Interesting Helicopter Blade Calibration Kamov

Tantalum

Tantalum

Final Approach
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San_Diego_Pilot
Wow... they paint the ends of blades, fire up the helicopter, then while the rotors are spinning gently touch a fabric on a stick to it

Also.. love that there are no torque wrenches, whatever.. they're basically working on a tractor and just tightening things by feel

 
When I first started out we would track rotor blades using a brromstick and a piece of chalk taped to the end. Stand under the rotor disk running at RPM and flat pitch, then gently raise the stick till it slightly contacted. Shut down and check which blades got marked, make adjustments, clean off chalk marks and repeat till all blades got the same mark.
 
Tantalum said:
Wow... they paint the ends of blades, fire up the helicopter, then while the rotors are spinning gently touch a fabric on a stick to it

Also.. love that there are no torque wrenches, whatever.. they're basically working on a tractor and just tightening things by feel

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All you need to work on a Russian helicopter is a hammer and chisel. :eek:
 
Tantalum said:
Wow...
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Ha, good ol' "flag" tracking. Back in the day, we all had to prove our prowess with the flag method before they would let us track/balance with the strobe method. Hardest part was not extending flag/tape too far into the rotor disc and breaking the tape. Or as some geniuses would learn the hard way, the blades are color coded for a reason, so when you mark the blade tips you should use the same color as the blade you're marking.o_O

Here's another version:
 
Two helicopters,

one US, one Russian
both twin contra-rotating rotors
both look like old bread vans
both twin boom
both twin vert. stabiliser
both, well, ugly
both made by Kamxx.

How can this be?

Every time I see either, an image, never seen either one in real life, I think "that's one of those weird Russian helicopters". Sometimes I am not wrong.

upload_2020-3-26_20-22-14.jpeg upload_2020-3-26_20-23-0.jpeg
 
So sounded like a piston starting up- had intakes like a turbine. Turns out those are radial engines in there. Crazy. Goes back to helos are just witchcraft plain and simple
 
Spring Ford said:
I think "that's one of those weird Russian helicopters". Sometimes I am not wrong.
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FYI: the way to separate the US one is that the Russian has the M/R discs stacked in separate plains, one on top of the other. In the US version, the two separate rotor discs are mounted side by side and inter-mesh with each other on intersecting/angled plains. At the old day job we picked up 2 later versions called the KMAX but had the same M/R system. A sight to see.
 
Doc Holliday said:
track rotor blades using a brromstick and a piece of chalk taped to the end
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Bell206 said:
good ol' "flag" tracking
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Wow.. I had no idea the method was that low tech.. I assumed this was just some crazy back country Russo-Hungarian way of doing it

So how do they decide who gets to hold the stick up to the blades??
 
benyflyguy said:
So sounded like a piston starting up- had intakes like a turbine. Turns out those are radial engines in there. Crazy. Goes back to helos are just witchcraft plain and simple
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the KA-26 is pretty cool, there are some real cowboy videos on YouTube of these things cruising the Hungarian countryside either just tooling around or crop dusting. They're the stuff of dieselpunk fantasy

They seem rather indestructible.

Inside at around 2min.. sounds like something out of Star Wars.. that tree at 2:47!
 
Used to be pretty common on Hueys back in the day. I wanna know who holds the stick for the inflight tracking check! ;) It’s all fancy computers and laser beams these days.
 
Tantalum said:
So how do they decide who gets to hold the stick up to the blades??
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Until the mid to late 60s it was the only way to track the M/R. Once the Chadwick 177 system became widespread, that method fell to the way side but the procedure remained in the MMs until the late 80s if I remember correctly. However, once the track was done, you had to balance the M/R which relied on wrapping fixed lengths of tape at a certain point for the tip of the M/R blade until it "felt" balanced. Then you weighed the tape and added a calculated lead weight equivalent to the M/R hub or hollow blade bolts. Then you went fly with an "experienced" pilot (per the MM) and it was all trail and error to get the best ride.
 
I've tracked blades using the Vibrex on Hueys and CH-46 Sea Knights. I've also used the newer track and balance system on the 46's. No smoke and mirrors. It pretty straight forward.
 
