AW139 ops suspended

[Shamrock145]

Story from RTÉ, 25th August 2011

The Air Corps has temporarily suspended operations of its six Agusta Westland 139 helicopters.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0825/aircorps.html

Outside of the Air Corps, the 139 is proving to be slightly problematic around the back end.

...145

[aw139]

hope to see them back in the air soon ill be up around casement in awhile if there out on the ramp ill get some snaps of them




aw139

[Baldonnel-boy]

hope to see them back in the air soon ill be up around casement in awhile if there out on the ramp ill get some snaps of them




aw139

Be Careful.....   


 

[Stanly]

Only says photographs - nothing about snaps or digital images...........

[Machlooper]

Yis have been warned !!! 
 

[Tony Kearns]

Gentlemen I have not seen that sign, where exactly is it?
Tony K

[Machlooper]

where exactly is it?

Inside the tech stores gate at the corner facing the old test bench. Anyone who stops at that gate can see it if they a bold enough to look in  

[Baldonnel-boy]

Inside the tech stores gate at the corner facing the old test bench. Anyone who stops at that gate can see it if they a bold enough to look in 

There may be one there but its not the one in the pic....       

There are ones all along the perimeter of Bal ..... when I'm at work I regularly see them without having to look through gates......   

[Machlooper]

without having to look through gates

Yeh I know were the rest of them are I don't  get to see them heading away from Bal at s high rate of knots...., no not flying, smoking rubber away from the place at home time !!!!  

[Blue Monday]

It looks like they should have kept the Alouettes after all. Isn't A195 in good condition at Baldonnel? Maybe they can wheel her out and fire her up. She will gladly carry the slack while the AW139s get sorted out.

Seriously though, it will be interesting to see how the tail rotor issue is solved. Will they have to redesign the tail rotor altogether or just improve the manufacturing process? And when they do solve the problems, will they replace the tail rotors free-of-charge to operators (as car manufacturers usually do when they find defects in their products) or will they charge all operators for the new replacement blades? Thankfully, none of the IAC AW139s have suffered any serious incidents as a result of these problems and all the crews are OK.

BM.
 

[Machlooper]

One of the fleet back flying as of yesterday 

[heligaz]

It looks like they should have kept the Alouettes after all. Isn't A195 in good condition at Baldonnel? Maybe they can wheel her out and fire her up. She will gladly carry the slack while the AW139s get sorted out.

Seriously though, it will be interesting to see how the tail rotor issue is solved. Will they have to redesign the tail rotor altogether or just improve the manufacturing process? And when they do solve the problems, will they replace the tail rotors free-of-charge to operators (as car manufacturers usually do when they find defects in their products) or will they charge all operators for the new replacement blades? Thankfully, none of the IAC AW139s have suffered any serious incidents as a result of these problems and all the crews are OK.

BM.
 

I think the AIII's should be brought back into service alright, nothing but trouble with the 139's since they came and the AIII's would be a bit cheaper to operate.

 As far as I know the problem with the Tail Rotor is actually with the tail rotor blades. The blades seem to be braking in flight near the attatchment point and causing an unbalance when they shear off thus bringing the TR gearbox with them. Looks like every tail rotor blade has to be replaced after 600hrs now. I doubt AW will pay for the baldes either only improve the manufacturing process.