Time life in a helicopter, for those who want to survive, means replacing very numerous, expensive, constantly moving, parts long before they actually wear out. In airplanes, especially the spray planes I flew, time life simply meant that when the engine quit we landed and got it fixed. Everything else lasted a very long time because it didn't move much. We landed slow so we didn't have to change brake pads very often. We landed on the grass so we didn't wear the tires out very fast.

Helicopters are fun machines that can do incredible things, but unless airplanes can't do it or aren't allowed to do it, helicopters can in no way compete with airplanes. When trying to do so pushes time life beyond that almost new stage, bad things happen. I would have been fine with covering my loach with a Bronco or Warthog, except that my scout crew would have had to face almost certain death or capture if shot down. This was unacceptable in a war where, "The LZ is marked by the burning loach." I would have been fine with spraying crops and flying pipeline with helicopters, except that I knew time life to be a problem for helicopter operators trying to compete with airplanes. Helicopter operators have enough clout to get some city governments to forbid spray planes and pipeline patrol planes, but these guys are always hurting for work. Long line, site of accident medevac, and other helicopter only jobs are much safer, time life wise. They can charge enough to pay for the parts.

Your brain certainly works on a different frequency than mine does!

Always enjoy your wisdom and your posts.

I agree. If you try to cut corners in the helicopter industry you pay for it in the end. And people will die in the process.

Helicopter is the only flying machine that has a breaker for the Hobbs meter.

In Army helicopters we didn't have a hobbs meter. I expect that is still true. We had really good stopwatch hands on the eight day clock and really good paperwork. Good records make it possible for the pilot to know in detail what prior pilots thought and what mechanics have done. Even a repetitive write up that the mechanics are repetitively unable to duplicate is information. It is all there is black and red.

And then there was the First of the Ninth in Vietnam, a unit that used anything that would start in an emergency. The first question I was asked in Apache Troop was by a scout pilot who asked, "We don't have to fly something with three red Xs do we sir?" He honestly though three was the limit.

Oops, should have said civilian helicopter. No Uncle Sugar to buy the parts. [emoji1]

contactflying wrote:In Army helicopters we didn't have a hobbs meter. I expect that is still true.

Still true