Taking a leak...
 

In twenty years of flying helos, I have never flown an aircraft that didn't have water dripping, and often flowing, all over myself, the paperwork and the electronics, everytime it rained.

Is this the norm or have I just been unlucky?

It seems to be the norm, and valid for every type I have flown (gosh, that sounds pompous:O )
Perhaps a good reason to go tiltrotor?;)

S76H: that's right pressurized aircraft can't leak and when they do it's serious.

IHL,

Pressurized Aircraft DO leak, and actually quite often, its just not a problem since the leak is usually outwards due to the pressurized cabin.

One of the Beechjets I used to fly, had this constant whistle like sound which we figured out came from the door seal which wasn´t inflating properly, another Beechjet, rain provided started leaking from the overhead panel once the pressure diferential matched on descent at around 8,000 FTAMSL. These were almost new aircraft.

Don´t think the tiltrotor will be much different.

i used to fly a 206 that leaked worse than a sieve, amongst other things water dripped off all the circuit breakers and filled up the pockets in the doors.

and the stunning mod that the engineers came up with was to drill a hole in the bottom of the pockets so it could drain out !

only in aviation, most people wouldnt put up with any of this stuff if it was in their mini metro !

I spent a few wet season EMS retrievals rigging up a rain shelter INSIDE our B412 to keep the patient from getting drenched while we rescued them from one nice dry hospital bed and transported them to another dry hospital bed. :rolleyes:

I've asked around and it seems no-one has a story of dry helicopter.

And should I add the MD500/600 line that over the years perfected the leak technology.

Standard rain equipment: One to two towels for the pilot and observer. One for covering avionics.

To their credit, Kawasaki may have managed it with the BK117 ;) Our's is quite watertight, although the stories of leaky aircraft of other types, are legion.

We caused a bit of a flap with VicPol radio development some years ago, when we requested motorcycle control heads for the panel on the 365C Dauphin. They thought we were joking when we explained that at least the motorbike unit was waterproof :rolleyes:

Buy an EC 135. Had ours 7 months and not a drop in the cockpit/cabin. :D

We've got one of the new R44 Raven 2's, New in January 2003 and "Yep" it leaks !

Considering you can buy at least three very nice cars for the price, with helo's - we have to put up with it.

On the B206 side of things. We had a survey done on a second hand ship. The engineer asked the owner for a hose pipe and let rip with water over the cabin. Inspected the inside and it was drenched. (Still bought it though)
:confused:

In my experience most helis leak.

The RAF Puma had a lovely trick of dumping about a pint of water down your right leg as you lifted to the hover.

I watched a bunch of VIP suits walk away from our S-76 aircraft, all sporting black bums from the wet seats. The S-76 moulded cockpit window sills catch water too. When you slam the door shut (you have to slam it :rolleyes: ), the water showers all over you and fills the map pockets in the door.

25 years of flying and I always thought everything leaked! You mean there is such a machine that doesn't?!?! What a rip!

Cheers :eek: OffshoreIgor :eek:

Flew a brand spanking new EC 155 the other day. Rain water everywhere, all over the centre console, all over the pilots, all over the corporate leather and suede and all over those neat little screens that tell you how fast you are going while you sip a G&T in the back with your umbrella up.

LE

Technically speaking - a Transport Category helicopter is not "allowed" to leak. At least not the cockpit.

Wow! Has anybody told the manufacturers?

Delighted to read that all the expensive machines leak. If the R22's I fly don't leak, I take them back.
One I took up in the US with no doors - it had leaked so much over the years that the carpet had been secretly rotting. Got across the wind and suddenly the cockpit was full of flying fibres and tiny balls of rubber. Couldn't see a bloomin' thing.
The deep joy of the 22 is that it leaks both sides - so a plentiful supply of inflight thirst-quenching for both seats on long days.

And there was me thinking it was just Wastelands who made helicopters with the in-cockpit swimming pool optional extra - I didn't realise it was an industry standard they were adhering to!

I'm glad we're wearing poopy suits in the 61. We've had passengers write up "Unsafe" reports after watching us jam rags into various "faucets" with pencils. The 76 with the eyebrow vents were horrendous, but what was really fun was watching the 222 caution panel start lighting up everytime we flew in the wet. At 2 in the morning with 100 miles of trees in all directions, should you take that MGB CHIP light seriously?????? (sarcasm that, of course you do!) ;)