if you are interested in doing an endorsement then i would consider contacting Fox-Air http://www.foxair.com.au/ near Geelong. They are the Australian distributor for Enstrom. He is a qualified instructor who maybe able to help you or put in touch with someone who can. The Enstrom looks like a strong alternative to the Schweizer 300 and i am interested in finding out more about them. The trouble is there is only a small number in this country compared to other types.
Born2fly

Thanks. I think they do training up at Kootamundra, I know they have a 280 f model there. It was in the film "Three Dollar".

Question about C&G, has anyone problems with it on Enstrom 480B? (Pilot 200lbs, 2 passengers about 200 lbs and more) and as much fuel as we can take within limits.

Empty weight is 1925 lbs, i have problem with zero fuel weight, C&G is going little bit forward - outside the limits.

I can't imagine you flying with zero fuel!

Enstrom LTE question
 

Perhaps a dumb question, but while having decades of plank experience, I have only recently completed a PPL rating in an Enstrom 480B. I have a new 480B on order, and, in part, my purchase decison was influenced by the excellent safety record of the 480 in particular and Enstroms in general. The POH for the 480B states that the helicopter has been demonstrated to be easily controllable in winds to 40 kts. My research could find no accident reports for Enstroms for which LTE was a stated factor. A very high time commercial Enstrom pilot (and insurance accident investigator) friend states that he is unaware of any Enstrom LTE events, ever, due to the high tail rotor authority of the Enstrom design. He recently demonstrated to me running Nr down to 80% in wind conditions of 12G23 and maintained control easily while hovering/turning downwind. While I know better than to assume that it could never happen, is the Enstrom design as immune to LTE as my current information would indicate?

Thanks for any informed opinions.

RB

Rick, Your aircraft and those with the wide chord blades are as immune from LTE as any. I wouldnt assume it absolutely impossible.

It is certainly possible to get in a mess with the narrow chord tail rotor of the 28A and 280 if the RPM is low. If anyone is interested I can bore you with the details.

At Normal RPM the narrow chord blades are more than adequate.
Aircraft built 1975 on, have the wider chord blades which solved the problem at low RPM. Enstrom must have realised there was a problem and solved it. :ok:

LTE question
 

Gaseous,

Thanks - the more I learn about the 480, the more impressed I am!

RB

Rick,

You might consider being careful where you land. A few months ago I was discussing the 480 with the DPE that was conducting my Instrument checkride. He is a high time Enstrom pilot and dealer. His concern was with the placement of the exhaust ports. Instead of going out near the top, they were placed at the bottom of the helicopter. So there was a chance of starting fires when on the ground.

gas for enstrom 280 fx 1985
 

Is it normal tu burn 20 Gal an hour for this type of helicopter

Thank you

Pierre

rick1128,

Thanks for the tip. I learned this the hard way a few months ago. I have been trying to keep my helicopter activities concealed from my spouse. (No point in causing a domestic disturbance before its necessary.) I landed in our yard while she was out of town and the next day, the grass in this spot was brown! No fire, as it is short, green grass, but my cover was almost blown! (In case you are wondering, I will eventually let her in on my secret. I figure that if this is the only thing I hide from her, how big a deal can it be?)

RB

Hycop,
20 Gallons per hour is not normal. Get it checked over and learn how to lean it. You should easily get it down to 16 - less if you try hard.

rick1128,
It is not just the turbines that can start grass fires. The warning equally applies to the piston models that exhaust from the bottom. (280, F28A and Robinsons)

Long dry grass has destroyed quite a few aircraft over the years.

Component times list for enstrom 280
 

would any body have a Component times remaining list for enstrom 280c 1977 please. If so is it possible to email-it to me please
[email protected]


many thanks

Enstrom 280c blade tracking
 

Would any body be able to give us some advice on tracking and balancing a 280c MR. We seem to have a horzizontal vibration almost like a wobble that gives alot of feed back through the cyclic making hovering very uncomfortable. We have recently put the blades back on after transporting it, they were all numbered and went back to there original grips. Does any body have any useful tips on balancing or tracking? Thanks.

There is a possiblity that the outboard trim tabs have been moved during transportation. contact the enstrom factory and ask them for details of the original tab sttings.

Also there could be something wrong with the swashplate.

What equipment are you using to carry out the track and balance?

that sounds like damper trouble to me

Balancing is done with a Chadwick or similar machine. If you have simply had the blades off and it was flying OK before its not likely to be balance - plus it has to be quite a bit out to make that much difference.
Most likely, as CD says is an outboard tab bent. The factory may well not have the right settings. I dont think the numerous times mine have been tweaked and blades have been swapped have been reported back to the factory.

If its been knocked out of trim, in my experience it is quicker to start from scratch by zeroing and resetting all the outboard tabs. The procedure for setting the tabs is in the book. Section 12 if I recall right. Dont touch the inboard ones unless you are prepared to get out the chadwick.

