Hail Damage

[lwalling]

Sadly, my R44 was sitting outside today when a hail storm rolled through - fast. I took off for a few hours with the family, and came back to -- dented blades - on top of course.

 

Any experts on this topic, repair option wise? It's a nice day to know I have "real insurance" on the aircraft.

[JDHelicopterPilot]

Just going to have to take it over to the shop and have it looked at. My guess, new blades. I know you are allowed dents of certin depth(can't remember how deep right now) but I think there is a limit to the number of dents. Could be worse, a tornado.

 

JD

[Goldy]

I have heard of this before, and in both cases it was new blades. The pits just create too much drag and greatly reduce the available lift.

 

Yes, I do recall there is a formula of how many dents, how deep, etc.

 

I wouldnt fly it until its checked out....doing so might just wear out some spindle bearings.

 

Good luck.

[jtravis1]

That is sad to hear. The blades can take quite a bit of damage and still be airworthy. There is a chart in the maint manual that breaks the blades down into different areas and says what the permissible depth is. It is actually a lot larger then you would think.

 

The dents can be filled as per the M.M. and blades refinished. The danger would be if it throws off the balance too far. There is no chord weight adjustment on them. This could cause track problems.

 

I flew an astro that had hail damage. Everything was fine until they decided to re-balance it at a 100 hr. They spent three days trying to get it to fly right after that. Nothing did what it was supposed to. They finally got it back to an acceptable range....but it was never as good as it was before they touched it.