Blades
Moderator: Paul Sehorne
My Crack
Hey:
I flew my ship around for 3 years with a crack in a 202 blade that fell within the spec's of the daily inspection for airworthiness. I marked the crack and monitored it and it never got any bigger.
Then, one day about a year ago, I was doing aggressive quick-stops with a passenger, and when I came to hover on the last one, there was a moderate 1/per vibration.
We sat it down safely and were surprised to find that the inboard 12" of the blade skin had peeled almost all the way back to the trailing edge and the foam in that area had broken away. The d-spar was all that was there was for the inboard 8 to 12 inches.
The helicopter kept flying and I never felt in danger. I really don't want to experience that again, but I made me feel good to know that the skin and foam can become damaged pretty severely and still provide lift enough to put your butt back on earth! These cracks are not related in any way to the d-spar or the hinge block. It those parts crack... you better be on the ground when it happens.
By the way... the blade was replaced and it did no damage. I'm lucky the foam pieces stayed out of the tail rotor.
Bryan
I flew my ship around for 3 years with a crack in a 202 blade that fell within the spec's of the daily inspection for airworthiness. I marked the crack and monitored it and it never got any bigger.
Then, one day about a year ago, I was doing aggressive quick-stops with a passenger, and when I came to hover on the last one, there was a moderate 1/per vibration.
We sat it down safely and were surprised to find that the inboard 12" of the blade skin had peeled almost all the way back to the trailing edge and the foam in that area had broken away. The d-spar was all that was there was for the inboard 8 to 12 inches.
The helicopter kept flying and I never felt in danger. I really don't want to experience that again, but I made me feel good to know that the skin and foam can become damaged pretty severely and still provide lift enough to put your butt back on earth! These cracks are not related in any way to the d-spar or the hinge block. It those parts crack... you better be on the ground when it happens.
By the way... the blade was replaced and it did no damage. I'm lucky the foam pieces stayed out of the tail rotor.
Bryan
YHO-3BR Pilots International