Tale of a Dolphin
 

A few weeks ago an EC155 returned from an offshore flight over the North Sea.

When approaching the airfield ATC notified the crew a large part of their tail was missing.

The landing was uneventful.

Has this happened before to any Dauphin ?

http://www.aeroboek.nl/sale/dolphin.jpg

Thats a great aircraft that can fly with a major proportion of its tail missing:D:D

From what I've heard about it the crew didn't actually know what had happened at the time to the tail , anyone like to confirm this ??

I also know about a 206L that was flying over Lake Victoria when the vertical stabilizer broke in half folding over (not falling off). Luckily it was to the opposite side of the tailrotor.

The 365N2 has the same vertical fin fold.

All UK aircraft have been checked and a repetitive inspection is in place.
No faults found!!!!

I once have lost the left part of the tail plane (with its vertical stabilizer) of an AS 365 N2.
I was performing an air test including a vne. I initated acceleration to Vne from 5000' with a 25 / 30 deg. dive.
I didn't notice anything very unusual except a slight unstability in pitch with a marked tendency to pitch down at about 3000' and a much longer recovery trajectory, levelling at about 800'.
Marks on the tail fin indicated a short miss with the tail rotor.
The cause of this structural failure have been found to be a weakness in the root section of the tail plane (made of carbon fiber) maybe due to a former shock on the tail plane.

Lost the starboard side vert fin on the stab on an N1. Didn't notice much to be honest, slight fluctuations in pitch and yaw. 135kt cruise at the time @ FL050.

TiP

would have expected a photoshopped picture of the EC155 from Capt. Hollywood by now, with complete tail missing and girls in bikinis somewhere. Oh well. :{

Helimutt

Bit like this?

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f8...ter/EC155z.jpg

Not a patch on the Capt. no Girls:E

no nose wheel? would have preferred the girls! :E

I think you are supposed to, make the changes digitally not with a pot of typex!!!!!!

Other operators of EC155 have found cracks in the bracket that failed.
One operator found a crack that went 70% through the bracket, thus only 30% holding the fin :uhoh:

Just for Helimutt
Final offer(I'l leave it to the experts now)
http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f8...ter/EC155t.jpg

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...af/dolphin.jpg

Regards,
Jonasraf

Jonasraf

Excellent!!

yes, now this thread is much more interesting:}