What in the world is wrong with this helicopter?

[BladeVenom]

That's why you don't buy the cheap duct tape to fix your helicopter.

 

[CPA]

I'm more interested in your hatred for helicopters. What did they ever do to you?

 

[Bignate603]

You are all wrong. Can you not hear the Swahili/Aboriginai/Bun-gaiya-wompelee language being shouted in the background? Third World country equals substandard maintenance procedures. No technical orders dictating exactly how to maintain that chopper means that it never was. And if there WERE T.O.s, the natives argued about the goat/weather/demon spirit possession of the tools or hanger door instead of fixing the damn thing.

Silly backwards people.

1. Apparently you can't recognize Portuguese
2. They're in Brazil
3. The Brazilian aerospace industry is well established and very well respected. It's likely that you've flown in a Brazilian made plane at some time, ever hear of Embraer?

 

[BrokenVisage]

That's nothing, what is wrong with THIS helicopter??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzSYnGEqof8

 

[Bignate603]

That's nothing, what is wrong with THIS helicopter??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzSYnGEqof8

Frame rate of camera = frequency of rotation of the rotor

 

[PottedMeat]

That's nothing, what is wrong with THIS helicopter??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzSYnGEqof8

magnets, duh.

here's a chinook tearing its rear blades off:

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/photogallery/Videos/2006-2-10_Ground_Resonance_Side_View.mpg

 

[zinfamous]

Agree with that.

It's like having an unbalanced centrifuge or washing machine, but a whole lot messier.

Oh, I've seen much messier centrifuge accidents.

http://www.ehrs.upenn.edu/programs/labsafety/alerts/ultra_explosion.html

 

[PottedMeat]

Oh, I've seen much messier centrifuge accidents.

http://www.ehrs.upenn.edu/programs/labsafety/alerts/ultra_explosion.html

holy shit

The safety shielding in the unit did not contain all the metal fragments. The half-inch thick sliding steel door on top of the unit buckled allowing fragments, including the steel rotor top, to escape (Image 3).

 

[Miramonti]

Reminds me of Galloping Gertie.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

1. Apparently you can't recognize Portuguese
2. They're in Brazil
3. The Brazilian aerospace industry is well established and very well respected. It's likely that you've flown in a Brazilian made plane at some time, ever hear of Embraer?

Seriously, gotta love the ignorance.

"I dont understand the language, they must be inferior in every single way"

 

[Joseph F]

Oil attracts dirt so naturally those places in and around machinery are quite dirty.

It doesn't "attract" dirt as much as dirt sticks to it.
/Pedantic

 

[halik]

Serious answer? The rotors weren't properly balanced.

This, may have clipped something.

 

[iRONic]

I don't like helicopters; as a matter of fact I simply abhor them...

BUT! I have to wonder what is going on here!

That is an AS350 - Called an AStar here in North America. I have ~10 years of experience wrenching on those models in offshore oil air-taxi ops and executive/corporate configs.

Serious answer? The rotors weren't properly balanced.

That is a very plausible explanation. Many main rotor head failures will exhibit that result. Other causes could be;

-Main rotor elastomeric bearing delamination/failure
-Main rotor pitch change link failure
-Main rotor balance spring crack/failure
-Starflex crack/failure
-Swashplate failure
-Main rotor blade crack/failure

The key to preventing this is vigilant maintenance/inspections and thorough pilot preflights.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

That is an AS350 - Called an AStar here in North America. I have ~10 years of experience wrenching on those models in offshore oil air-taxi ops and executive/corporate configs.



That is a very plausible explanation. Many main rotor head failures will exhibit that result. Other causes could be;

-Main rotor elastomeric bearing delamination/failure
-Main rotor pitch change link failure
-Main rotor balance spring crack/failure
-Starflex crack/failure
-Swashplate failure
-Main rotor blade crack/failure

The key to preventing this is vigilant maintenance/inspections and thorough pilot preflights.

Respect!

Awesome post :thumbsup:

 

[Doppel]

Chinese parts!

 

[Bignate603]

Chinese parts!