Could be a lamiflex gone bad but not that likely.

Unlikely to be air in damper as that usually manifests as big vibrations on cyclic changes. Siezed damper makes it rough all the time. The dampers are easy to check and I'm sure you do it as part of your pre-flight anyway.
I wouldnt bother with the chadwick unless checking flat pitch with reflectors and eliminating cyclic stir with outboard tabs doesnt put things right.

Best of luck.

Thank you all for your input and helpful suggestions. I will work through them. We have not started with the balancing yet as I thought the problem may be Lameflex related, they have one year left to run. The engineer said he did not get much spring back from two of them on his inspection. I will also check the trim tabs. Thank you all once again.
Best regards.

If there is any doubt about the lamiflex bearings and they are the source of the problem you will not be able to track the blades successfully. This has caused untold amounts of grief in the past. You might also want the engineer to remove the lamiflex bearings and see if there is any surface corrosion between the nut and the bearing. This has been know to happen in the past and cause the bearing to stick. Just remove the corrosion and refit and retest. Only do this if the corrosion is minor and has been assessed by a qualified engineer.

Good luck!

If it does turn out to be a lamiflex gone bad, please let us know. Mine just had its annual and I noticed that my four year old lamiflexes have started to bleed a lot of rubber. Bad batch maybe. Mines flying OK at present though.

I'd still be putting money on a tab bent though as it was flying OK before the blades came off..

My engineer seems to think it is the lamiflex. They are bleeding alot of ruber. As you mentioned maybe a bad batch. Damper's seem ok. We are going to try some other Lamiflex's to see if this helps. If it is a bad batch, do you think the factory would come to the party, and do a pro-rata as the machine has not flowen for close to one year, and the lamiflex have still one year to run? So they have been in this condition for two years out of there five year life.

Finally ... new Enstrom 480B delivered!
 

After an 18 month wait, my new 480B was delivered on Wed. (The delay was due to issues with the Chelton software certification.) We immediately set out from the Enstrom factory in MI to our home base in NH. This 1000 nm flight was completed in 9.0 hours on the meter (11 hours on the clock including fuel stops in Chicago, Cleveland, and Elmira). The flight was as flawless as one could want – no acft squawks, and 30+ miles vis over the entire route.

The acft exceeds all expectations. Fit and finish are magnificent! Everything works. Enstrom went far beyond the call of duty to assure that I was pleased with the acft . Very easy to deal with, and even the CEO was personally involved.

IMHO, the 480B is the best kept secret in the light turbine category. The key numbers are very close to the Bell 206, for about 60% of the price – not inexpensive but quite a good value. The 480 is possibly the most pilot friendly of all the light turbines, and the safety record is superb, with only four accidents in the NTSB database since certification in 1994, with none of these involving fatalities.

Update 27.7.08: a few very minor squawks in the first 90 days, all quickly remedied. Support by my Enstrom dealer, Sharkey's Helicopters, Lebanon, NH, has been superb in evey respect. I am now completing the requirements for an add-on instrument-helicopter rating. The 480 is a delight to fly under the hood due largely to its relative stability and the effectiveness of the electric trim system. The biggest challenge in the IR training is learning the Chelton EFIS/FMS; this is an amazingly capable system which makes flying instrument approaches easier than most other systems I have used, as it provides both lateral and vertical guidance throughout the approach. However, it does take awhile to learn to put the capabilities of the Chelton to work. I have been unable to find a CFII-Helicopter who knows the Chelton system, so we (I and my instructor) are learning the Chelton together via the time honored methods of reading the manual and doing lots of experimenting.


EN48


http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...03650edit3.jpg

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/k...G0116edit3.jpg

Congrats, nice choice of paint too.

Congratulations EN48. Looks nice. Just signed the papers for an older 28C. reasonable times on most everything. With a couple of high time items, but enough time to get out a year or so, before I have to do anything major. Recent paint but needs interior work. Should be interesting. Might be up your way to do my AirSure checkout with Sharky.

It's presently going through an annual/prebuy. When I flew the 28A I was negatively impressed. But again I was in Houston, TX in July with a 260 pound CFI and in an instrument ship. Of course it make power management easy. Only had one power setting "Balls to the Wall". I did my research as well. I saw only two fatals in the 28C since 1975. a few serious injury accidents. Most of them accident reports read 'occupants walked away from the helicopter'.

As for the transmission overhaul. The folks doing my prebuy told me that field overhaul used to be authorized for the Main and tail rotor transmissions, but they had several of these make metal after the overhaul. So the factory stopped allowing that.

The 480B would be my choice as a light turbine.

