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Old February 14th 04, 12:30 AM
Ash Wyllie
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Sla#s opined

"Stan Gosnell" wrote in message
...
"Sla#s" wrote in
:

Has anyone ever run a AS 350 or 355 without the Main rotor blades
fitted? We do it all the time with our 315 but I've never heard of it
with a Squirrel / A Star.
It would make tail rotor balancing a lot easier for a start - i.e. no
pilot needed. That's what we do with our Lama and use to do with our
Alouettes. No one here wants to risk it - "The engines will overspeed"
- " It will over speed the gearbox" - " It will over speed/torque the
tail rotor" etc. etc.


Why don't you go ahead and try it and let us know?


:-) But that's the problem "The Management" will not let us. I have been
doing it to 3180s & 315s since the 60s but the doom mongers say we can't
with the newer ships. However they have never produced any evidence against.
On the other hand I can't find any for! That's why I'm asking :-)


Why do you need a pilot? Our mechanics (engineers) are trained to do
groundruns in skid-mounted helicopters, up to and including Bell 412s.
They do all the tail rotor balancing, etc themselves.


Yes again in the 60s we did but there was one accident when an engineer
wrecked a machine. So since then the insurance companies will not let us.


So, I guess that it OK for pilots to wreck a machine.



-ash
Cthulhu for President!
Why vote for a lesser evil?