After an uneventful flight in the Cherokee today, I decided to fly the R22. In preflight I noticed that the blade at 12 o'clock was low -- like eye level, and the 6 o'clock blade is, because the blades are on a teeter hinge, high. I went over the rotor assembly real carefully, and couldn't find anything wrong.
So I get the helicopter out of the hangar, fire it up and run the checklist. Nothing unusual.
Being a chicken, I taxiied for a while to the mid-field intersection to let the engine warm up and to see if anything unusual happened. The gauges are where they should be, no warning lights. So I announce my departure, and start my takeoff. About the time I passed the runway threshold, I feel like I'm getting more vibration than I should. So I stay in the pattern, and on downwind I called unicom and ask if the airport manager (who had been my primary instructor) could go fly with me for a little bit.
Nothing unusual happened in the landing and he climbed aboard and did some aggressive hover work. Again all normal. He then flew a pattern and pronounced that all was well -- then he got out and I went on to do a joy ride (with a hair trigger set to autorotate if I had to).
Thankfully, nothing bad happened and I returned after 1.1 hours.
I think this was all in my head -- triggered by the unusual blade position.
I guess it's kind of like how engines always make funny sounds when you fly over water
Still, I'm glad I asked for an adult to look at the aircraft -- the extra vibration could have been real instead of in my head!
So I get the helicopter out of the hangar, fire it up and run the checklist. Nothing unusual.
Being a chicken, I taxiied for a while to the mid-field intersection to let the engine warm up and to see if anything unusual happened. The gauges are where they should be, no warning lights. So I announce my departure, and start my takeoff. About the time I passed the runway threshold, I feel like I'm getting more vibration than I should. So I stay in the pattern, and on downwind I called unicom and ask if the airport manager (who had been my primary instructor) could go fly with me for a little bit.
Nothing unusual happened in the landing and he climbed aboard and did some aggressive hover work. Again all normal. He then flew a pattern and pronounced that all was well -- then he got out and I went on to do a joy ride (with a hair trigger set to autorotate if I had to).
Thankfully, nothing bad happened and I returned after 1.1 hours.
I think this was all in my head -- triggered by the unusual blade position.
I guess it's kind of like how engines always make funny sounds when you fly over water
Still, I'm glad I asked for an adult to look at the aircraft -- the extra vibration could have been real instead of in my head!
