Some Things Never Change

[Blackmac]

Hey Guys/Gals, why knock the product that we or somebody else makes a living with and happens to love the machine he is with, moreso than somebody else.

It's, I beleive, called flying.

 

One day I was doing A 300hr insp. on a HUP-3 (Navy), small Vertol or Piaseki.

Anyhow there was another person in the cockspit and I asked him to pull up on the collecetive so I could put the rigging pins in the rotor head to check the controls. He proceeded to pull the collective to the maximum and disconnected the screw jacks that were part of the control system. Stop nuts had not been installed at O/H (3).

 

Prior to this I had been working this A/C on SAR and generally hill and gully riding for three hundred hours. Nobody had ever pulled max collective in the past three hundred hours, if they had they would be dead.

 

We were also operating S55's that had a habit of going into groung ressonance.

Sikorsky had an S55 demolish itself in I beleive 21 or 22 seconds in a test stand.

 

After a little less than six months after getting out of the Navy I was flying in an H-21 Piaseki helicopter that had a control failure on the Mid-Canada Line and spent the next six months recovering.

 

1971 south of Cartwright Labrador, I dumped a Hughes 500 in the tree's on take-off and was back flying the same job a week later.

 

!987 out of Manitouage, ON in a 206L1 (cadillac) went into the water after a decel and broke me back.

 

One year later went to work for PWGSC.

 

I would not change one thing, except for the government employment.

 

I would go back flying tomorrow, if a helicopter would have me.

 

Greatest machine ever invented, IMHO.

[jetbox]

407, we're all adults here, (most of you guys anyways !)

You know better than to get all pissy because you're getting flack for criticizing Astars!

You didn't actually think we'd let you get away with starting a thread about how Astars suck and not get pelted with rotten tomatoes did ya!!!!! Come on!!! Eventhough most of these are our real opinions, we're still just playin with ya!!!!

Besides, this site has been kind of stagnant for the last while (not to mention those friggin Americans won our Stanly Cup :angry: ) we were due for some mud slingin action no???

My earlier post was a response to what I thought was pretty ironic. And also, we can compare both types all we want, we'll probably come up with an equal amount of problems, snags, AD's etc....

The bottom line is, I think the 407 is Bell's pathetic attempt to regain market share lost to Astars in the last 20 years.

That being said, I'm also very unimpressed with Eurocopter's EC120 and the B4, I mean come on, how could the manufacturer who gave us the first true passenger/pilot/cargo/maintenance friendly helicopter turn around and dish out these new models with such flimsy a-- cabins??!!! What's up with these windsheilds that need three days to be replaced???!! Talk about a pavement to pavement only helicopter.

At least Bell didn't go from a great helicopter to a piece of sh-t, LongRangers were always pieces of sh-t!!

Eurocopter did much worse, they went from a fantastic helicopter to a couple of pieces of sh-t!!! Hey ####, did Eurocopter hire a couple of Bell's design engineers or what's the scoop here??!!

 

Anyways 407D, like I said, don't sweat the small stuff, just keep firing those rotten tomatoes!!!!!!! :up: :up: :up:

[downwash]

Mag, I don't suppose those 'spies' could be well-meaning types with honest consciences who endeavour to let a smidgeon of the 'truth' out? Just wonderin.'