Mil-2 gets a new engine

We recently received a long awaited shipment of parts.

One of the items received was a replacement engine for one of our Cold War Air Museum. Mi-2 helicopters. This turned out to be an example of "Just in Time" scheduling for our flyer, Bord 211.

There is a saying to the effect that "The worst turbine engine's worst day is better than the best piston engine's best day", even so, turbine engines do have problems from time to time. It turns out that this was the time for the right engine in Bord 211. When a bearing went out, the comment was that it sounded as if "the engine ate a bunch of walnuts". Fortunately the engine did not "eat a bunch of walnuts", as the turbine blades are fine. With a maintenance crew on hand, the old engine was out in about three hours and the new engine went in just about as quickly.

With maintenance and flight experience on hand. The new engine was closely monitored through a number of exercise cycles before it was ignited.

After a number of runups with the igniters off to insure that everything looked good, the new engine was started and ran flawlessly. The long "extension cord" is a very heavy duty APU power cord used to supply battery power during the engine exercise and starting sequences.

The old engine will be inspected and repaired.