Rebalancing

Our

Main Rotor Blades

March 6th 2005

Woooooooo Hoo!!

Back in the Airrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!

All wired up and ready to begin our next step of balancing the blades

These are the initial specs sheets on our blades we used to make the following data charts

Initial measurements with blades laying on the table

Measurements with blades hung on the ship before correction There is definately a difference

Blades measurements after corrections

Comparison of Master and Slave Blades final outcome
Ignore the lowest (hand drawn) line

1st Low speed track Slave had a mark Master had no mark Action: Lowered Master 1 turn

2nd Low speed track Slave had a mark Master had no mark Action: Lowered Master

3rd Low speed track Master – 2” mark Slave – 1” mark Action: Raise Master ¼ turn

4th Low speed track Master & Slave both about 1-1/4 to 1-1/2” marks Action: Take light on skids track

1st Light on skids track Master – 2” Slave – none Action: Raise Master 1/8 turn

5th Low speed track after talking to John Slave – about 1-1/2” mark Master – just a hair higher Action: Lowered Master a hair

After having the ship apart installing and R & Ring almost everything in and on it,
 when it came time to do the high speed stick tracking it was a pretty scary moment for me lol.  I got the ship light on the skids and felt everything out for what seems to be forever lol.  Everything felt pretty good, I guess that was what made it so scary.

6th Low speed track Master still a hair high Action: Lowered Master another hair

7th Low speed track Master still high Action: Lowered Master ½ turn

8th Low speed track Master still high Action: Lowered Master again

9th Low speed track Slave – 3 good marks Master – no marks Action: Determined was going wrong way & went back to original mark & just past it

10th Low speed track Master just a little low Action: Raised master a hair

11th Low speed track Master a hair high Action: Lowered Master ½ a hair

Yours truly Sunday afternoon hovering our ship
after we spent most of the morning Low and High speed stick tracking the blades.

After we did the light on the skids stick tracking a couple times it was time to bring the ship up to a hover and you've never seen such nice lift off and set downs in your life as the ones I did all day lol.  I picked it up and set it down like it was made of eggshells lol.  Once we got the blades balanced for hovering I continued to baby it for the first 30 minutes or so of hovering.  I couldn't do alot of peddle turns and such because the winds were pretty strong all day but the ship got a good workout, ofcorse not as much as me beings that I hadn't flown for the past 8 months lol.

Light on skids track and Our 1st hover readings Slave – 2 good marks Master – no marks 516 rpm 1.09 ips @ 347 514 rpm 0.89 ips @ 354 515 rpm 0.98 ips @ 351 Action: Lag Master Break tension loose on trailing edge side Tighten leading edge side bolts Retighten aligner block bolts Take another hover reading

Our 2nd Hover readings Manifold Pressure = 24 513 rpm 0.21 ips @ 255 511 rpm 0.19 ips @ 264 510 rpm 0/18 ips @ 263 Action: Took washer off end of master blade

Our 3rd Hover readings MP = 23 @ 2 foot high 24 @ 5 high Bearing temp = 120 All gauges in green 518 rpm 0.23 ips @ 260 514 rpm 0.22 ips @ 258 513 rpm 0.10 ips @ 258 518 rpm 0.18 ips @ 237 511 rpm 0.16 ips @ 255 518 rpm 0.09 ips @ 240 Action: John said good, next step is cruise readings

Refueled 8.5 gallons Engine Hour Meter 99.9 Flight Hour Meter 77.0

Our 4th Hover reading 516 rpm 0.19 ips @ 250 522 rpm 0.13 ips @ 232 509 rpm 0/19 ips @ 255

End of day Engine meter 100.7 Flight meter 77.7

This coming weekend the 12th, and 13th, the next step on the list lord willing the weather is good,

is to hover the ship for at least another 3 hours, maybe even more depending on how things go, just to make sure everything is in good working order and to be sure everything in the rotor system is well seated in.

Then!

A.	Another low speed track to get the blades as close to perfect as we can.
B.	Another light on the skids tracking test.
C.	Hover the ship to take at least 3 new readings with the balancer and go from there.

