

To save money, state builds copters from surplus parts - mdturnerphys
http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2025365049_dnrhelicoptersxml.html?

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Animats
The article says they're paying about $500K to refurbish a Huey. Northwest
Helicopters sells refurbished Hueys for around $500K, and that includes many
new parts, new wiring, and modern avionics. They also have an upgrade version,
with a more powerful engine, carbon-fiber blades, and a longer-lived
transmission.

~~~
Aloha
Yup, I can buy a refurb straight truck for 50k yet a refurb firetruck costs an
order of magnitude more.

Yes, they are doing the refurb in-house - but when its done for the same 500k
its fully outfitted for the duty it needs to do, versus 500k for one that
would still need additional conversion for firefighting.

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otoburb
This is admirable and pretty cool that they have the staff who came together
to relish the challenge and developed the expertise to refurbish the mishmash
of parts.

>All told, an aircraft like Caroline takes roughly 5,000 mechanic hours to
become flight-worthy.

For a site like HN, the above quote sounds so improbable when applied to
software.

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BrandonMarc
Perhaps. It's the equivalent of a project that takes a 5-developer team 6
months, full-time, to complete. When you put it that way, it's not so out-of-
bounds ...

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mschuster91
A question to copter engineers: why does a copter have to be ripped apart and
reassembled after just 125 flight hours? I don't think that an airplane with
far more complex parts needs such short full-maintenance intervals...

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NickNameNick
Which airplanes parts do you think are more complicated than a helicopter
swash assembly?

~~~
mschuster91
I'd guess stuff like the F-35s STOVL system
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-
Royce_LiftSystem](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolls-Royce_LiftSystem)) to be
a quite complex thing (but apparently the gun of the plane is more complex
than this, lol) or the Airbus A380 and bigger planes due to the massive weight
of the planes and the corresponding immense power of the engines.

~~~
gaius
The F35 has to spend something like 10 hours in the shop for every hour of
flight time.

~~~
mschuster91
What the ...? Okay, at least that explains why according to wikipedia they
plan to buy 1.7k jets... if they need 9 jets as "stand in" for every one
that's been flying.

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Spooky23
Absolutely ridiculous that they have firemen heading off into danger in a 50
year old airframe.

I'm sure the State wastes 10 million a year on any number of things.

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hellgas00
Why waste good helicopter parts? I would have to think that the materials used
in military applications are more robust than commercial. Refurbishing old
parts isn't bad so long as it's done safely. The article says that the
helicopter parts are inspected visually every 25hrs, a tear down is done every
125hrs, and any anomalous issue gets them grounded. No mention of problems
with the refurbished copters.

Honestly, I think this is a very smart and efficient move on the part of the
state. Reuse when possible, so long as it doesn't jeopardize safety.

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ArkyBeagle
There is no such thing as a safe helicopter.

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eigenvector
Indeed. In fact, the most dangerous aspect of high-angle mountain rescue is
usually flying in helicopters in borderline weather conditions, not the actual
act of plucking people off of mountainsides.

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callesgg
500k sounds insane I have seen flight worthy helicopters for 300k.

Seams more like they do it cause they like it.

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gaadd33
Flight worthy firefighting helicopters for 300k? With at least the same number
of hours left on all the major parts (engines, airframe, etc)?

Any links?

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callesgg
Have not seen anyhing recently, just one of's at various places.

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jessaustin
Is this kind of like Orbital Sciences using the surplus rocket engines?

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jacquesm
Maybe order _one_ F35 less and give these guys a bit more budget?

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bdcravens
How many states have F35's?

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abawany
I believe he is saying that instead of burning up the federal budget buying
this mediocre design-by-committee jet, they could allocate more money to the
states.

~~~
gscott
Logical thinking will get you booted out of office.

