QUOTE: Originally posted by mscottholt
Randall,
Got a question concerning the '64's blades. When I was a '60 driver in the old MTOE AtkBn, the Apaches in the Bn didn't have foldable blades, but something was in the works from MD called a fold kit. Have they been fielded and does it make a noticeable difference in the look of the Hub?
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I'll try this again - As mentioned by Cobra Historian, yes they do have foldable blade, but no, there is no appreciable difference in the way the main rotor head appears. They have blade pins that are very slightly modified (nothing you could see when they are installed) and then they fold onto blade racks that tie on the tail boom. In 2003 there were a grand total of 24 of these kits in the Army (gratis of Uncle Cody...aka the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army who is also a 64 driver). I know he was pushing to get more of them, but it is not like they are fielded to all units, nor is the plan ever that they will be. It doesn't really make them feasible for shipborne operations either, because it still takes a crew a long time to get them hung back...however, they don't have to track and balance the blades anymore because they haven't been hung, and they were working a note so that all you had to do was a run up, not even a maintenance test flight. I believe that is approved right now. Not that any of that will help you tons if you have to pull wings or stabilators to get the load in a C5 or something, because you will still have the maint test flight requirement, just not the track and balance. Not to mention that frequently you have to pull one or two of the tail rotor blades to get an aircraft to fit somewhere you have it loaded. We dense packed three RO-ROs (ships, The Bob Hope, the Shughart and one other I don't remember) with our aircraft when we went to Iraq in 2003 and we still blew all that stuff off because we were going to war and we did have the time or place to do all the MTFs, so really, it would save a bit of time in peace time only.
Anyhow, more of an answer than you probably wanted. If there is anything else, let me know.
RIH