Safety Notice SN002 – Horizontal Stabilizer Inspection
Safety Notice – SN002
Models affected: Helicoms, Commuters, BABY BELLE and SAFARI helicopters.
Mandatory: Detailed Inspection for all models if a tailrotor strike or incident has occurred.
Compliance: To be done before your next flight and included in your daily preflight inspection.
Reason: To detect cracking and prevent possible inflight failure of Horizontal Stabilizer.
Time Required: About an hour for the detailed inspection..
Instructions:
Identify location of the current setting for your stabilizer.
Remove the cotter pin, loosen and remove bolt/nut.
Pull out the stabilizer from the support tube housing. As a precaution you should also inspect the support tubing for cracking at the weld locations attaching it to the tailboom.
Inspect for corrosion and cracking in the areas shown. The origin of the cracking is expected to come from the rivet holes drilled into the stabilizer tube for securing the aluminum skin. It is expected that this cracking will propagate from the top hole down the side of the tubing or from the bottom hole up the side of the tubing. Both directions should easily be seen when viewing the area of concern from the airfoil end nearest the mounting bracket (tailrotor gearbox). Any loose rivets found during this inspection should be replaced and logged. Those of you who have gone the extra step and capped both ends of the horizontal stabilizer will have to remove the inboard end cap for your inspection and leave off to allow daily inspection.
Completion of this inspection should be logged.
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