Green streaking on tail rotor?

[Davis]

Hey,

My ame teacher asked us a trick question today. Your doing an inspection on a bell 206 and you notice green streaking on the tail rotor. What should you suspect?

[helicopterray]

Somebody used Mastinox instead of grease.

[mmartin1872]

flying too close to trees, would be my guess

[sky's the limit]

flying too close to trees, would be my guess

Could be trees, could be a bush, could simply be grass. Ask the pilot, see what he/she says, and take it from there, ie. do an inspection for wrinkling or any other abnormalities.

stl

[Heliian]

Haha, I've heard that one before. Ask him if there are any dents or delams to go along with it. Worst case, buy your prof a bottle of glenfiddich, that'll get you into his good books.

[niss]

Somebody's been making coleslaw?

[Davis]

Haha, I've heard that one before. Ask him if there are any dents or delams to go along with it. Worst case, buy your prof a bottle of glenfiddich, that'll get you into his good books.

So ask for dents and delaminations. But what would be the cause?

[Troubleshot]

If your instructor is trying to point you in the direction of the tail rotor has struck something (ie. tree, bush, grass) you'll need to inspect tail rotor gear box, tail rotor blades, tail rotor drive shaft/bearing mounts, spline teeth in tail rotor gear box, output spline teeth on main rotor transmission that drive the tail rotor.

Basically if something looks out of the ordinary you cannot make assumptions on the severity of the damage to the whole tail rotor system.....so inspect the whole system.

[Heliian]

But what would be the cause?

Like the guys said above, hitting green things. Grass won't leave too much damage if you hit a couple of blades(of grass) but if you use the tailrotor like a ninja blender, you're in for some serious expenditures. Shit happens, but we're here to fix it. For a fee of course.

[niss]

But what would be the cause?

Like the guys said above, hitting green things. Grass won't leave too much damage if you hit a couple of blades(of grass) but if you use the tailrotor like a ninja blender, you're in for some serious expenditures. Shit happens, but we're here to fix it. For a fee of course.

Fixing Flying @#$! Ups For A Fee. Has a nice ring to it.

[B-rad]

ya seen that before. too large a flare too close to landing resulting in a tail strike on the grass!!

[frenchwrench]

green staining can be very serious, it touched grass or a bunch of leaves. look up in the safety newsletters pilots get, there is a story of a guy in a jetbox that touched crusty snow, thought he'd check the tail rotor driveshaft and it was split open from the snow strike

[Blakey]

Which way do the streaks run? If they run length-wise along the blade from the inner end to the outer edge, something is leaking out of the hub. If they run across the blade from the leading edge to the trailing edge, they hit something. I've seen both.

[flingwinger]

Your instructor is leading on to a sudden stoppage inspection.

Green streaking is most likely caused by tall grass, First place id look is the tail rotor drive shaft. If its a 206/407 the Thomas couplings will be spread apart/ buckled. The astar has alignment marks that should show if the shaft has been twisted. You may also see the rivet heads lifted on one side and cracking on the paint of the driveshaft. Consult the manual for the sudden stoppage inspection.

I've seen a 407 that kissed the snow, flew home no problem but under the cowls all the Thomas couplings were spread apart. Zero visible damage to the tail rotor.

[old apprentice]

Make sure the paint is dry on the blades before you go flying?