Metal powder in diff - wondering how bad?

[Darkspeed]

Well I thought I got it cleaned out with diesel until i did the finger test and there was a 1/2 of oil sludge in the bottom so i removed the vent and fed in a fuel hose from the top and have been flushing it with explosoline. it is slowly letting go of the crud and no mystery bits so far so that is good..

The drain is not bottom center so I did some jacking to get it close to bottom.

[Iceni John]

We called those may day lights Bruce or as one crazy pilot I knew called those prayer lights,you put your head between your legs say a prayer and kiss your a** goodbye when it flashes 

When I worked offshore the pilots used to talk about a Jesus nut, apparently something that would be Very Bad if it loosened.   With old Bell 212s, who knows?   I always looked apprehensively at the rotorhead area before I boarded my flights, not that it would help me much.   If we had to ditch we would flip over and sink anyway, so it wouldn't matter much!

John

[Boomer]

I thought pop out floats were required off shore. I had fixed floats on one of mine which operated over the Columbia River.  Yes, loss of Jesus Nut or a main blade would seal your doom.

[luvrbus]

Pop out floats may be required now,I spent a lot of time on PHI helicopters in the Gulf of Mexico, the Bell 206,407 and the Euro AS 350 none had pop out floats then but the last time I was on PHI helicopter in the Gulf of Mexico was 1996

[Iceni John]

All choppers in (OK, flying over) the North Sea must have floats, twin engines, passengers wearing full survival suits, etc etc, but a top-heavy chopper in heavy seas will invert and sink almost immediately.   That's why everyone has to take crash survival classes where they train you to get out of an upside-down helicopter simulator ten feet below the surface with a blindfold on in a freezing-cold pool.   No fun.   One of our pilots once had a Jesus light come on, but that was for a rotor blade losing internal pressure  -  he had to autorotate down next to a platform, but the standby boat towed him back and the crane pulled him up onto the helideck.   It was a false alarm, so he started it up and flew it back to shore!   Those were the days!

John

[Ed Hackenbruch]

All of my chopper experiences involved the tropics, jungles, rice paddies, and bullets. 

[digesterman]

Ouch, bullets in the oil pan not good

[Darkspeed]

This thread has come off the rails... lol..

[gg04]

All of my chopper experiences involved the tropics, jungles, rice paddies, and bullets. 

Me to . With the last one being 37's punching holes everywhere. rdw

[Boomer]

I can't recall if Part 135 single engine operators in the Gulf of Mexico are required by FAA regs to have floats but I am quite sure they are mandated by the contracting companies, ie Shell, BP, etc. to protect their workers.   Twins may be exempt.  Totally different game in the North Sea, weather and greater distances, plus Euro rules.  I was in a class once with world wide operators discussing go/no go wind speeds and everyone was mentioning around 60 knots.  A guy from Helikopter Services in Stavenger, Norway just laughed and said they fly in 100 knot storms all the time.  'Course they were flying heavy's.

[oltrunt]

Off the rails is right---but what fun!  Where I worked  as a COP required that I also be an EMT.  The result was many rides with search and rescue paramedics aboard a County owned Huey. It was mostly fun and games until one day when I was busy giving some poor guy a seat belt ticket while parked adjacent to the local airport.  Suddenly a helicopter appeared in my line of sight first heading up at an abrupt angle and then dropping from view.  I had been watching the little Bell doing touch and goes as I played traffic cop.  I tossed the subjects DL back in his window and said something like "this is your lucky day" before jumping back into my patrol car and driving through the chain link fence around the airport ( I caught Hell for that).  My partner and I arrived at the scene to find the Bell broken in half with the pilots compartment upside down and the rotor jammed in the ground.  The copilot had crawled out of the chopper but the pilot (on his "u bought it this is how U fly it" training run) was still hanging upside down by his seat belt.  Because I'm skinny, I was elected to crawl into the cockpit and cut the pilot out of his seat belt.  That was easy enough but just as I entered, the rotor snapped off and the copter rolled about 30 degrees.  Long story long enough.  all survived without injury (except the chopper).  Still seems like fun to ride in a helicopter--must be nuts.  Jack  My apology for further bending the rails!

[luvrbus]

Helicopters have been a love of mine since 1960 the 1st ride I was hooked for life lol all this talk about a helicopter makes me unhappy I sold my kit but the wife is happy