Turbinator
Senior Heliman
Location: Nanticoke, PA
My Posts This: Topic Forum | Here is my experience with autoing a heavy scaler.
My turbine EC135 is about 29 lbs empty, around 33 full, I consider it a flying cinder block, worse then a flying brick, bricks are lighter.
I have HAD TO, not by choice as I would never choose to auto this thing on purpose auto this machine 3 times during its life.
The first time it had OF 800mm 4 blade head on it, about 20 ft up in forward flight a fuel delivery issue gave me a flame out, I was amazed the landing was pretty uneventful and sucessful, just drove it right in a little skiding forward speed landing. The second time was with the VArio 4 blade head and blades, albeit not in the best position for a auto the landing was hard the head had in my opinion about zero for reserve inertia, when I hit teh collective the blades just slowed down about instantly, crushed the skids but the heli stayed uprigth and in one piece, would be considered a good E-landing in my book as repair was minimal. The light Vario blades had about nothing for inertia that was of help, only good thing about them was with 2 bolts they didn't fold and boom strike. The third time was in the worst of places, about 15 ft up in a hover, nose in and tail gears failed, had the OF system back on it. Being heavy as hell, having a fenestron, and turbine powered which the rotor speed stayed the same not go through tthe roof when the tail load disapeared the bird only spun around about half a turn before I hit throttle hold and the heli dropped straight down like a rock, a big rock. Just before it hit the ground, thick grass helped I'm sure in a panic I hit the collective all in one shot, there was really no time for thinking. The rock hit the ground and at the same instant actually sprung back up in the air about a foot and settled softly back in, no damage. I'm sure I had a very mortified facial expression until I saw 10,000 dollars was still in one piece as I was expecting to see the tail get torn off from blade flex as the 800mm blades are very close to the tail to begin with.
My opinion is the heavy OF blades make for better auto chances and greatly help keep my bird unscathed both times as I am not an auto expert by far nor do I practice as I know I should do but all I fly is scalers and do not look for rebuilds earlier then necessary. Along with their GREAT flying characteristics these experiences makes the OF my choice for multi heads. If autoing is one of your favorite manuvers and you want to do them with your scale bird I highly suggest giving them a try. |
