I'll type things as they were recently published in the UK Light Aircraft Association magazine of Feb 2022, slightly edited for brevity ;.
For those not familiar with the UK most gyroplanes fly with the revalidation of their permits to fly done by the Light Aircraft Assoc. [LAA]. They have an engineering resource and are active in highlighting various issues they find throughout the fleet of aircraft they are responsible for.
For those not familiar with the UK most gyroplanes fly with the revalidation of their permits to fly done by the Light Aircraft Assoc. [LAA]. They have an engineering resource and are active in highlighting various issues they find throughout the fleet of aircraft they are responsible for.
It continues with a description of that change before :-While conducting the annual inspection on an Auto-Gyro MTOsport, LAA inspector [name withheld] discovered longitundinal cracks in the upper surface of the rotor blades from the root end hole to the second bolt hold. This was visible to the naked eye. Rotor blade inspections have always been part of the service and inspection regime for all of the factory built gyroplane fleet however in the light of an event abroad in the summer of 2021 the AutoGyro inspection has changed with the issue of SB-144 Issue 1 and the updating of the inspection schedules....
It continues to explain the factors as per the Cranfield study that many are familiar with and suggests that rotors may only last as little as 1600 hours and that factors such as flight cycles, touch and goes, pre-rotations and other operating regimes [such as operation on hard or grass runways] may need to be considered as well as flight hours.The calculated safe service life of the Rotor System 2 blades is 2500 hours, however it has been found that the real world service life is significantly less