Inlet Barrier Filters, Any Experience Good Or Bad?

[RedRag]

Sorry hit the send button too fast. The L1 with a C28 is not on the STC it requires a C30. Plus they have an issue with the snow baffles setting off the caution light which has never been fixed

 

Red

[Heliian]

The barrier filtres are great at stopping dirt and other matter from entering engine. Initial installation and cost is quite high but it will save money in the long run. Be careful with the AFS kits on the Astar, it adds almost 4 inches to the end. would recommend doing ground runs with the cowling off to avoid potentially serious damage to cowling, rotorblades and personnel. Keep a spare filtre unit ready to go and you should have no other problems.

[happyfeet]

Great for preserving the front end. However I have had a few issues with them.

 

1. Should be monitored for cleanlyness and changed out at least every 100hrs. keeping a spare with oil around ready to go works well.

 

2. In really heavy rain I have had intermittent bypass lights.

 

3. In really heavy snow they go into bypass. Although they are not supposed to. May of the heliski folk figured this out fast.

 

4. The light on the box in the Astar is a dimmable light so if its dimmed and she gets clogged you could never know it ,till the N1 does its thing. Seems replacing that light with something that cannot be dimmed would be a good idea.

 

5. After a day of fire fighting make sure that the inlet cover is installed, as the dirt when wetted depending on the composition of the dirt can turn to concrete fast. Say it rains overnight and the pilot didn't install the cover, then the sun comes out and it drys out ,there you have it. Makes for a really crappy start.

 

 

Other than the above had had no issues.

 

HF

 

[kopterdoc]

We have a filter kit on our L1 with a C30P and yes it works great. Also had the problem with the warning light coming on with snow deflectors installed but now there is a fix. We contacted the manufacturer and he said that with the snow deflectors on it changes the air flow behind the filter causing a false reading. The manufacturer sent us a relocation kit for the sensor and you have to move it forward an inch and a half and change some fittings and now it works with the baffles installed. Even their drawings were wrong but their pictures in the relocation kit were right and I contacted them to correct this for future kits. If you are a canadian operator with a filter kit on a bell product and plan to use snow deflectors you will need this kit.

[RedRag]

Thanks for the info. Got a copy of that bulletin fall but it was marked Draft. Wasn't sure it was approved yet so didn't install it. Went back to the bleed air separator for the winter.