Another Cracked 500 Blade,photo's

[T tail]

Couple of photo's of a cracked PMA blade on a 500 from the south Pacific, Blade had done 1398 hours and 9,300 T/E's. Was picked up in an inspection after it went slightly out of track. Had only cracked on the bottom side but was very close to starting on the top. Machine had done no hard lifting like Drills, Shakes etc....

 

 

Cheers TT

[Jet B]

Thanks for the pics.

 

I'm scared all over again... Yet again. 8(

[Rotorboy2]

Why are cracking blades still an issue with the 500? Are they just old blades or has the manufacturer still not yet found a solution to the problem?

[VNE]

WOW How do we, in this day and age, allow sh*t parts such as these PMA blades on our aircraft. I think it's the responsibility of transport canada, the FAA, etc. and the helicopter community to take action in cases such as this. And I don't mean an AD to inspect your blades. The MD blades don't crack like this!!!

 

I can't believe we, as human beings, can expect someone to go flogging around in a machine with critical components that knowingly fail on a regular basis. What's the attitude of the opperator going to be in this case? Oh yeah, I know.....it'll be "Send us a new blade on waranty ASAP so we can send that poor ba**ard back out there to roll the dice again.

 

I've got to stop there, I'm getting more and more steamed just thinking about it. My hands are shaking and I can barely freeking type. :down:

 

Please take care out there boys!!!

 

 

VNE

[Guest Angry Egg Driver]

I see another blade AD com :shock: :down: ing........

[N1]

Hate to tell you this, VNE, but the MD factory blades had an equal or worse propensity for cracking in certain applications.

 

I see further AD's, life limit and TE reductions. No easy or cheap solution to safety in the helicopter business.

[Ranger]

The Company I worked for installed recording Temp. and Torque gauges, the problems appeared to go away.

[412driver]

one of those things that makes you go.....

 

 

 

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[nobul]

some sort of Tq, TOT recording device would be nice on the 500's but Ive only seen one that had it? That particular machine alwas seemed to be better for some reason? over 3000 hrs on 500's and no cracked blades ( knock wood, fingers crossed!)

[PerfectTrack]

don't blame the PMA blades, blame your guys who buy them. You want economy blades, you get them with PMA suppliers. Kind of like cars.

PMA stands for Parts Manufacture Authority if I rememebr correctly and that means somebody authorized their manufacture (could be FAA, could be the manufacturer themselves) so blame them too.