People joke about it but it's actually a serious problem. There have been cases of counterfeit aircraft parts showing up recently. They look pretty similar and may even have the correct company's name on the part but often they've got issues that cause them to be far inferior to the correct part (wrong material, dimensions slightly off, may have preexisting micro-fractures that cause premature failure, etc).

 

[Bignate603]

That is an AS350 - Called an AStar here in North America. I have ~10 years of experience wrenching on those models in offshore oil air-taxi ops and executive/corporate configs.



That is a very plausible explanation. Many main rotor head failures will exhibit that result. Other causes could be;

-Main rotor elastomeric bearing delamination/failure
-Main rotor pitch change link failure
-Main rotor balance spring crack/failure
-Starflex crack/failure
-Swashplate failure
-Main rotor blade crack/failure

The key to preventing this is vigilant maintenance/inspections and thorough pilot preflights.

From the information available though it said that this occurred on landing, making an unbalanced rotor less likely. If it was unbalanced they would have noticed it while in the air. The shock of hitting the ground during landing was likely enough to kick off the ground resonance that is currently being claimed to be the cause. However, if they ignored maintenance that could have made the problem much more likely or much more severe once it started to occur.

 

[SSSnail]

Nah, they're just trying to build that newfangled transformer thingy. It's a work in progress.

 

[iRONic]

From the information available though it said that this occurred on landing, making an unbalanced rotor less likely. If it was unbalanced they would have noticed it while in the air. The shock of hitting the ground during landing was likely enough to kick off the ground resonance that is currently being claimed to be the cause. However, if they ignored maintenance that could have made the problem much more likely or much more severe once it started to occur.

You'd have to be familiar with the way that particular aircraft is made to understand my POV. The rotorhead assy is made of much fiberglass and composites. A less-than-optimum landing is known to inflict damage.

Also, a damaged/failed transmission mount point (4) can inflict similar damage. I've seen it happen.

 

[spidey07]

So essentially if dampening isn't up to snuff this is likely outcome? I see a shit load of danpeners on all axis in that rotor assy

 

[Bignate603]

You'd have to be familiar with the way that particular aircraft is made to understand my POV. The rotorhead assy is made of much fiberglass and composites. A less-than-optimum landing is known to inflict damage.

Also, a damaged/failed transmission mount point (4) can inflict similar damage. I've seen it happen.

So a hard landing could cause enough damage to let the center of gravity shift off the center of rotation. That makes sense.

I do design work on mechanical systems for turbine engines, we do quite a bit of work on high speed rotating components. Luckily for what I do we can't really cause an unbalance by an impact like a hard landing, at least not a landing that wasn't hard enough to do some serious damage to the aircraft as a whole.

 

[trmiv]

Here's a pilot saving the helicopter from ground resonance by taking off. Actually happened in the intro to a MacGyver episode and they left it in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vICf8l-KV0&feature=related

 

[spidey07]

Here's a pilot saving the helicopter from ground resonance by taking off. Actually happened in the intro to a MacGyver episode and they left it in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vICf8l-KV0&feature=related

Yep. Notice he got it off the ground immediately. His tail dropped as well show how fast he was trying to get off the ground. Good recovery.

 

[RedCOMET]

Here's a pilot saving the helicopter from ground resonance by taking off. Actually happened in the intro to a MacGyver episode and they left it in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vICf...eature=related

Good find. I'm glad I never experienced that when working in the oil field. The only time i was truly afraid in helicopters was taking off and landing on an offshore rig. When taking off and landing from the heliports, the choppers would hover then transition into forward flight in while building altitude.

Hey Rubycon, nice avatar.

 

[zinfamous]

holy shit

yeah...I sat a few feet away from an Ultra centrifuge for a a few years. ...things got a bit dicey when someone placed some unbalanced bottles and started wobbling on its feet at around 2k--that's when you furiously press cancel and run.



I've seen worse pictures, though. Couldn't find them. Those bastards will tear up an entire lab. I believe that rotor will blast holes through solid concrete if it gets loose.