Re-evening Woodsnitzes. Looked at the helicopter today and the integrator truly screwed up by drilling into some main structure where they weren’t supposed to. ....
Amazing how a buck fifty drill bit can cost six figures when used on an aircraft.
Hey, Russ.
Did someone discover that the tech was drilling in the wrong spot and that is why you were called?
Their QA guy did, contacted the STC holder and they called me because they know I’ve installed this STC before on a 407. They wanted a good no **** look with pictures of the damage and accurate measurements for their DER. I don’t think he’s gonna touch this one and it will probably be punted to Bell for the repair. There is no incentive for the manufacturer to support this.
Here’s the kicker, unless they return the structure to a reasonable facsimile of the original, then the camera mount won’t fit on this aircraft without re-engineering some structure of the kit and FAA approval. I think they COULD get a one time field approval but that depends on the relationship they have with their FSDO.
Either way, after exploring options with their people tomorrow morning, I’m out of there.
02-09-2022, 08:31 PM
