G-JANI
 

Heads up to pilot of G-JANI that overflew Chatteris today approx 1525hrs. Main rotor noise sounded a little odd so maybe worth a look.

Not sure if its the same R44 that flies around here in Gloucester, one main rotor blade "WHISTLES" badly when approaching.

I do know my Robinsons and flown them many hours, and it is not normal, heck even my wife asks why it makes such a strange noise..

Loose blade erosion protection strip maybe? Don’t know if a Robinson has these strips…

Robinsons do not have separate blade erosion strips.

If there is an errant piece of reflective tape on the main rotor blade from the last track and balance then sometimes it can make a whistling sound, but I've always thought it was quite subtle, not something that sounds significant.

That’s it precisely. A one per rev whistle very obvious at the 80 ish kts and 500ft ish that it overflew us at. It’s certainly not quite right. Just thought it should be communicated to the owner / pilot.

Rather than a "whistling" noise I've heard quite a few R44s exhibiting a "squeaky wheel" noise. The only other helicopter I've heard do that was a particular Mil-8 towing a full bucket of water which was very disconcerting, thankfully it went U/S and the swash plate problem was attended to. I'd like to think this isn't the same kind of problem in the R44, which it is considerably lighter and maybe just a design feature.

Golly, that’s an old machine. I did the R44 type rating test in it in the 1990s.