Click here to close
New Message Alert
EC145 Bashing





EC145 Bashing  

  Click Here to have an E-mail Sent to you when a new message is added to this thread
Author: An Army Guy   Date: 7/19/2021 3:55:09 PM  +4/-2  

Surely, I'm not the only one who's not a fan-boy of the stupid Lakota.  Anyone else have anything to add to my list?

1. Ridiculously expensive for a plastic piece of crap.


2. AC is worthless.  It sn't cold and is broken on most Army models (over 200 of them at Fort Rucker alone).  To be clear, of the 500 or so the Army is buying only 50-100 of them have AC. 

 

 

3. Mast Moment indicator and limits.  Too easy to accidentally exceed a limit when doing simple slope operations, dodging a bird, etc.  Is the main mast really that weak to need this?  Does the EC135 have this?


4.  Corrosion, Corrosion, Corrosion.  Never seen an engine with disimilar metals causing so many problems.  Brand new aircraft have corrosion all over the main/tail rotor and engine areas that I've never seen on another helicopter.  The Army is having to put anti-corrosive stuff (messy and ugly) all over parts that should never have needed it.  We don't need this stuff on any other Army aircraft.


5. VARTOMs (variable torque matching).  This is not a "wow" feature for those of us who have flown dual engine aircraft before (AIRBUS writeups make it sound like it's some new-fangled system)... it's a standard requirement for dual engine design/safety.  The issue is it has constant issues on the EC145 (most flights you'll have a Master Caution for a VARTOMs caution come on at least once if not 3-10 times, which is really distracting in fight).


6. Fuel reading is sensitive to aircraft attitude like we've never seen before in other Army aircraft.  Granted, if you had the fuel flow meter in your aircraft it would do the work for you, but the Army didn't buy that.  If you start your fuel check at 90kts, you have to get a reading again at a 90kt attitude otherwise it will be pretty different burn rates.  Unnecessarily annoying design flaw. 


7. Cheap parts.  The sliding door rollers feel "grindy" after the first 6 months.  Never saw this in a Huey or Blackhawk.  What's funny is there's a YouTube clip of how expensive and technologically advanced a process that Airbus uses to make the door itself (it's some fancy carbon fiber so the whole door weighs less than a pound or something ridiculous like that)... so a 10's of thousands cost door yet they chose 50 cent door roller bearings... good job Airbus.  For the record, Fort Rucker had one side door come off in flight and a spoiled front door almost come off in flight (top hinge broke)... and these were aircraft less than 3 years old at the time.

The fuel and EPU door are made out of a 1/2 cent piece of metal and spring that you have to push in with your thumb and turn (and fight with EVERY time; pretty sure refuelers HATE this helicopter) when Airbus could have paid a full 3 cents and put in a butterfly zues fastener like they have installed on the ballast box under the tailboom (which is a part that's NEVER opened).  In other words, Airbus has the part in it's inventory yet chose the cheap one to put on a part that you use EVERY day.

All of the transmission and engine door struts failed in the first 6 months to a year of being fielded to the Army and need replacing to hold up when you open the door.  The EC135 went with just a rod attached at one end (like most car hoods or the Bell JetRanger engine cowlings).  If you're going to put in a gas strut, make it a quality one!

The door storage pockets in the front door need to be re-glued as well as the NVG fabric glare shields (the first should have been rivetted, the later should have had the snaps rivetted on and not rely on glue to hold the velcro on).  

The rotor break is made out of a cheap looking piece of PVC pipe.  Should have been made to be just a button on the upper console or something (it triggers a micro-switch anyway; the handle itself is not a hydraulic actuator like on some helicopters).  The A-Star has a better rotor-brake handle... why not the 145?

 

8. Engine and transmission compartment latches are the most over-engineered and frustrating latches ever designed by man.  I don't know why there hasn't been an uprising amongst the aviation community on this one.  Ask any H120/130/135/145 user about this.  Those latches are ridiculous and if you've flown any other manufacturer's product you'll know how much better and simpler designed latches there are out there!


9. Standby Horizon battery location is not anywhere easy to change out the batteries if they've failed (versus opening the avionics bay and switching them out)... who thought putting them under the floorboards or behind the sidewalls was a good idea? 


10.  Flying with rear doors open: VNE is 100 kts!  AND, you have to spoil the front two doors if you do that.  The Blackhawk could do 120 and I think the Huey as well!  That's ridiculous (especially since the Army didn't buy AC for most of the 145's it bought... so we're all limited to flying around at 100kts in the summer!!!).


11. Not having a T/R chip light is unsettling and the fact the main transmission chip is only a land as soon as practicable is also unsettling (will always be land as soon as possible for me!).  


