FRED BRANYAN Posted January 17, 2019 Share Posted January 17, 2019 Graham As an ex US Army helicopter pilot ( AH1G/OH6/OH58/UH1H) for over 20 years I think I know a superior helicopter model when I see one. I saw one when I saw yours today. Extremely well done. I noted with interest how the RAF painted one main rotor blade yellow. I have seen footage of Hueys in Vietnam with a single white blade but as far as I know it was never done again after that exercise. That practice made them real easy to spot from above. My compliments and I am glad your real experience had a happy ending courtesy of the RAF. Fred Branyan Quote Link to post Share on other sites
echolmberg Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 Gotta agree, Fred. That was a great looking Sea King. I've noticed in the past about how one blade would be painted a different color. Why was that done? Eric Quote Link to post Share on other sites
GSymmonds Posted January 18, 2019 Share Posted January 18, 2019 Thanks for the comments guys! Originally I thought the color was for the pilot to he or she could gauge their proximity to, say, a cliff. But it's yellow only on the upper surface. As Fred supposed, I do believe that the upper surface of one blade is yellow as a means of increasing visibility. While you may not think that it would make a difference for someone on the ground, due to the motion of the blades which - and Fred could definitely inform us better - kind of rotate along the longitudinal axis as well as flapping up and down relative to the rotor disk as the aircraft is in flight, it does provide a bit of a strobe light effect, increasing the chances of being seen. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
FRED BRANYAN Posted January 18, 2019 Author Share Posted January 18, 2019 Hello Eric In Vietnam due to the fact Hueys etc. were green they were very hard to spot from fast movers and other high altitude machines. Even other choppers flying higher had a tough time finding friendly machines. I had that issue myself many times when joining other machines in the air or flying formation with a large herd of like machines . So occasionally you will see footage of a white or very light colored single blade, for sure only applied to the top, that really jumps out at your eyeball when you see it. I was never a maintenance type but I have a suspicion the weight of the paint on only one blade may have caused main rotor blade system imbalance. The obvious solution to that issue is to paint the other blade a dark color. The potential problem of painting both blades could have been a total rotor blade weight exceeding what the mast, rotor blade retention hardware, etc. was designed for. That is purely a guess. Another guess is because a light color blade would stick out to night vision goggles in the hands of evil people the Army declared this practice unauthorized long ago. In the 70s-80s we used to have white or yellow main rotor blade tips and occasionally also on the tail rotor tips. Since the early 90s the camo cops have decreed there will be only OD or sand on our flying toys at least on the machines I flew. I retired in 99 but still visit Ft. Indiantown Gap in PA on occasion so I just saw their machines on 1/11. The one exception to the camo cops edict appears to be the UH 72 which I did not see at FIG. From on line photos they appear to have light colored and striped tail rotors. Rather ironic, since by design of that machine it has probably the lowest potential of someone walking into the tail rotor. That used to happen about once a year when I flew from 72-97. For today's humor the Governor of PA walked beneath the tail rotor of a PA Army National Guard Huey in the late 60s or early 70s. The happy news he was short enough to keep his head. As for the RAF chopper which is the topic of our discussion, my guess is that painting 1 out of several blades decreases the possible weight issue. It could also be that some genius developed a very light weight paint for that purpose. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
barkin mad Posted January 20, 2019 Share Posted January 20, 2019 Correct it's for increasing visibility, but mostly from above. ----------------------- Quote Link to post Share on other sites
terrysumner Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 Test reply...no message Quote Link to post Share on other sites
echolmberg Posted January 24, 2019 Share Posted January 24, 2019 Fred and Barkin, thank you for the info/insight. Fred, thank you so much for sharing your stories! All the best, Eric Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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