Fagnum PI

[530RL]

D model complete overhaul with paint to match the ship from Magnum PI. Off to Hawaii when completed.

Will post as she progresses.

Just picked up from paint shop.

 

[copterzach]

That is cool. I wish I could justify having one around. The cats ass for catching animals.


Aggie class of '97. WHOOP

 

[RiverDave]

Guy must be a serious fan! LOL

RD

 

[PVHCA]

Roger E. Mosely(TC) was in my shop about 6 months ago for some Lincoln Navigator centers, dude's angry and old, LOL!!

 

[Flyinbowtie]

Guy must be a serious fan! LOL

RD

Or there is a remake in the works, which wouldn't surprise me. They are remaking everything else these days.

 

[SKIDMARC]

who else is humming the theme song to magnum PI right now!

 

[Sleek-Jet]

So how are things in Kingman?

 

[530RL]

Static mast bolted to the deck. Swash plate and rotor head all kept on the ship with the Jesus nut. Main rotor drive shaft down through the mast to the main rotor transmission.

 

[530RL]

Need a rotor brake to slow that thing down in the wind or for track and balance....



The disc is placed between the tail rotor output shaft off the main rotor gearbox and the tail rotor drive shaft. The rotor brake is an option, about 25k. The lever for the brake is above the right ear of the pilot seat. I typically do not use it unless in high wind or doing maintenance work.

 

[530RL]

Need to go left, right forward back. Rotor controls for cyclic connected to swash plate....

 

[530RL]

Need to suck in some air and squeeze it before we burn it and exhaust it.....

 

[530RL]

Actually need the whole package....compressor, gear box, turbine with burner can and accessories.



Air is sucked into the compressor, on the top and compressed. The air is then fed through the tubes on the right and left and flow into the burner can on the bottom. Fuel is introduced out of the nozzle at the bottom of the burner can and the fuel and compressed air burned in the burner can, then flows through two turbine wheels and two nozzles known as the gas producer section or GP. The compressor and the gas producer section are connected by a shaft through the gear box. The next section up is the power turbine or PT section. The expanding gas flows through the number 3 and 4 turbine wheels and the number 3 and 4 nozzles and the exhaust gases produces power to turn the transmission which is then reduced to apply power to the transmission which turns the blades. Just that simple.

If you have ever heard of a "hot start", that is where the compressor and the gas producer section are not spinning fast enough prior to the introduction of fuel such that the fire is too hot and does not exhaust fast enough. The result is a large bill.......which is good for the turbine shop.

 

[rivrrts429]

I rode in one just like that. I don't know jack shit about helicopters but it seemed to be like a Ferrari. Hauled Ass !!

 

[530RL]

Main transmission waiting for coupling shaft once engine is installed.

 

[TBI]

Great pics and very educational! :thumbup:

 

[Sleek-Jet]

Mr. King, are out at FFZ or SDL?

 

[RitcheyRch]

very cool. One of these days I want to go for a ride in a helicopter.

 

[530RL]

Guy must be a serious fan! LOL

RD

Going to a hawaii tour operator. People who grew up in the 80's pay more money to ride in it with doors off......as Jay Z said.....all about the benjamins baby....

 

[Flyinbowtie]

I love helicopters and love flying in them. I wish I'd learned to fly as a young man..

 

[530RL]

I love helicopters and love flying in them. I wish I'd learned to fly as a young man..

My grandfather was career military starting in the army/air corp prior to the air force. My uncle was a helicopter guy in vietnam, my dad was in the apollo program in the army and they all told me the same. Much better off figuring out how to make enough money to own one and learn how to fly it than do it for a living because flying helicopters for a living is not much of a living. Great job, lots of fun but pay is shit.

I love flying them, and used to own a rolls royce gas turbine over-haul facility which is where I learned to fly them. In the mean time, I love working on them and do so all the time when my work allows me the time off. Pre-flights are much better when you have spent time putting them together. You actually understand what the hell you are looking at.....

 

[530RL]

Mr. King, are out at FFZ or SDL?

I previously kept my 530F at Quantum which is at Chandler. One of the best shop in the nation for 500's and does a lot of work for Boeing and special forces is west of Falcon. Not a big fan of scottsdale. I grew up in Maryvale so the scottsdale crowd is not my cup of tea. I learned to fly from a Boeing guy who is a great person and very good with 500's.

 

[530RL]

Here is the tail rotor gearbox and blades prior to putting on the vertical and horizontal. A large diameter but super light tail rotor drive shaft runs from the rear of the main gear box (see the picture with the rotor brake) down the tail boom. The tail rotor gear box is basically a 90 degree gear box with a set of forks, fixed and rotating plates. Two forks press in and out to change the pitch of the blades. The blades remain at the same rpm throughout flight, or at least should.....

 

[ka0tyk]

i hate no clue wtf any of this stuff is, but it looks cool.

 

[GhettoBird]

The D models were the best ones they produced until the 530. I'd like to try out the new 540 one of these days.

