xolo_flight Posted June 4, 2006 Report Posted June 4, 2006 Summer is definitly back. Woaah is it hot. Check your MAP and MCP settings !! Anyway...safety around the airfield. With summer here and many airports having open houses, airshows and bbq's in surrounding parks, visitors to the airfield......be aware of increased trash floating around on the airfield. Went flying this weekend and after coming in on a steep approach to the inn field I slowed to a hover, did a peddle turn and wammm, got a plastic bag cought on a rotor blade. Even such a small item as a plasitic shopping bag greatly influences your heli balance and its definitly a wake up call and starts up memories of " flash card reviews" about hover autorotation. The noise pitch definitly changed and handling was different. Shut the aircraft down and saw the bag wrapped around the leading edge of the rotor wizzing bye as it slowed down. If a bag can do this much, hmmm i dont want to know what a bird strike is like... fly safe Quote
Wally Posted June 5, 2006 Report Posted June 5, 2006 First, you don't want to hit anything with any part of the aircraft. Plastic bags are light, not much inirtia, and strong, so when you hit them they'll be carried along with the blade. Screw up the aerodynamics and the balance, and generally that's all. The "generally" part is what you don't know 'til you shut down and check it out.Birds, on the other hand, while lightly constructed, do present sufficent inirtial challenge so that their structure generally yields to the rotor. The "generally yields" isn't known until you shut down and check the damage, and the damage to the aircraft varies with the size of the bird.A low recon should continue all the way to the ground, and look for stuff that could potentially blow. Quote
HelliBoy Posted June 5, 2006 Report Posted June 5, 2006 The same exact thing happened to my uncle in his 300-c a couple weeks ago...Is that you John? Quote
500E Posted June 5, 2006 Report Posted June 5, 2006 Even blade tape lifting on one edge will give rise to a large amount of angst,had it hapen after rain, twice Quote
Gomer Pylot Posted June 7, 2006 Report Posted June 7, 2006 Yeah, tape coming loose in the rain can sound really bad. I've hit a number of birds with the MR, mostly seagulls. Never any damage to the rotor, but the seagull was usually a total loss. The spar is very strong, and hitting a bird won't do any damage. They can do lots of damage to windshields, though, if the airspeed and bird mass are high. Quote
delorean Posted June 7, 2006 Report Posted June 7, 2006 I thought there was something wrong with MR system once on a R22. We were getting a vibration and this wierd "chip" noise after doing some hovering maneuver in the airport's practice area. After we shut it down, just before the rotor stopped, a tiny candy wrapper fell off the leading edge of the blade. No more vibration! Quote
xolo_flight Posted June 7, 2006 Author Report Posted June 7, 2006 nope not john.... good to read about other rotor strike incidences Quote
Whirlwind Posted June 8, 2006 Report Posted June 8, 2006 They can do lots of damage to windshields, though, if the airspeed and bird mass are high.What is the mean air speed velocity of a fully-laden swallow? Sorry... Couldn't resist... too much Monty Python in my younger days Amazing that a candy wrapper can make such a difference, but anything that messes up the airflow over the blade will do it. Quote
DeltaMikeCharlie Posted June 8, 2006 Report Posted June 8, 2006 What is the mean air speed velocity of a fully-laden swallow? Sorry... Couldn't resist... too much Monty Python in my younger days Amazing that a candy wrapper can make such a difference, but anything that messes up the airflow over the blade will do it. African or European? Quote
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