At that point it will most likely be time to start bending trailing edges
or possibly adding or subtracting tip weights on the blades,
with our luck probably both  lol.

Cross your fingers for us! lol

March 19/20th 05

Our 1st low speed track of the weekend was perfect so we did it again lol

Master blade

Slave blade

This was our 2nd  low speed track
and by the looks of it we're not going to have to play ajust the pitch link any more,
we think lol.

Master blade

Slave blade

Master blade

Slave blade

High speed track number 1 and 2

It shows that the slave blade is flying higher then the master blade

The chart shows that we need to remove some weight from the master blade and lag the slave blade just a touch Or Does it? lol 1st Hover Reading Temp = 9c Winds 4 mph 519, 0.25 @ 221 516, 0.30 @ 224 517, 0.31 @ 230 520, 0.22 @ 239--10' AGL Rpm difference = 2 Start Time 11:18 Shut Down 12:15 EH=102.8 FH=79.2 Refueled 7.0 Gallons 2nd Hover Reading Temp = 16 Wind = 8 517, 0.24 @ 228 524, 0.20 @ 246 520, 0.24 @ 218 Rpm difference = 7 Start time 4:10 Shut Down 5:00 Cleaned blades 3rd Hover Reading Temp = 16 Wind = 0 mph 518, 0.31 @ 194 522, 0.18 @ 218 517, 0.19 @ 218 Rpm difference = 5 This last reading was done with clean blades just to see if it would make difference. Start Time: 6:?? Shut Down6:39 EH=103.9 FH=80.1

Here we go again!

1st Hover Reading Refueled 7.6 Gallons 520, 0.16 @ 200 522, 0.14 @ 228 521, 0.14 @ 224 Rpm difference = 2  Start Time 12:10 Shut Down 12:25

2nd Hover Reading 525, 0.07 @ 213 528, 0.05 @ 200 521, 0.05 @ 107 Rpm difference = 7 Start time 12:32 Shut Down 12:39

1st Forward-flight Readings Up wind readings 524, 0.87 @ 169 518, 0.64 @ 166 521, 0.64 @ 169 Down wind readings 517, 0.69 @ 164 516, 0.68 @ 169 Rpm difference = 8 Start Time: 1:04 Shut Down: 1:35 Action = Lead Master .004

3rd Hover Reading 527, 0.39 @ 015 519, 0.37 @ 005 518, 0.27 @ 031 Rpm difference = 9    Start Time 2:28   Set Down time: 2:38 to switch the balancer over to Vertical mode

2nd Foward Flight Up wind readings 514, 0.25 @ 157 510, 0.23 @ 141 511, 0.32 @ 104 Down wind readings 511, 0.36 @ 139 511, 0.27 @ 120 510, 0.29 @ 112 Rpm difference = 4 Start time: 2:41 Shut Down time: 2:55 Adjusted slave blade pitch link counter clock wise 1/8 turn  to lower the leading edge of the blade

4th Hover readings 522, 0.23 @ 021 525, 0.24 @ 017 524, 0.22 @ 025 Rpm difference = 3 Start Time: 3:17 Set Down Time: 3:25 to switch balancer over to vertical mode

3rd and Final Forward Flight Readings Upwind readings 513, 0.19 @ 094 516, 0.09 @ 105 511, 0.09 @ 073 Down wind readings 520, 0.11 @ 153 518, 0.02 @ 054 Rpm difference = 9 Start Time 3:25 Shut Down time: 3:30 As far as forward flight readings these are as good as it gets so were finished with this part of the balancing Action = Added .25  grams weight to master tip

5th and Final Hover Readings 511, 0.21 @ 360 514, 0.26 @ 340 516, 0.20 @ 256 Rpm difference = 5 Start time: 3:56  Shut Down time: 4:03 These are also as good as it gets which means were totaly finished balancing our blades. Time to take the balance off and get back to the fun part, Flying! YEAHHHHHHHHH !!!!

Well that concludes our main rotor blade balancing session.

Hopefully it will be a long long long  time before we have to do it again lol.

END