In this video, Destin from Smarter Every Day takes viewers on an in-depth exploration of the US Coast Guard's MH-65 Dolphin helicopter. The main focus is on the technical and operational aspects of the Dolphin, as explained by AMT1 James Hockenberry, an aviation maintenance technician. Through an engaging tour, viewers learn about the Dolphin's unique features, including its tail rotor, hydraulic systems, and specialized winch equipment.

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. hoist [hɔɪst] - (noun / verb) - A device for lifting or lowering a load by means of a drum or lift-wheel around which rope or chain wraps. - Synonyms: (lift, raise, elevate)

The one thing that's very, very, very different from any aircraft I've ever been on is this bad boy right here. The winch. The hoist.

2. corrosion [kəˈroʊʒən] - (noun) - The gradual destruction or weakening of metal due to chemical reactions with its environment. - Synonyms: (rust, decay, erosion)

So they're basically doing a whole 7, 14, 30, 90 day, and we're doing a corrosion inspection.

3. hydraulic [haɪˈdrɔːlɪk] - (adjective) - Operated by the pressure created by forcing water or another liquid. - Synonyms: (fluid-powered, liquid-driven, pressure-operated)

What's a hydraulic actuator? So what ends up happening is when hydraulics are on, this pushes in and out and makes the blades turn in and out.

4. actuator [ˈæktʃuːˌeɪtər] - (noun) - A device that causes a machine or other device to operate. - Synonyms: (motor, controller, mechanism)

So electrically boom in and out and hydraulically up and down the actuator.

5. fadec [ˈfeɪdɛk] - (noun) - Full Authority Digital Engine Control, a system that monitors and controls all aspects of an aircraft engine's performance. - Synonyms: (engine control system, digital controller, automated regulator)

And that's all done by fadec. fadec monitors all of our system.

6. datum line [ˈdeɪtəm laɪn] - (noun) - A reference line on an aircraft used to measure distances or to align components. - Synonyms: (reference line, baseline, guideline)

It's kind of the same. Same exact concept. These datum lines that he's talking about, those are imaginary planes.

7. gyroscopic precession [ˌdʒaɪroʊˈskɑːpɪk prɪˈseʃən] - (noun) - The phenomenon where the axis of a rotating wheel moves perpendicular to the direction of force applied. - Synonyms: (rotational motion, precession effect, angular momentum)

His door. What Hockenberry's talking about here is something called gyroscopic precession.

8. pendulum effect [ˈpɛndʒələm ɪˈfɛkt] - (noun) - The tendency of a pendulum to oscillate with an amplitude that increases as its length decreases. - Synonyms: (swing phenomenon, oscillation effect, sway)

And the pendulum effect really takes effect. So the lower we can be, the better for the swimmer it is.

9. egress [ˈiːɡrɛs] - (noun) - The act of leaving or exiting from a space. - Synonyms: (exit, departure, way out)

That door is normally closed. It's just an egress hazard.

10. shims [ʃɪmz] - (noun) - Thin wedges or pieces placed under an object to adjust its position or alignment. - Synonyms: (spacers, fillers, packing)

What's up with the shims here? So that's waiting

The Amazing Engineering of Rescue Helicopters - Smarter Every Day 289

Hey, it's me, Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. By now we're in the middle of a deep dive series into the US Coast Guard, and they're amazing. We've talked about how they rescue people. We've talked about their gear, like the boat response boat medium. We've even talked about how they do search patterns. And today is an amazing subject. We're going to explore the MH65 Dolphin, an incredible aircraft. Now, yes, they're transitioning to Jayhawks at this point, which is a newer platform, but the Dolphin is an incredible aircraft, and we're going to explore everything about how it works.

What's your official title? AMT1. James Hockenberry, AMT1. What's AMT? Aviation Maintenance Technician First Class. So you're responsible for what on the aircraft? So I am basically, they call it a hoist operator in the civilian world, but I'm a flight mechanic. We back up the pilots, the co-pilot, and then we also hoist. We control the hoist and the winch. Are you also a certified flight mechanic? I am, yep, certified. So you own the bird? Consider the pilot owns the bird. We just do the maintenance on it.

So let's start from the top. This is a dolphin, right? Dolphin, Yep. This is like one of the major inspections we do. We take it all apart. It's more for, like, corrosion, making sure that there's nothing wrong with the aircraft, finding little things that we need to fix prior to them actually braking. So the tail rotor. So it's actually more like a fan, isn't it? So this actually counteracts the rotor head turning. So this will actually basically pushes so that the rotor head will turn in one direction and this pushes the opposite direction to keep us straight. It's controlled by the pedals up front through this shaft right here.

And then what's a hydraulic actuator? So what ends up happening is when hydraulics are on, this pushes in and out and makes the blades turn in and out. There's two types of hydraulic fluid. There's skydraw. And then there's a military hydraulic fluid. Red sky draws blue. We use straight mineral oil. And is this JP8? This aircraft, what kind of jet fuel do you use? JP8? Yep. Jet, A, J, all that stuff. So we use normal stuff that any aviation fuel is going to be using. So he's taking the. Is this called the cowling? What is this called? We call that the doghouse.