Bell206 said:
Only if you have the money. My "state-of-the-art" ACES 2020 runs on Windows 3.1 and still uses a strobe.:)
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To be honest, I think that’s what our mech uses. RADS or micro vibe kit, all I know it’s crap that I worry about flying off in flight! :D We actually did the tail rotor on our little “green machine” this week.


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The State of MS used to have a couple of those. I think the forestry dept used them
 
ktup-flyer said:
The State of MS used to have a couple of those. I think the forestry dept used them
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Used to have a.m couple what? 407s (mildly surprising)? Kamans (very surprising)? Or Kamovs (exceptionally surprising)?


I’ve seen Kamans in person and they’re really cool machines. I’d love to see an older Kamov, but don’t have any trips planned to Russia anytime soon.
 
Velocity173 said:
RADS or micro vibe kit, all I know it’s crap that I worry about flying off in flight!
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Ha. Don't care for Micro-Vib even though it was developed by former Chadwick engineers. The only reason I went ACES was I couldn't get my 177 fixed anymore.:( However, give me a RADS and I'll balance the moon.:eek:
 
Tantalum said:
Wow... they paint the ends of blades, fire up the helicopter, then while the rotors are spinning gently touch a fabric on a stick to it
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My father was an aircraft and helicopter mechanic in the US Army in Korea. He was there just after the fighting stopped. According to his stories, this is the same method that he used to check blade tracking.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
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skier said:
Used to have a.m couple what? 407s (mildly surprising)? Kamans (very surprising)? Or Kamovs (exceptionally surprising)?


I’ve seen Kamans in person and they’re really cool machines. I’d love to see an older Kamov, but don’t have any trips planned to Russia anytime soon.
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Kaman K225. Mississippi State Geological Survey
 
jimhorner said:
My father was an aircraft and helicopter mechanic in the US Armynin Korea. He was there just after the fighting stopped. According to his stories, this is the same method that he used to checknblade tracking.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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Learn something new everyday!

I guess I assumed these things would self track just based on the amount of lift generated and the centrifugal force
 
Tantalum said:
Learn something new everyday!

I guess I assumed these things would self track just based on the amount of lift generated and the centrifugal force
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One blade flying a half inch above the others will cause a significant bump felt in the controls and airframe. This is typically adjusted by using pitchlinks on the rotor grip. Once you get the blades in track then you must fly the helicopter and check inflight track. Those adjustments are typically done bending the trim tab on the blades.
 
I saw a Kamov flying around at Danang airport a few years ago when I was leaving on an Airbus. Cool looking things to watch. Re: the video, I wonder why they didn't do the top blades first? Seems like it would have been easier.
 
skier said:
I’d love to see an older Kamov, but don’t have any trips planned to Russia anytime soon.
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FYI: I believe there's a Ka-32 still operating in Canada. It's the big brother of the one above. Saw it in action years ago when there was talk of allowing them in the US for restricted work.
 
Velocity173 said:
To be honest, I think that’s what our mech uses. RADS or micro vibe kit, all I know it’s crap that I worry about flying off in flight! :D We actually did the tail rotor on our little “green machine” this week.


View attachment 83960
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Dang. She looks good fresh out of paint.
 
k9medic said:
Dang. She looks good fresh out of paint.
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I’m the only one out here who likes the colors! Always liked a green, white and gold combo. I switched her out Wednesday with our primary so she should be on a reposition today actually.
 
Even in the early to mid 80’s we would use a tracking flag...if we were having issues with the Vibrex to track our UH-1s, AH-1s and evening OH-58’s...often was used to get it close as a first step then use the electronics to fine tune.
 
I ran up an Agusta 109E one time while the mechanic did this same type of tracking. Put grease on a piece of paper if I recall.

The microvibe was messed up and was about 270 degrees out so every change they made was wrong. Had to start back at zero so they used the grease as a starting point to make sure.
 
Velocity173 said:
To be honest, I think that’s what our mech uses. RADS or micro vibe kit, all I know it’s crap that I worry about flying off in flight! :D We actually did the tail rotor on our little “green machine” this week.
Click to expand...

I recognize that bird.
 
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