PS Magazine - TB 43-PS-576
PS, The Preventative Maintenance Monthly
ISSUE 576
NOVEMBER 2000
PS 576
43
NOV 00
PS 576
42
rew chiefs, keeping your aircraft ready during winter is a tough job. It’s even
tougher if you leave your aircraft uncovered and unprotected on the flightline.
If you can’t cover the whole bird
during winter weather, at least cover
up engine inlets, exhausts, exposed
linkages and pitot tubes.
Cover the aircraft when it’s dry.
Wet covers will freeze in place. If
you move an aircraft from the han-
gar to the helipad, cover it
before
you move it outside.
If a cover freezes to your bird,
loosen the edges and use heat from a ground heater to loosen the rest of it.
Closely check uncovered areas during daily inspections. Make sure freezing
rain or blowing snow hasn’t seeped into exposed moving parts and frozen up the
works.
After snow, sleet or an ice storm, take the engine inlet plugs and exhaust
covers off and check for ice. If you find any, carefully remove it and thaw the
engine with hot air, like your TM says.
Use dunnage
COLD TIRES
~
Cold reduces tire air
pressure, so check your helicopter’s tire
pressure often.
Tires frozen to the ground can be
freed with liquid deicer. Move the air-
craft immediately because deicer will
form slush and re-freeze.
Use boards, dunnage or something
similar beneath tires to keep them off
snow or ice.
Service pressurized systems accord-
ing to the instructions in each aircraft
maintenance manual. Remember that
any moisture will freeze into ice crys-
tals and damage seals.
Do not bend rubber hoses or rubber-
covered wires while they’re cold
soaked. Rubber gets brittle and stiff
and could crack.
COLD WEATHER GUIDES
~
for
more information on winter mainte-
nance operations, check out FM
31-70,
Basic Cold Weather Manual
(Apr 68) and FM 31-71,
Northern
Operations
(Jun 71).
Check your landing gear often. Use
a clean rag dampened with hydraulic
WINTER
WEATHER PM keeps
your bird
operating
in the
cold
!
i guess
we ought to
cover you
up
!
t-too
l-late
,
p-pal!
fluid to remove ice, dirt and grit from
struts and pistons.
Clean all struts
Use covers in extreme cold
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