12. Bleed-heating to the cabin doesn't really kick on until you pick up to a hover.  That totally sucks for the boys that fly these up north.


13. Map light is set way too far back and there's only ONE.  If the idea was that it was because this is a SPIFR aircraft then it should have been placed where the front right seater could actually use to their advantage!  Poor design.


14. This aircraft doesn't have typical tie-down points like other aircraft.  The ones the Army uses are up on the sides (there's only one on each side) and there's no rubber bumper under it to keep the chain hooks from damaging the aircraft.  How are offshore guys tying these things down?  


15. Maintenance steps are tiny, poorly made, and poorly placed.  Airbus, look at your competitors next time you design a new helicopter.  For real... this is a really serious design flaw.  The steps on the EC135 are all just fine... how could they go stupid when they made the 145?


16. Emergency procedures are laborious to read and overly complicated.  Airbus needs to do some editing of the translation and also standardize some of the phraseology across multiple EPs.  Look to Bell, Sikorsky, or Boeing for some advice on this!  Also, finding certain EPs are like doing "Where's Waldo" trying to find them in the supplements - i.e. they're not all in the EP section!


18. Limits written in chart/table format are poorly designed and written.  The Army's written out a better chart to study and know what AEO/OEI limits are.  Also, no conversions to lbs from metric anywhere in the RFM when it's a helicopter being made and sold here in the US?!?!?


19. The Audio Control Panel doesn't have a link to the cyclic/collective.  That seems crazy for such an expensive and "advanced" helicopter.  Also, this may be a Becker Avionics thing but it's not standard to be able to hear your crew members when you're making a radio call (as in, if your crew needs to interrupt you or clarify something you're saying, they have to tap you to get you to shut up and then you can hear them).  A 6-7 million dollar bird should come standard with duplex audio... 


20. Turbomeca engines have a weird engine readings cycle compared to most helicopters and why they couldn't be linked to the avionics so I don't have to track how many times the twist grips were taken to a certain percentage N1 is beyond me.


21.  ICS cord to front pilots is too short.  Never seen that issue in an Army helicopter before.  


22. Mag compass card doesn't have a dedicated metal slot to slide the compass correction card into like every other manufacturer out there.  Our maintenance guys are gluing them in place and it looks unprofessional.


23. Cloth seat padding is already worn thin within 6 months.  This is probably because the Army chose lowest bidder I guess; probably not an Airbus issue.


24.  I may be the only one thinking this way, but for a fully coupled helicopter I'm surprised the Master Caution Reset is only on the cyclic.  Why wouldn't it be down on the collective (where your hands are more naturally held during coupled flight).  At a minimum, it seems like the cyclic Master Caution Reset should be more where your thumb can naturally reach it like where the tiny button next to where force trim is.  


25.  For a 6 million dollar helicopter to have an anti-collision light from the 1980-90's is surprising.  It should be more of a high lumens strobe and not a slow blinking light that blinks at the same rate as many antenna towers.  Got it, it's fully LED, but it's not a high intensity one... 


26.  The RFM is ridiculously huge (and takes up TWO door pockets).


27.  The aircraft has a separate Emergency Procedures checklist booklet (little blue book) that is missing most of the EP's in the RFM and doesn't have a dedicated slot/pocket to fit into so it flops around in the center console or either front door.  There's a nice place next to the collective where they could have made a nice little slot for it (or up on the dash) and yet Airbus didn't.  


28.  Never been in an aircraft that didn't have a "Thru Flight" startup checklist for after first flight of the day!!!  So according to Airbus we're supposed to go through every step in the checklist EVERY time you start up.  There IS a Thru Flight Preflight checklist marked (by stars next to the steps), but there's not one for the actual startup procedures.  Ridiculous.


29.  Constant digital glitches coming up on the Caution Advisory Display during flight...  AHRS disconnect, VARTOMS, DOORS light, etc.  To constantly be getting Master Cautions and having to look down and see why during flight is NOT a happy situation.  Especially when teaching students down on/around the trees.


30.  The Landing Light and Search Light have the same green CAD display: LDG LIGHT.  Whey they can't make the collective light switches to each of those lights have their own LDG LIGHT and SRCH LGHT on the CAD doesn't make any sense.


31.  The Garmin doesn't display current or next waypoints on the Primary Flight Display or Navigation Display.  It will display the NAVAID when it sequences, but it won't do that for GPS waypoints?  Ridiculous. 

 

 

 

 
Reply    Return-To-Index     Display Full Msg Thread   Rules of Engagement   Terms of Use