The finistron is what we call it. And is this metal or fiberglass? Fiberglass. Kevlar and carbon fiber. This part where the tail shroud is, is actually Kevlar. Like, we can take everything off by hand. Even our blades. Our blades are all taken off by hand. So you only need two guys. One on the head. He pops the pins, which. Did you just move the tail rotor by hand up there? You can move it by up here. Yep. That's amazing. So That's a free power turbine. So it basically runs kind of like. It's kind of like your bicycle. Almost like a clutch. Yep, it's a slip clutch, basically.

We have a vertical stabilizer and a horizontal stabilizer. If you're going straight and you lose your tail, you can actually counteract the tail by these. They are tilted to counteract the blades on the head. If you're going straight, the blades are turning this way. It's actually trying to push you the other way. It's kind of the same concept as a fixed wing. So it kind of counteracts as you're going through the air. What do we have here? So these are your lights. These are for infrared. So those are for when we do our, like, Secret Squirrel missions. We'll go blackout. Even though it's orange?

We do an RWAI mission too. Rotary wing intercept. Mostly done in Atlantic City. But we have it here. Everything's got stations. You know, you got, like, your 6630, 8840. These datum lines that he's talking about, those are imaginary planes, and you can measure things from those planes. It's common for most aircraft. So you know this thing inside and out. I mean, I've been on it 17 years, so I would hope so.

So retractable landing gear. So this isn't an apu. This is just environmental for working in there. Just an air conditioner. Can we walk up and see the power plant? So we got the suck, squeeze, bang, blow. Accessory drive section. That's the drive shaft. Goes in through here through flex couplings, and then it goes into the transmission cowling transmission deck. We call this the flower pot. And then the drive shaft basically comes through here. It's like you said, the intake, compression, combustion, free power turbine.

They added a part later just because one of them actually exploded back in the day. So they figured out what it was. It was just different types of fins, all that stuff. So they put this on there just to protect the aircraft. And on a run up for a helicopter, I hear a lot about TGTs, turbine gas temperatures. Is there a temperature sending unit here? We have our thermocouples. It monitors everything up in the cockpit. Okay, so this is the reservoir for. That's the engine reservoir. hydraulic reservoir? There's two of them. So primary and secondary.

This is your big collective servo. We as mechanics, we just go right, left, forward and after. gyroscopic precession. What Hockenberry's talking about here is something called gyroscopic precession. It's a cyclic and collective mixing issue. It's a fascinating topic. So as it turns, it bites. In your mechanical interaction with this, you say my right is right here because of gyroscopic precession. So we also do. The mechanics also do track and balance. So when we do like a major inspection, we actually pull this all off. So this whole head will come off and then the PCRs readjust.

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The one thing that's very different from any aircraft I've ever been on is the hoist. The winch. We call it our hoist. It's hydraulically actuated. Can we. 3,000 psi. So electrically boom in and out and hydraulically up and down the actuator. It literally, if we. If we. We call it two blocking, which means that we go full up. It'll jerk you up, it'll hurt your back. So right now we're about halfway, right? It's halfway. It's a dumb question. Okay, so there's a serious. Yeah, don't stick your hands up.

So opening that hatch is a big deal. Yeah, this hatch is. I mean, it's there for our convenience where we can see things. We keep it boomed out. Like if we took this off, it wouldn't save us any fuel. I mean, it may save us weight because this thing's heavy, but it's not going to save us much fuel aerodynamically. Are you able to drop the hoist now? See? So that's an auxiliary hydraulic unit over there. Is that the speed? No, no, no. That's just appropriate for being on the ground here.

What's the preferred height off the. Off the water? 35ft. Why 35? Is that out of ground effect? It's in ground effect. So it gives us more. More power, more fly out. There's a big deal with the pendulum effect. A boat with a mast can be dangerous with pendulum motion.

So if you've got a boat with a mast on it, pendulum motion becomes a big deal. And we're actually going to see that in the future episode when I'm in the basket. This is our float. This one right here. This is our back. So these will go off. You punch them with pyro. No, no, they're helium. Just a float mechanism. We need to get them back in the plane because it's going to do more damage and it's going to be a longer night if we're leaving them on scene and trying to come back and get them. Like the best case scenario would be it stays upright.

So we're just using air conditioning during inspections. They're just checking to make sure, like, most of the stuff is aligned. These datum lines. Can I hop in? This is your office. So they're doing a corrosion inspection. So we're just checking to make sure, like, most of the stuff, like these are frames. So this is part of the frame. So this corrodes a lot. corrosion is our worst enemy on these aircraft.

Is that a main structural member? This is our. Texas patches. Those are the same thing. If they get a crack or corrode. Oh, because of the shape of the Texas patch. This is all the electronics. 1980s rock stuff. So this is all. We call them tweets, aets. I'm an amt. I do everything but this. Like, you don't like twisting wires?

So where would you sit in the aircraft? This is your office. This is our hoist. Our cable cutters. So quick splicing in an emergency.

TECHNOLOGY, SCIENCE, INNOVATION, MH-65 DOLPHIN, COAST GUARD, HELICOPTER MECHANICS, SMARTEREVERYDAY