pesky skid extensions that take some time. Phoenix in NWT are using them on their EC120 to land on lakes to collect water samples. I am not sure if any flotation system can recover a helicopter once it has ditched. ASide from the Sea king there are not many that will float for any appreciable time after impacting the water. Flying at high speed close to the water I do not think even automatically activated floats would be of any use

widgeon: your correct, with the apical emergency floats you can land and take off as they have enough bouyancy to keep the tailrotor out of the water. ditching floats are approved for water landing only. operators must be careful to make sure they have emergency floats vs ditching floats, if they decide to alight from the water.
with regards to the extensions, have seen a number of operators keep the extension installed and just remove the bags when not flying over water.
one more advantage to apical floats on the astar is the mechanical pull system, no electrical system. apical also has the astar floats available with the liferaft built into the float bag, thereby freeing up cabin space.
dr

How much is this going to cost me..
 

Who or what is the best thing to use to get accurate operating costings for UK aircraft? Is there anything like C&D or who are the best to speak to? The a/c concerned is an AS350B2.
Any advice from them older and wiser greatly appreciated.

I operate a BA and all i can tell you is...............A LOT !!! About double that at least of a 206 , and when it comes to the engine side.....well you are bent over and R****ed by Turbomeca....circa £200,000 if you are unfortunate enough to have FOD damage and have to have an exchange !! I can buy around 7or8 allison C20 engines for that. I cannot imagine a B2 will be much different.........great machine though!

LTE with AS 350?
 

Just confrontated with an AS 350 BA accident i'm interested if anybody of you guys have experienced a LTE on a AS 350. I have a few hundred hours on this type of helicopter but never encountered such a problem.

The ship was taking off with an external load on a 50ft rope when suddenly in 100ft it began to spin to the left. At this moment the IAS should be round about 10-20kt. There is no indication of any technical malfunction. The helicopter was short before the MTOW but not overloaded.
LTE would declare the reactions of the ship seen by the witnesses.

the As350 has tremendus t/r authority but altitude and high Gross Weights you can get your self in real trouble.

I had a 350B2 swap ends on me picking a sling load at nearly 10K. The load wasnt that heavy. light and varible winds 0-5 from every where. I went to pick the load up vertically at 75-100 feet the thing just swapped ends , weather vained into the wind and stopped. My heart went in to my mounth and I was nano seconds from punching the load off.

A good friend an someting similar happen on approach to land , near MGW at altitude, real light squirrely winds, shallow approach 10-15 off the ground swapped ends and stopped.

I have a heard a few other storys , all at alt near mgw.

hope this helps

RB