Harsh conditions are foiling Russian jets in Syria

originally posted by: punkinworks10
a reply to: Zaphod58
He was little concerned at first, as no USAF aircraft would be allowed to fly in condition, and low and behold, about 1 hr into the flight the chopper lots the tail rotor and began to auto rotate, my friend thought for sure they were about to die, but the pilot put it down on a jungle road.
My friend told the pilot, " that was nice bit of flying thank you", he replied "no problem, you get used to it after a while".

You should go fly in CH47s or C130s.
Busted/leaking hydraulic lines are nothing new. One of the first times I woke up mid-flight because I was getting soaked in hydraulic fluid, I asked one of the crew members if we were going to die, he said no, and that is normal, but if/when it stops leaking, I should let him know, because it's out of fluid, and we will probably crash.

Anyway, just about everyone in the Mil has a similar story. Does that make the whole USAF/whatever bad on safety/maintenance ?

a reply to: kaskad as my my friend related it , it was much , much worse than anything you find in a American aircraft. There were leaks so bad they had small pails underneath them to catch the fluids.
And that bird was back up in the air in two days.

well, i tell ya....Russia really surprised me how they stepped up to rectify things.

Putin is a respectable guy, you have to admit that. He stood by the regime and Assad. IDK, they seem to be trying to do the right thing here.

a reply to: kaskad

We were flying a guy from the State Department to our ship. He tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out an oil leak from our main gearbox. I told him to watch it and if it stopped to let me know. He asked why and I told him that if it stopped the gearbox would be out of oil and we would crash. I went to sleep and when I woke up three hours later he was still watching the leak. We landed and I wiped up about 6 ounces of oil from the deck with a bag of rags that I brought for just that purpose. Our Main Gearbox held 12 gallons of oil and could function with just two gallons. It gave him something to do and let me get some sleep.

a reply to: Nikola014

says Russian propaganda? How do you know this? RT? photos supplied by Russia? For people who claim to be so immune to Western propaganda you sure love some Russian propaganda.

Hardly surprising. Russia's been having trouble keeping their birds in the air under normal conditions. Throw in blowing sand and I'm sure it's getting pretty difficult to keep up on maintenance. I fail to see how anyone could call this propaganda when the last few months alone have shown the difficulties Russia's air force face.

originally posted by: punkinworks10
a reply to: Zaphod58
when they boarded the heli my friend, who was a career flight line guy, noticed that the some fuel and hydraulic lines in cabin had rags wrapped around the fittings and there were visible leaks you could see and smell fuel and hyd fluid in the cabin.
He was little concerned at first, as no USAF aircraft would be allowed to fly in condition, and low and behold,

To be fair, the Chinooks, Sea Knights, and the Sea Stallion used to leak hydraulic fluid everywhere. Many a quip about, "If it ain't leaking, don't get on it" or "if it ain't leaking, fill it up" has been made.
It's an almost universal helicopter problem. All that vibration.

Wasnt the point of Russian equipment design to operate in harsh conditions?Maybe look back to operations during their occupation of Afghanistan to see how how the equipment faired..

a reply to: Blackfinger

They were designed to operate off unprepared fields. Sand is a totally different beast than grass and dirt. Sand will get through just about anything, and under some conditions will glassify on the turbine blades, as well as causing increased wear on seals.

a reply to: punkinworks10

That's good to know...I remember having the military channel at one time and one particular show talked about the durability of soviet planes..often times they would show them taking off on streets that doubled as runways...I guess saltwater and sand are two of mankinds mightiest enemies....

originally posted by: Harvin
Putin is a respectable guy, you have to admit that. He stood by the regime and Assad. IDK, they seem to be trying to do the right thing here.

Right. And when US stood by Saddam in the 1980's against Islamic fundamnentalists from Iran, oh, there they go again imperialist haters!

a reply to: Blackfinger

This was the left turbine of the MV-22 that crashed in Hawaii, after 110 seconds in blowing sand.