BLADE CRACK THEORY

[9121u]

HI call Gary Goldsberry he can up date on any thing you want to know....as far as blades cracking like i said before in other post have seen 5 helicopters that the rigging was wrong.and they are the ones the blades did crack on I think Ron can speak abought this all so...he just bought a brantly that rigging was wrong so its not the blades that is the problem......tom

[Ron Spiker]

If you read my post in the News section about the recent Brantly Meeting, many/most of your questions will be answered. But I'll summarize here.

SB-111 has not become an AD. It is currently being looked at to possibly be made less restrictive. There are no "new" 404 blades available that I know of, but there are several used 202 bladed out there. There are not "many" blades cracking. There have been a few, very few. Brantly is working with at least 1 blade company to start producing and repairing main rotor blades for us. I did recommend to them at the meeting that the inboard 12-18" of the blade and the damper area be looked at to strengthen it.

[N2285U]

Ron,

I agree on the design of the damper area. I am curious as to what it would take to get it all through the FAA for approval if a new design was introduced. The outer blade design was my biggest concern with the B2B. My first ship had oblonged holes for the damper attach points. On my second ship the previous owner (who was an AP/IA) fabricated a clam-shell type of mod where the dampners attached to the blades. It seemed to work pretty good, but I am sure it was not legal. I also did not care for the way the thrust bearings were lubricated. It seemed very difficult to get grease to actually make it through them. The noise from the engine was also a concern, but other than that I feel that the B2B is the best flying small helicopter available.