Maintenance
& Repair
If
you do it like the factory does it's cake lol,
but
if you actually follow the manuals and the new maintenance videos
it's
very time consuming.
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RotorWay
has excellent maintenance videos available |
There
are all kinds of things in them that are
not in our maintenance books,
not
to mention they show you a step by step look at the procedures that
need to be followed. What needs to be done is in the books but
you have to comb through both the engine and maintenance book page by
page and make a list of what needs to be done which takes hours to
do. The videos were given to us as part of the deal when I went
through my Phase II flight training at the RotorWay factory and if
you have to beg, borrow or steal them you better get them.
These
videos should be included in
the
purchase of your ship
so
you would have them from
the start but
for some stupid reason they aren't.
We
really don't like the amount of time we have to spend checking
and
keeping everything tweaked but it's a necessity if we want to own a
kit helicopter and live a long life lol.
Until
March 14, 2004,
we
didn't really have to do much of anything out of the ordinary
other
than the 5, 10, 15, 25, 50 and 75 hour checks.
The
only thing I absolutely hate doing is setting the valves and
retorqueing the heads.
It's really
not that big of a deal, I just don't like doing it lol.
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Normal Maintenance |
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Over and Above Maintenance |
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We did have a few things go wrong 1 # The gauge problem at or about 25 hours on the clock We had to change the grounding of the bearing temp and fuel gauge. After about 25 hours they would rise a bit when we keyed the com radio and later a little more when the nav lights were on. We routed the grounds directly from the gauges to the battery and since then have had no problems with them whatsoever. |
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2 # The valve cover Issue You better read this one if your new like we were |
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Our 3rd problem at about 85 hours on the ship In mid flight at 3000 feet MSL half way back from a cross country trip that Donna and I went on our ship developed a vibration. It turned out that an elastomeric bearing had gone bad with less than 90 hours on it. Replacement time on this part is supposed to be 1000 hours. This was a biggie and to avoid this from happening again we, along with the help of John Spurling of Pro-Drive, reinvented the wheel. Going this route took a few daylight to dark weekends not to mention alot of money to repair. |
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Our 4th problem
At
Homer's Fly In, July 16th 2004 |
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Which
lead us
Directly to
our 5th Problem |
END