 |
| Posted: July 25, 2007 |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
The V-22 Osprey, an airplane that can land and take off like a helicopter, is expected to deploy to Iraq in September, although critics contend it has design flaws. Two pilots answered your questions about the aircraft.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Tom McConnel of Palo Cedro, Calif., asks: |
|
| For Jim: Helicopters have a deadly early history, but mostly it was human error. I've practiced thousands of auto-rotations in over forty years of flying and never had to perform a real one. Very few of my comrades have. Can you comment? |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
| Jim Furman responds: |
|
I was an SIP (standardization instructor pilot) and an IP (instructor pilot) in helicopters. I, like you, practiced thousands of auto-rotations to touch down. I never had a complete engine failure either. Modern gas turbine engines are very reliable. However, it has happened. Enough so that every civilian helicopter and every military helicopter, before the Osprey, had to demonstrate an auto-rotative capability. The original specifications for the Osprey also required an auto-rotational capability. This requirement was waived when the Navy determined that it could not auto-rotate. The FAA and the military services maintain records on complete engine out auto-rotational events. It is more than a statistical anomaly. To certify a civilian helicopter, the FAA requires that the manufacturer demonstrate that the helicopters can auto-rotate. Even though you have never had to do a real one, I am pretty sure that you would not fly one of your helicopters if the "free wheeling" unit (this is what disengages the rotors from the engine in the event of an engine failure) was not working. |
|
|
  |
|
|
|
|
