Re: H-34 Rotor blades

Main Rotor blades were black & were all interchageable during the many years I was with the H34 Helicopters. They were aluminun extrusins for the spar the pockets & tips were also aluminum construction & never had wood involved. As for the several of you mention in tip caps I never saw that. It has been years and memory of that kind was something that never crossed my mind from those years

Re: H-34 Rotor blades

Main Rotor blades were black & were all interchageable during the many years I was with the H34 Helicopters. They were aluminun extrusins for the spar the pockets & tips were also aluminum construction & never had wood involved. As for the several colors you mention in tip caps I never saw that. It has been years and memory of that kind was something that never crossed my mind from those years "WOULD NOT LET ME EDIT, or Delete so here is another

Re: H-34 Rotor blades

Not an expert but have done some research for model building purposes. My reference is Official Monogram U. S. Navy and Marine Corps Aircraft Guide [ Vol 2 and 3] by John M. Elliott, Maj, USMC [ Ret]. First helo camo notes were in SR-2e [ Jun 26, '44] stated helos should be painted in basic non-spec camo-no instructions on how to do this. SR-2f, amendment 3 [ May 1, '48] paint blades glossy sea blue except 2 inches at tip should have one blade white, one blade insignia red, one blade light green. Each blade is then painted orange-yellow for next 6 inches. Personal assumption would make this applicable to H-19 and HRP's [ have three blades per rotor head]. Colors were for matched sets of blades. Unmatched blades had just the yellow-orange at tips. Apr '52 Marine Corps requested blade change from glossy sea blue for camo purposes. SR-202 [3 Aug,'53] changed blade colors to light gull gray on top and black bottom. BuAer letter Aer-AE-421/214 [15 Aug, '56] changed Marine helos to field green. Blade tops were changed to light gull gray for wood [ HRP and other older], olive drab for metal [H-34, HUP] and the bottoms were black. Personal note-the olive drab is so dark it is almost black. I flew '34's in country and '46's later. You have to put a bottom and top right next to each other to see the difference because the colors are so close- saw the blades of a 34 in country and assumed difference was due to sun fading [ I was wrong] and 46 blades up close and personal at New River and was astonished that one side really does have a slightly greenish cast compared to the other. Sorry if this is wordy, but hope it helps. S/F Joe H

Re: H-34 Rotor blades

Thanks for the information guys.

Joe -That is the kind of issue I was seeing the spec said one thing and photos show something else. I think of OD as lighter dark green than black, what you describe sounds more like a black green color.

For the s's - I posted this in PM other thread. It doesn't need to be a "dirty word" just a word or combination of letters in filter to get the s's or another other letter/words the admin wants. Depending on the filter configuration you can get around that with spaces, dashes or other imaginative ways.

Re: H-34 Rotor blades

All the blades I ever changed or folded were black on bottom and olive drab on top with yellow tipcaps. Aircraft was drab green but we wiped them down with hydraulic oil for corrosion and somewhat of a shine. Bill McMillian

Re: H-34 Rotor blades

I was in the metal shop for 34 D's 1960/1964. All the blades I repaired were black under side and dark olive green top. As for matching blades, not long in the field and most birds did not have matching blades. Any reason for changing a blade did not require a matching. Tips were all yellow as I remember. The safty manual carreid yellow tips as a safety measure.
The unmatched blades at times, caused an im- balance that created a viberation in flight or in a laod situation. Many pilots reported this problem but seldom did we change blades due to vibration. One exception was the CO's, most of them had the priviledge of requesting the vibration be taken care of, the simplest way we found to do that was staying with the same manufacture lot number, even if it meant ordering new.
Most crew chiefs knew this problem and lived with it, as long as the vibration was narrowed down to that problem. I hope this helped, crew chiefs should be able to shed light on this situation. MAG 36 HMM 363, Lucky Red Lions.

Re: H-34 Rotor blades

I do remember tracking the main rotor blades after a blade change. Color code each blade tip with crayons, turn up aircraft, slowly push tracking flag towards blade tips, see what was out of balance, make adjustments, back in business. Matched blades in country were almost non-existent.