 

[Tommy Gun Images]

The 500s will always be one of my favorite helicopters... Cool, small and fast

 

[Tank]

The 500s will always be one of my favorite helicopters... Cool, small and fast

Totally. Used to love looking up and seeing a 500 roll in to assist. The no-tar's are bad ass too. Heck, if you're going to rebuild one might as well theme it.

 

[rivrrts429]

 

[Tank]

They ever reveal if Higgins was actually master what's his face and not just the care taker??

 

[rivrrts429]

They ever reveal if Higgins was actually master what's his face and not just the care taker??

I don't remember but as a kid I wanted his Dobermans, Zeus & Apollo

 

[Sleek-Jet]

They ever reveal if Higgins was actually master what's his face and not just the care taker??

I think on the last episode. They answered the Robin Masters question, but I can't remember the answer.

 

[RogerThat99]

They ever reveal if Higgins was actually master what's his face and not just the care taker??

If I remember correctly, they implied Higgins could really be Robin Masters...but they never said for sure. I could be wrong, but that is how I remember it.

 

[530RL]

Vertical and horizontal is on and set up. Must be trimmed so that it is at the appropriate angle or the ship does not trim right and will porpoise. Doors are in the background. We hang them on a rack when the ship is in final assembly so it is easy to climb in and out. 500's don't like air conditioners so doors off is pretty much necessary in the summer.

 

[530RL]

Picture from the front. Windows have a film on the inside and outside to prevent scratching. That is peeled off prior to ground runs. Notice the landing gear does not yet have its fairing on. They are added later as they can be scratched during assembly. Covers are put over them once on to protect from scratching. Landing skids have a pvc pipe over them to protect them. The top hole on the front is for fresh air. A duct runs from that opening. There is a flapper valve manually opened and closed to allow air in. Heat is provided by taking bleed air off the compressor as the air comes in. For summer, the heater you simply leave the valve closed. Opening the valve decreases engine power slightly. In cooler climates the engine will make more power so it is not an issue. In the summer, you don't want heat and you need all the power you can get in certain applications. The bottom hole has a landing light in it which has an on/off switch on the cyclic lever. The black thing sticking out on the very bottom is a pitot tube. It has an electric element heater in it for winter conditions to prevent freezing which would screw up instrumentation.

 

[Sleek-Jet]

So do you test fly it before shipping, or is that left up to the customer?

 

[530RL]

So do you test fly it before shipping, or is that left up to the customer?

It's a lot more than test flying and it is not risky at all. I will go through all of that as the thread progresses. Tomorrow more pictures and explanations of how simple this thing really is. A great design from the 60's.

 

[rightytighty]

Cool stuff, and I read every post like this.. but I always end up thinking I liked it better when I thought it was "magic" that shit filies.. "Jesus nut".. What a name.. If I ever get a ride in one, I'm gonna stare up at the rotor the whole time, and wonder about that f'ing nut.. thanks!

 

[Sleek-Jet]

It's a "Jesus Nut" because if it fails you get to meet Jesus.

A friend of mine has a story about that from Vietnam.

 

[530RL]

This picture is the lower part of the rotor control. The control tubes come up from the cyclic and collective. The operate the lower plate which is stationary. If you raise the collective, the whole plate raises up. If you want to move in a direction, the lower plate tilts raising one side more than the other. The plate just above the lower plate is the rotating swash plate. It is the star shaped one with the pitch links to each blade grip.



This picture shows the lower plate with more detail on the upper rotating swash plate. The rotating swash plate is driven by the scissor link. When the lower plate raises, the rotating swash plate raises which moves the pitch links to each blade grip. If you want to hover each blade changes equally up throughout the entire 360 degrees of its rotation. If you want to go in a direction, the lower plate tilts such that as the rotating swash plate rides over the lower plate, each blade pitches up or down in the rotation to provide appropriate lift. If you want to go forward, you need more lift in the rear relative to the front. However the blades are rotating is a circle. So the point of the rotating swash plate is to change the pitch of each blade as it goes through the 360 degrees. So as a blade rotates, the pitch of it changes through each degree of rotation. That provides the directional control of the helicopter.

 

[530RL]

This is a picture of the engine dressed and ready for installation. It has been taken off the engine stand and placed on a engine hoist, like a car hoist but more expensive for no reason. Notice the black piece in the middle. That is a sprag clutch. This attaches to, and drives the main rotor transmission. Basically, a drive shaft. The sprag clutch is critical. In the unlikely event the engine quits (known as the donkey in helicopter speak) you do not want the rotor system to slow down also. So if the donkey quits, the rotor system can freewheel so that if you are an average pilot, you can enter autorotation, control the rotor speed and set down in hopefully a nice place.

 

[530RL]

Here is an auto in a 500 with the engine pulled to idle. The sprag clutch is engaged so that the pilot can control the rotor rpm with air flowing up through the blades as it descends. The original flare in the first auto is a little high and a little soon so he runs on down the field. Second one a little better. With practice, one can stuff an auto into a fairly small space and there are competitions to do so. Commercial practical standards are that you have to be able to hit a spot within 50 feet. 100 feet for a private pilot.

