By now, it is in all probability grow to be evident simply how particular and spectacular helicopters are. Whereas fixed-wing plane are spectacular in equal measure, there’s one thing about with the ability to land virtually anyplace you need with out the necessity for a runway that simply cannot be beat. This function, alongside a myriad of others, such because the craft’s means to adapt to many conditions {that a} fixed-wing airplane would have a troublesome time adjusting to, has made helicopters one of many go-to plane for a lot of fields. From information groups, politicians, and CEOs zooming throughout cities in a Bell 407 to the navy neutralizing a harmful enemy utilizing the extremely quick AH-64, these machines could be discovered virtually in every single place. Nonetheless, this doesn’t suggest that they’re excellent in each manner.
Like many machines, helicopters can expertise malfunctions and different equally harmful points. Amongst these is mast bumping, the place the rotor hub pivots a lot it hits the mast. Should you assume this sounds unhealthy, it’s. A collision between the hub and mast could cause rotor separation, typically resulting in catastrophic failure. This often happens whereas the helicopter is within the air and often leads to lack of management, doubtlessly inflicting a crash.
The rotor system is the helicopter’s beating coronary heart
Each helicopter’s secret to flight is the rotor system, which generates elevate. The rotor system can be answerable for permitting the helicopter to show midair, making it one of the vital essential elements of the plane. It consists of the mast, a hole cylindrical shaft that juts from the helicopter’s prime hub, the rotor blades, that are the spinning knife-like protrusions everyone knows and affiliate with helicopters, and the hub, which is the attachment level the place the blades hyperlink to the mast.
After all, there are a number of rotor programs, every categorised based on how the rotor blades are connected. The primary ones embrace semi-rigid rotor programs or teetering rotors, which have two blades connected to the hub, totally articulated rotor programs, the place every blade strikes independently of the opposite, and inflexible rotor programs, the place the blade roots are rigidly mounted to the hub. Every of those programs has its personal set of execs and cons. Nonetheless, mast bumping is closely (although not solely) related to the primary.
The possibilities of mast bumping are often low
Mast bumping can happen in virtually any helicopter, no matter whether or not it is a navy or civilian helicopter. Whereas these with totally articulated and inflexible rotor programs are additionally in danger, these with semi-grid programs are those that file probably the most mast bumping incidents. It is because semi-grid programs function blades that flap whereas rotating. Whereas this motion is critical, it will possibly trigger the hub to collide with the mast.
It ought to be famous, although, that the possibilities of mast bumping are often low, particularly contemplating that these helicopters have security margins designed to cut back the probability of such errors occurring. Regardless of this, components akin to human error, which often contain poor pilot methods like abrupt inputs and sideways flight on the helicopter’s most velocity, and environmental circumstances like uneven climate, can result in mast bumping.
The easiest way to forestall mast bumping is to fly the helicopter based on coaching, avoiding low-g circumstances as a lot as doable. Whether or not you are in the quickest navy helicopter ever constructed or in a leisure chopper taking within the countryside, it is necessary to at all times keep alert and comply with correct procedures when flying.
