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Cormorant Grounded


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Cormorant helicopters grounded, network says

Associated Press

 

CFB Greenwood, N.S. — All but essential flights of Canada's new military helicopters have been grounded because of the discovery of dangerous cracks on a tail rotor, Global News reported Tuesday.

 

The fleet of 15 Cormorants fly out of CFB Trenton in Ontario, CFB Gander in Newfoundland and CFB Greenwood in Nova Scotia.

 

The first sign of cracks in the section that holds the tail rotor in place in the six-year-old helicopters was found on an aircraft in Newfoundland, Global reported.

 

If the crack spreads enough, the blade will come off, forcing the helicopter to make an emergency landing.

 

The crash of a similar helicopter operated by the British Royal Navy has been traced to cracks in the tail rotor, Global reported.

 

As a result of the British crash, the Canadian military cancelled all training flights on the Cormorants for two months, the report said.

 

Air Force headquarters in Winnipeg told Global it's confident the helicopters will continue to perform search-and-rescue missions without placing additional danger on air crews.

 

Documents released earlier this month revealed the Cormorants require much more maintenance than originally believed, and the extra work is costing the air force millions of dollars.

 

The helicopters were supposed to require about seven hours of maintenance for every hour of flight, based on information provided by the manufacturer, EH Industries.

 

But the complex machines have become a technical challenge, taking up to 22 hours in the shop for each hour in the air.

 

EH Industries has since revised its maintenance estimates upward, saying the aircraft initially needs about 12 hours for each hour of flight, but the number will fall to about 8.35 hours as experience levels increase.

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The crash of a similar helicopter operated by the British Royal Navy has been traced to cracks in the tail rotor, Global reported.  As a result of the British crash, the Canadian military cancelled all training flights on the Cormorants for two months, the report said.

 

I suppose we're gonna buy that one off the brits too? :stupid:

 

 

Think we can still fire up the old Labs?

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Memories are short. The old 206 was grounded worldwide 13 times between May and Sept of '68 or '69 and had a full load killed at Expo in Montreal. The 214ST also took out some very good friends before it's problem was found and the Astar has had it's own problems since inception. Why should the militaries be any different then us? Sorry to say this, but the vast majority of good aircraft have come as the result of a good "proving ground".......like a war. Until then, we are "the proving ground" and "test pilots".

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That's a very valid point Mr Cap,

 

On the other hand, these manufatcurers have been building helicopters for over half a century, you'd think with the experience and new technologies, they would be able to predict and correct for a lot of these "snags".

 

Let's hope nobody gets hurt while "test piloting" these new generation birds.

 

P.S. The new Sikorsky will probably have just as many groing pains once it comes in service.

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Elvis ----you could be correct......it's "creeping" Alzeimers I guess, but it still "totalled" and took all onboard to "the big hangar in the sky". It too, was a T/R problem with the hydraulically boosted pedals. I remember those "groundings" well because I flew one on an INCO contract during their strike that summer and I kept getting "You're Grounded" love letters fron HQ and told not to say anything to INCO about the "groundings". I could never figure out why I was to keep quiet.......hmmmmm.

 

Jetbox -------they've been building automobiles longer and we still got something called "Recalls". You can bet that the new Sikorsky will have its' own "teething problems" as well and it's almost to be expected. The severity of the problems is what becomes a real problem for those flying the suckers.

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