Modified engine after-crash checkup?

[uh1medic]

Just a quick poll on who sends in their modified engine for a checkup after a crash.

Mine seems to be running well and no wobbles on the crankshaft to the naked eye, but unsure how easily the crank might twist when the blade-hit brings the engine to a sudden stop.

[Doug Darby]

The only time I have sent an engine in for inspection was after it hit hard on the bottom and broke blades on the fan. In that case my crank needed straightening and a new fan mounted. The other 12,978 crashes since I started flying gassers the engine has always performed as designed.

[fastflyer20]

My numbers are similar, 11,421 crashes took out two flywheels and knocked the cranks out of true. I have checked after a few other hard crashes, seems it takes the flywheel hit to do the trick. I have not had any blade hit knock the crank out of true.

When I trued Doug's crank, it started out almost as twisted as he is

[uh1medic]

Wow!! And I thought my 10,000 crashes sucked! By my math, that's about $500,000 in crash costs! Lol.

Thanks for the input guys. The info is indeed encouraging since there is no outward evidence of damage to the engine.

[rbort]

How is that possible??

As far as my modified engines, I send mine in to Hanson just about every time I have any major crash, and in most cases he does find the crank to be tweaked somewhat. I rarely crash so for me its a peace of mind that everything is perfect and that my heli is as smooth as it can be. If you crash alot you might want to combine a couple of crashes together before sending it in, that is if you think the first one wasn't "too bad".

-=>Raja.

[uh1medic]

That was my thinking too. The physical laws of motion regarding what happens when a certain mass comes to an abrupt stop makes me scratch my head... With some of the new data logging capabilities of today's FBL controllers, I think I'll bench test the helicopter before I put the blades on to see what is logged for vibes. Unfortunately I don't have a pre-crash baseline log to compare with...

[rbort]

Send the engine out and see what your builder says he found, then test it again.

Its worthwhile for me to make sure its perfect. I mean look at my Spectra, I flew it over 1150 flights in 3 years (about 350 hours) and never sent the motor in to Hanson for any reason. When I told him its been 3 years he said send it in I'll give you a free refresh, I want to see how it looks inside.

-=>Raja.

[Doug Darby]

Pretty standard for Team Pilots.

[rbort]

I pay for all my service work at Al in general, that was an offer from him as he wanted to see the engine with that much uninterrupted time on it. Basically he put a new ring in it, seals and bearings and sent it back.

-=>Raja.

[Doug Darby]

Hummmm... I just thought you listed Hanson in your signature as you were sponsored by Hanson? Guess if you are paying full price like anyone off the street I'll humbly stand corrected.

[rbort]

I'm not sponsored but I do get a discount with him. Sponsored pilots in my view are the pro pilots that get everything for free, whenever they crash they just call up and say I need parts and they get them. With the discount its not sponsorship but more like dealer pricing, or for example sort of what you can get when retailers are having a sale, like Ron's at the moment due to closing the business.

Its in the listing at the bottom because its stuff that I fly to be honest, generators, demons, hanson engines. Its not because of any sponsorship so to speak, none are via the definition of free, not even Jewel generators, only dealer pricing for me there too!!

-=>Raja.

[Doug Darby]

I have a little different view of "sponsorship" than Raja does... To me a company that provides discounted parts or services is "sponsoring" that person so they will advertise and support their products. So I still believe what he did for you and your high mileage engine was "pretty standard for a pilot with the relationship you have with the vendor". Call it what ever you like. My point was that I would think that any vendor would be less likely to provide free parts and services for a casual customer off the street with a high hour engine as opposed to a "trusted" long term customer he knows well and has provided discounted services to over the years. Pretty normal deal...

[rbort]

That's fine Doug, you can describe it as you wish, but when you said above "Pretty standard for Team Pilots" my point is no its not standard for me, that was an exception. In other words standard is pay for all services and non standard is get some service for free as he did for me there... Two different things.

Anyway, I'm glad we got that cleared up

-=>Raja.

[Doug Darby]

I will sleep soooo much better tonight now that we have that alllll cleared up...

[uh1medic]

You guys are too funny. Thanks for your input😉

[rbort]

Doug I need to know before I go to bed, is your discount bigger than mine??!

-=>Raja.

[Doug Darby]

It's confidential... I don't want you knowing how big my Hanson discount is!
You might get discombobulated and the next thing you know Larry is rear ending you in traffic!!!!

[jharkin]

I dont want to get into the middle of the argument guys - but I dont think even the sponsored pilots get everythign free. I once asked this question of John Glezelis (fixed wing XFC level pilot - Raja has met him too he lives around here). He told me the team pilots get significant discounts and they get free service from DA and sometimes free parts and repair from their airframe sponsor - but outside some small exceptions even the pro's do not get their airframes, engines or radios for free.

This is not Formula One or Nascar.. I guess heli land could be different from planes but I really doubt any of these guys do it for a full time living unless they get a side job marketing for their own brand or one of the big suppliers like Bert, QuiQue, Mike McConville etc.

[rbort]

No Doug, I'm talking Toxic TRM motors, that's your sponsor not Hanson But I'm sure its confidential so you don't have to say it, no worries!

Jeremy, in the heli world some people do get free stuff, those are the people I call sponsored, they are usually the team pilots/pro pilots. But its not everything unless they are sponsored by different folks, like radios would be different than helis, than fuel, and than engines for example. But those are few, usually the pro pilots you see their names floating around at events.

-=>Raja.

[rbort]

Any BY the way Doug, for the record, there is no additional discount on engines from Hanson for any team pilots or whatnot, the engines are already discounted, check the prices here:

http://www.bhhanson.com/aircraft_helicopter.htm

I pay the same price for the engines as anyone else off the street - if you compare them to Toxic TRM engine prices, they are $100 cheaper or dealer price per say in comparison to the Toxic ones. The only discount I get would be on service.

For example, a Hanson 300 3D max is $465, the Toxic 300 is $559?

-=>Raja.