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Message
Thomas Jakits
(I have abour 5000 hrs flying time in
front of belts double-v-typ as the only means of powertransfer from the engine
to the rotor....)
Sorry, but this showed up in my Avweb email, and I
couldn't resist.
Rusty
The Canadian
Transportation Safety Board is trying to figure out why the drive belt came off
a Robinson R-22 helicopter, resulting in a crash that killed its pilot in
August. The chopper suffered the "sudden loss of power" over a lake on Vancouver
Island. Spokesman Bill Yearwood said that although the pilot initiated
autorotation, he apparently flared too high and the aircraft plunged vertically
into McGyver Lake, near Campbell River. Yearwood said safety board technicians
have spent the last couple of months going through the helicopter's drive system
to see if the problem is a design fault or a maintenance error. He did say the
belt appears to be the wrong size for the helicopter. Technicians are also
examining the electrically operated belt-tensioning
system.
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