Very nice.

rick1128,

Roger Sharkey is one of the most knowledgeable Enstrom experts around. He has north of 20,000 hours in helicopters, a lot of which is in Enstroms. I did my helicopter add on training with him in a 480 and also a B407 transition. A real resource for Enstrom owners in the U.S. He runs the Enstrom factory insurance progam and works closely with AirSure.

EN48

EN48,

The impression I got from AirSure, is that Roger is their prime choice. However, I DPE I used for my Instrument and CFII, Tim Salikia, is also well regarded by AirSure. Since I did my checkride with him within the last year, I am hoping they will allow me a couple of months grace to get this requirement done. There are one or two in NJ/ East PA area. If I can get together with them.

EN48, What sort of Fuel consuption did you get on the flight home from the factory? Nice machine with the EFIS Panel.
Born2fly

B2F,

About 180 lbs/hr at 60 PSI torque, 110KIAS.

EN48

t/r Enstrom 480b
 

Hello everyone!

Soon I'm hoping to start with the t/r for the Enstrom 480b. This is a new helicopter to me and I've never worked with it before. Only seen it stationary but looks promising so far!!

Ofcourse during the TR course I will get a lot of information about the machine but I just want to be a step forward ;). Are there any colleagues here who would like to share some tips/tricks, maintenance issues, flying issues etc (either by post or PM)? I have experience with turbine helicopters (AW139 and Jet/Longranger).

I used the search function on the forum and found quite some information but there quite a lot of old posts in there so this is more a fresh start ;).

Much appreciated!!
:ok:

Can't add to your post, but I do like the 480B:)

Ive been having a read of this thread looking for some answers but I may as well as the question. If one was looking for a cheap and cheerful enstrom, would the F-28c be the one to go for?

Myself and 2 other fellas are about to get out PPLs on the R44. The plan after that would be to hour build for a while and see if going for the CPL is a reality.

Is an enstrom a good buy? I hear lots of tales of mecanical problems? Basically we dont want to have to shell out upwards of £100k for a machine that has a limited life like the R44.

It is worth taking the Enstrom maintenance course before buying, in my opinion. I took the course, then decided not to buy a helicopter (cost too much for me). If I had partner, that might have helped.
Send your mechanic or find one with Enstrom experience.

F-28C nice but a bit slow.
You might like to consider a 280C, just like the one I have for sale.:)

Ensyrom 480 Flight Manual
 

Hi does anyone out there have a flight manual for a 480B in a pdf file or know where I can download one, ive spent hours going through the forums with no luck !!

I own a part share in G-LADZ, Serial No. 5001 and have the FM in pdf format. let me have your email address. I'll send you a copy.

CK

I attended the Enstrom factory maintenance school earlier this year. I was not too impressed. I have 20 years of A&P experience and almost 15 years of helicopter maintenance, both turbine and piston. Having no previous Enstrom experience, they gave you plenty of classroom book learning with almost no hands on...very few airframe mock ups to work on. I'd ask questions like "do you find problems with xxx part or system?" and would get plenty of "no not really" or "not that we've heard of", but while talking to other mechanics in the class with field experience, I would get a different story.
I also am not impressed with the hardware they use to secure rather large panels. Coarse thread sheet metal screws instead of machine screws. Not too smart on a helicopter that vibrates on various frequencies. Also not impressed with the lack of primer anywhere except the pylon. No edge sealant around antennas either. The one we work on is in a very corrosive environment, and while it is a new ship, I for see plenty of corrosion issues, and we already have had to touch up corrosion on both rotors, landing gear and tail rotor drive shaft on an aircraft with less than 500 hours and is not that old calender wise

I do not like working on it, find doing anything to the engine like routine 150 and 300 hr inspections or work on the swashplate/ main rotor gearbox (with its 600 hour retirement life!) a total PITA.

Maybe it will grow on me. But I am not impressed with my first impressions of this aircraft (480B). Your mileage may vary.

I have been told that this may change to 1200 hours or perhaps "on condition" and that the 600 hour limit was imposed by the FAA until sufficient field experience was accumulated.

First impressions are sometimes misleading. The 480B has a surprisingly low number of life limited parts, and the safety record suggests that major failures are quite rare. Just did the 50 hour inspection on my new 480B at 60 TT. Total bill was $89 U.S. Only one minor unscheduled maintenance item in the first 60 hours: a sticking generator relay (not an Enstrom manufactured part) replaced instantly under warranty at no charge.

EN48,

I remember reading something about Enstrom planning to have deliveries fast-tracked. Why did you have to wait 18 months for delivery?

I placed the order for my 480B in Dec 2006. A few months later, Enstrom announced the availability of the Chelton EFIS/FMS, and I changed my configuration to include this. As things turned out, it took Chelton and Enstrom considerably longer than anticipated to obtain FAA certification for this configuration. Thats history now and new 480's with the Chelton system are available in a much shorter time frame. IMO, it was well worth the wait.