[video=youtube;5-V_NO7YIbE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-V_NO7YIbE[/video]

 

[Guest]

Love this thread

 

[Racey]

Badass stuff :thumbup:

 

[Old Man Havasu]

Roger E. Mosely(TC) was in my shop about 6 months ago for some Lincoln Navigator centers, dude's angry and old, LOL!!

He was angry back in the 80's! Used to come in and buy sports stuff. Rude and arrogant. Sad

 

[530RL]

Let's talk about the donkey. Helicopters run the rotor at a constant rpm. As you pull pitch, the engine governor senses a need for more power and adds fuel. In this picture you see the compressor. The compressor is attached to the N1 section, or gas producer through a shaft that runs through the gear box. N1 when delivering power runs at about 50,000 rpm. The air compressed by the compressor and fed to the burner can and the N1 section expands into the N2/GP or gas producer section. The hot exhausting gasses allow the N2 section to run at about 30,000 rpm. As you need more power, more fuel is added to the burner can and the hotter and faster spinning N1 power turbine section pushes more gas through the N2 section. The N2 section drives the gear box which reduces the rpm from the N2 section to about 6,000 rpm. That rpm is transferred to the main rotor gear box that then reduces it to the appropriate rpm for the rotor system. Just that simple.



Attached is a picture of the turbine section. The burner can on the end has the fire. The lower section is the gas producer or N1. It blows through into the N2 section and out the exhaust stack.



The hard lines are oil lines that send oil from the engine gearbox to the bearings in the engine.

 

[530RL]

The middle gauge in the dash panel is the most important instrument on a helicopter. It has two indicators overlayed. The outer scale and the outer indicator is N2 rpm. N2 is the Power turbine section or what spins your rotor system. When the donkey is operating, the N2 indicator shows the rpm as a percentage that the engine is putting out. If the donkey quits, the N2 section needle will start falling away. The inner scale is Rotor RPM. This is important to living. In the event the donkey quits, one needs to lower rotor rpm to keep it in the green. Essentially using altitude and velocity to keep the rotor system running up in the green. If the donkey quits, the pilot hopefully enters autorotation using altitude and airspeed to keep the rotor system moving. As you get close to the ground, one flairs and raises the collective using the stored energy to make a nice controlled touchdown.



The two lower gauges are TOT, turbine outlet temperature and torque. A turbine helicopter by design is limited to either a maximum turbine outlet temperature or a maximum amount of torque. The heavier you are and the hotter it is outside requires more power. You run out of power in a turbine helicopter when you either reach maximum TOT or you reach maximum torque. So, in the winter time, you may reach maximum torque before you reach maximum temperature. Put another way, the engine can continue to make more power, but you have reached maximum amount of torque for the design of the helicopter. In the summer, you aircraft may be able to take more power, more torque, but your turbine has reached the maximum amount of heat it is designed for.

 

[530RL]

This picture shows the tail rotor. The tail rotor control works just like the main rotor with a stationary plate and a rotating plate. The difference being that the tail rotor blades only need to provide lateral thrust so all it does is add pitch or take away pitch equally throughout the 360 degree location. The only purpose of a tail rotor is to counteract the rotation of the main rotor system. In an american helicopter, the main rotor blades turn counter clockwise. As the rotor system turns to the left, the aircraft wants to turn to the right to counter act the torque. So as you apply more power, you need more lateral thrust to turn the nose to the left. In this picture the tail rotor blades are show the least amount of pitch creating the least amount of thrust.



As you add more power, you need more thrust to counteract this torque. In this picture, the tail rotor is shown in the fully extended position. As you press the left pedal, the fixed plate pushes out the rotating plate and the rotating plate pushes the pitch links to change the angle of the blade to add more thrust to turn the nose left.



If the donkey quits and you enter autorotation, there is no longer any torque and you step on the right pedal reducing lateral thrust.

Interestingly, european and russian helicopters main rotor system rotates clockwise. In this case, as you add power you need more right pedal and if you enter autorotation, you press on the left pedal reducing thrust.....

 

[530RL]

 

[copterzach]

Lots of cool pics and info. I think I have forgotten most of the technical stuff. I know that I could not pass a commercial written right now.


Aggie class of '97. WHOOP

 

[530RL]

The engine is installed. On the bottom you will see two dampeners one for each landing gear. These are pressure filled to allow the landing gear to flex when landing. On the upper right there is an engine oil cooler. This is fed from the engine with the in line and out line just to the coolers left. On the upper left is a cooler for the main rotor transmission. An exhaust stack will attach to the exhaust outlets and exit out the rear engine clam shells. On the end of the burner can is a fuel line and a fuel nozzle.


The canister filter on the left is a fuel filter. The canister filter on the right is a oil filter. Both filters have a bypass indicator that you check on pre-flight. If the bypass is popped out, you have a clogged filter. The fuel system has an additional pressure switch that lights up on the panel if the pressure differential is high indicating a fuel problem and a potential impending flame out of the donkey. That light means head for the ground immediately.

 

[530RL]

This picture is off the main rotor mast deck. It is on the left or pilots side. The bellcrank runs the tail rotor control. If you press the left pedal, the bell crank extends and adds more pitch to the tail rotor blades.