Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2013 11:24 am Post subject: R22 Rotor Blade Separation.
There is a thread on another forum regarding the frequency of rotor blade separation on R22s.
For prospective students, should this be taken into consideration when choosing which aircraft to train on or do other types suffer from similar problems but as there are a greater number of R22s around do we just hear more about their faults?
Although you can use percentages to give you any answer you want i think in this case you have to look at them.
How many failures have their been divided by the number of R22's in service when compared to other trainers (Cabri/ S300).
This will however only be looking at one type of specific failure, I would have thought it would be more useful to base the question on a broader brief. _________________ Skunkyd
Been reading about this, and you need to look at the root cause of the failure.
A question worth asking, after "What are the number of incidents per aircraft type?" (as stated above), is "what other aircraft share the component in question?"
Had to look at a problem in my day job recently, which appears to share the same fault. Root cause was a component, bought from an agent/stockist, who bought that component from one of 6 or 7 manufacturers (overseas ones - I won't name countries) based on who was cheapest at the time of re-ordering.
Long story short - process control at manufacturing wasn't up to scratch, component had a tendency to fail early. In the case at work, things weren't helped by the fact that the stockist had no batch traceability to control/assist with recalls & inspection. (I expect the aviation world would be far better in this respect!)
That component was a "stock item", available through many stockists, used in many applications..... Some with safety considerations, some not.
Joined: Aug 23, 2005 Posts: 266 Location: On a course.... golf course
Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2013 1:17 am Post subject:
The separation can also be traced back to the operator's techniques.
Several years ago in Oz, an old HP had a blade come off in flight, 2 killed. It was the result of a previous owner who didn't want to replace a faulty clutch, and repeatedly started the aircraft with the clutch engaged. Every one of the 200+ starts could be seen as a fatigue crack showing up in the post-crash investigation. Metal has a perfect memory.
The separation can also be traced back to the operator's techniques.
Several years ago in Oz, an old HP had a blade come off in flight, 2 killed. It was the result of a previous owner who didn't want to replace a faulty clutch, and repeatedly started the aircraft with the clutch engaged. Every one of the 200+ starts could be seen as a fatigue crack showing up in the post-crash investigation. Metal has a perfect memory.
Absolutely! If what I've heard about the current situation is correct, then it is most likely a batch defect, hence could affect large quantities of that component.
[Disclaimer: Of course, I've not been party to the data, so simply offering a view based on verbal accounts!]
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