World Wide 119 Grounding?
 

Hi Guys

Anyone aware of the world wide grounding of the 119 fleet?

Why would the worldwide 119 fleet be grounded?

There is no current EAD in the UK listed for the 119

Heard there was a bulletin today after a cracked bolt somewhere in Africa hence the grounding subject to inspection. May be wrong though!

Nothing from the FAA or our maintenance outfit !

Mandatory inspection on all 109s to check for cracked nuts on the gearbox support bracket, 1 hour inspection (1 time) TBCO within 5 hours flight time.

Interesting, wonder if the 109 inspection is affecting the 119's?

Thank you

An Alert Bulletin asking for an inspection is very very different to a grounding!

Same Bulletin is out for all variants of the 109/119 family seeing as they all have the same Main Gearbox.

Is the aircraft not grounded until it's inspected?
I will get the bulletin tomorrow and see what it actually says. It came from the factory today.

Four attachment nuts need changing; that's really all there is to it. The nuts are used elsewhere on the aircraft and there have already been a number of previous "BTs" requiring them to be changed in other locations.

I understand only certain batch numbers of nuts are involved; it's a problem with hydrogen embrittlement.

Thanks Shy, the machine I was using is grounded, waiting the inspection....

EASA AD out: http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/2014103...D20140238E.pdf

This is different to yesterdays one that was immediate I believe - I guess the operators were not happy with that!

These are a commonly used series of nuts, yet this seems to be recurring problem (on other types) that crops up every five or six years or so. Maybe it's about time to dump them. Anyone else remember other occurrences?

EASA Reports EASA_EAD 9/20/2013


EASA stated that a technical investigation reported that cracks in a MS21042L4 nut connecting a Thomas coupling with the splined adapter on AW100SP helicopters were believed to have been caused by hydrogen embrittlement.

EASA_EAD 10/30/2013


EASA stated that two MS21042-4 nuts connected to the swashplate support to the upper case of the main transmission of a A190S helicopter were found cracked. They stated the nuts in use were deficient with evidence of hydrogen embrittlement.

EASA_EAD 5/02/2014


Observed a cracked MS21042L4 which connected a flexible coupling with the coupling adapter on a AB 206 helicopter. EASA stated the deficiency was due to hydrogen embrittlement.

EASA_EAD 5/07/2014


EASA expanded the EAD above to include AB 212, AB 412, and AB 412EP helicopters.

EASA_EAD 5/13/2014


EASA expanded the EAD to include MS21042-5 nuts found on the flexible coupling. Pictures are included showing the location of the cracked nuts.

Plus NZ CAA June 2010.
Robinson R22 Jan 2014.
CASA Australia Sep 2014.


..and on and on.

Mmmm ...

For those interested ... go here for pic of the real items ... heat resistant self locking nuts ...

MS21042 ALL-METAL STOP NUTS from Aircraft Spruce

http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalo.../m/ms21042.jpg

:}

Robinson. Them of Flimsycopter designs'r'us are getting rid of these nuts entirely.

http://www.robinsonheli.com/service_...s/r22_sl64.pdf

Well done Robinson, let's hope other follow suit.

Lucky the Robbo letter didn't call for replacement of all the PAL nuts with anything heftier, it would've doubled the weight of each machine!

The issue with MS21042 nuts (and some other hardware) is dragging on for some time. Several AD`s issued against different installations on same and/or different heli types but almost allways same PN - and it seems all coming from single manufacturer, based in Ohio, USA. (correct me if I am wrong)
I am watching in disbelief, how this issue is handled so far by EASA, FAA.....
EASA issued an SIB 2012-06 Rev. 2 EASA Airworthiness Directives Publishing Tool
that was mentioning the issue sometime ago - and yet problems keeps on coming. I am afraid this will continue so until more serious consequences result from cracked hardware, that is installed in many many places, some critical.
Robinson seems to be the only one, that took the only reasonable measure.
If you can`t trust the basic nut and bolt, then there is a real problem.


regards,


hoistop