3.2 Hydraulic Systems

 

                                                    Hydraulic System Failure

     When I was flying with the 40th Helo squadron in Montana a common problem for the UH-1N helicopter was a hydraulic fluid leak. It would constantly reoccur and when the aircraft commander knew that was the problem I knew it was going to be long day. Sometimes we would have maintenance verify but if it was a time sensitive mission we usually had to grab all of our gear and run to the back up aircraft. When talking about hydraulics some aircraft use it for the wheel brakes, other aircraft use it for flight controls, landing gear, nosewheel steering and thrust reversers. As the aircraft depends more on the hydraulic system the more critical it is for the integrity of the system to have safer flights. These hydraulic failures can be subtle but they can also be immediate. Some examples of a subtle failure would be a slow leak and a more immediate failure could be a rupture in the hydraulic line or a pump failure. Once it is recognized which kind of failure it is and the nature of the incident is shown it is important to go into the emergency procedures that the manufacturers may provide.