Hey Kelly, do you think he saw us?



Nah ... Time for dinner .....



Ok. Back to the shop.

I wrapped it up at 1:30 am. The streaming wifi is a big help. At different times of the day I listen to the "I Heart Radio" App. The Comedy channel is fun background. Not sure how long it will be before I've heard segments too many times. But - it's fun for now.

This evening/morning I worked on Sal's gun AND a pocketknife. Did some heat treating. The Wormhole Exhaust hood worked well. It's been raining on and off for days. Started pouring as I locked up

Thanks for reading!

Gary



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/2015 07:11AM by barnespneumatic.

Not sure if this was Jerry or Sean at the stick. Big ole bird. This isn't telephoto either. There's a helicopter repair shop at the local air park near us. Sometimes they seem to do their test laps over BPS. Then we have to straighten up. Haha.

This one looked pretty serious. With the mid air refueling snorkel and jet engines. With all those blades is can carry weight anybody know - troop carrier? Some kid's drone? What.

Gary

That is cool, always admired helicopters. Least you do not pose a threat!
Sounds like you are keeping very busy. I am back to the video I posted, one of those days!

Take care,

Pedro

Looks like a big 'ol Sikorsky H-53 of some variety, one of the largest helicopters made in the U.S. Jerry would probably be the one to ask about these, seeing as he's an ex squid type. The Army never bought any of these, but the Air Force, Navy and the Marines did.

Based on the fuel pod's shape and gear at the back of the fuselage, I think it is a MH-53E, the Navy's minesweeper version. The Marines have the similar CH-53E for heavy loads. A buddy of mine is the program manager for H-53s and is just this week celebrating first flight of the CH-53K which will replace the "E" model. Despite the name looking like it's just an upgrade, the "K" is entirely new. The K has three 7500HP engines while the E makes do with three 4300-4400HP engines. Huge and huger..

Thanks Jerry.

I thought you and Sean would have ideas. Interesting data.

Sounds like quite an engine package!

Hey, just from a "Gary Engineering's Eye", I wish they'd spent just a bit more time on that tail rotor. That thing looks so fragile, pathetic, and exposed back there. I know, it's probably 12' in diameter on a 5" shaft, but it just doesn't pass my "look test" haha.

Thanks Jerry,
Gary

Funny you should say that Gary, since this series has had repeated problems with helicopters crashing due to the tail rotor assembly folding up in flight. On some models of the 53 it's SUPPOSED to fold to fit them into ships hangars and such, but only on the ground of course. It's a known weak spot on a helicopter that otherwise looks to be engineered about as fragile and delicate as a bridge abutment.

The nature of aircraft works against the designers more than usual in this case, since just making it super-heavy-duty means making it super-heavy as well. Since the tail rotor sticks way out the back, any weight you add there has a really long moment arm and it means that you have to counter-balance it with even more weight up front to keep it hovering level. The only way around this particular problem is to use a helicopter design that doesn't need a tail rotor, such as the CH-47 Chinook, or the V-22, or the Russian K-32 series, but all of them are also more complex mechanically and have their own issues.

That is funny.

Personally, I'd never have even "proof of concept test flown" that tail. Especially as important as it is. It looks like a kid's beanie.

Gary

If you ever get a chance to check one out at an airshow, they're impressive beasts, just huge. The main rotor is about 80 feet in diameter, I'm not sure how big the tail rotor is but I'm pretty sure I've flown flown helicopters whose main rotors were smaller.

Their accident rate is terrible though, they crash roughly twice as often as other military helicopters on a per-flight-hour basis. Since they can carry a lot of troops it's always ugly when they do.