Author Topic: The Kopp-Etchells Effect  (Read 792 times)

Offline jollyFE

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Re: The Kopp-Etchells Effect
« Reply #15 on: August 19, 2009, 12:38:17 PM »
sand and dust makes sparks on the blades. Saw it frequently during my 10 years as a CSAR helicopter flight engineer
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Offline PJ_Godzilla

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Re: The Kopp-Etchells Effect
« Reply #16 on: August 19, 2009, 12:45:00 PM »
Okay... my guess looks bad. This is metal-on-quartz sparking or static discharge? If the latter, is it continuous or does it pulse (a bad question, I guess, since, itf it pulses at a high enough freq, it'll look continuous anyway).

But will it do it with a composite rotor as on AH-1W?

And how do you account for it happening in high-humidity conditions? That would look to favor static discharge as opposed to sparking...

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Offline PJ_Godzilla

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Re: The Kopp-Etchells Effect
« Reply #17 on: August 19, 2009, 12:46:44 PM »
I also note, it only appears to be happening out near the tips - where the velocity is highest.
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Offline jollyFE

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Re: The Kopp-Etchells Effect
« Reply #18 on: August 19, 2009, 02:52:06 PM »
chem lights look cool when thrown into the rotor system......nice green spray.

I have seen it happen on NVGs at night whenever we were in a hover, sand and dust seemed to amplify it.....so I guess it could be a little of both.
« Last Edit: August 19, 2009, 02:54:39 PM by jollyFE »
Every time a Nit vulches,  an angel get it's wings.