hello and welcome back to the Helix

Channel now those of you that may have

just recently watched our Bell 429 video

you may have wondered like we did where

did the 429 come from we’ve obviously

done the 505 came from the 206. we’ve

done the 407 came from the Long Ranger

but actually 49 came from this no Triple

Two

[Music]

thank you

[Music]

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

[Music]

[Music]

this is our one you need this one which

is a bell treble two a now this is as

you can see painted like Airwolf clearly

it’s not the original werewolf that

sadly is no longer with us has no guns

obviously disappointing but it is a

representation of exactly what Airwolf

was so a few facts about the treble two

that you may or may not know

treble two was Belle’s first civilian

production light medium twin helicopter

it then went on to become the trouble 2B

the 230 the 430 47 and up to the 429

I’m just going to point out a few little

characteristics about the Trouble 2 we

are going to do a pre-flight video and a

startup video which is I’m sure the one

that everybody wants to see this sponsor

on the side is quite interesting it’s an

error 4 design so it does actually

produce a bit of lift during flight this

one is a retractable undercarriage

dribble too there was also a fixed

undercarriage which was the UT the spots

on the side actually houses Fuel and

obviously somewhere for the

undercarriers to go double two is also a

first in terms of its hydraulic system

that it had the electrics the autopilot

Etc

but we can’t really talk about the

Trouble 2 without mentioning the road

ahead now the head is a derivative of

the Cobra gunship

and the blade you have to notice that

wide cord blade which gives the trouble

to its characteristic sound it’s a 39

foot diameter rotor system so it’s two

big wide blades which was the design at

the time then as we know blades went

into a more formated five bladed

as a nodal beam system very similar to

The Long Ranger so it is actually a very

smooth aircraft for a two blader and it

will get up to around 150 knots where it

does get a little lumpy at that end but

it’s too rated is powered by two

Lycoming LTS 101 engines they’re around

about 600 shaft horsepower each there

are two fueling systems on it this is

the main tank on this side and we have

an auxiliary tank on the port side good

size boot for the day as well

sadly this one doesn’t have its carpet

in today because this actual trouble too

isn’t serviceable as of today but we’re

going to get on to that but it was a

good size boot for the day you know

large aircraft needs a large boot as we

spoke about on the 429

you’ll also see some design

characteristics down here now these end

plates were a late addition for the

Triple Two its initial design it had a

detail like a Hues 500e these are added

later if you look at the design of it

now you can see these very resembled a

407 and the 429 again moving rearwards

you can see a lot of 206 407 design cues

all the way through large rear fin to

assist with stability in the cruise

continue on round to the tail rotor as I

said earlier in the video we’re going to

do a pre-flight video we’ll get a bit

more into the depth on the tail rotor

but you can see it’s a typical Bell

two-bladed teetering system

but just look at the size of the cord

and put my hand against it you know

that’s larger than some main rotor

blades on other helicopters a few other

interesting facts about the treble two

they came out the factory around five

thousand pounds empty weight and gross

was eight thousand one hundred so pretty

good figures for sort of back in the

early 80s but what we should really have

a look at now is the inside a few years

ago I was talking to one of the older

engineers at Bell who said it’s an

unpleasant subject as we all seem to

touch on in our videos but if you were

going to have a crash have it in a

trouble too because the rigidity of the

shell is so strong one of the reasons

that I’ll show you just here as we go

into the rear cabin

doors it’s compared to a modern aircraft

they’re huge and they’re slam shot doors

that sounds like more like a car door

than a helicopter door but that gave it

great strength which was a great feature

of the uh the trouble two in the day

just before we climb in worth pointing

out 1981 helicopter double glazed

windows

one of the features of the Triple Two

was that you could or can sit in the

back with no headset

it’s not silent but it’s quite enough

that you can have a conversation with

our headsets on also the huge amount of

room now on the 430 they stretch the

cabin even further and the early uh the

treble twos the seating could be

configured for up to eight passengers in

the back that would be quite cozy but

this is really where it was suited for

Five Guys in the back

lots of leg room

smooth ride cabin call for the front for

the pilot what else would you need

now it wouldn’t be one of our videos if

we didn’t have a look in the front my

favorite part of the cockpit so let’s go

and take a look now shall we okay our

way around to the front

couple of interesting facts about the

Trouble 2 because it’s many uh they made

82 of the treble two A’s which this

model is and 199 in total were produced

also came equipped as this one has with

weather radar which is in the front

which again we’ll touch on more when we

do the pre-clock video let’s get in the

uh the interesting place

right

so first thing you’re going to notice is

everything that we’ve said we’ve changed

which we now prefer is all in here huge

instrument panel the visibility is okay

but there’s still a lot of obscurity

here and lots and lots of steam gauges

this is a busy cockpit but it’s got a

bit of charm about it really

but one of the things that’s really

different is this Collective a normal

Collective as we know comes out the

floor a pole in your hand here this one

is a completely different design

throttles are in get on the side here

and your first flight and it’s a little

strange but actually you do get used to

it and it’s actually quite a nice

position for the collective

again up ahead like we’ve spoken on all

our previous videos on the 505 the 407

and the 429 no circuit breakers on here

there is an array of them and you really

do realize how far things have come

forward now because there’s an awful lot

going on here of switches circuit

breakers lights there’s a caution panel

here which is off of this button here

there’s another one you press down here

to get lights to come on down here

it’s a very busy cockpit but it is still

kind of cool and there’s some

differences that are also similar on the

four one two the two one two on our

torque meter we have a mast torque meter

and we have one needle for each engine

as well so three needles to monitor us

again so we keep going back to glass

cockpit easier to manage less to look at

so although a lot of old-school charm

it’s a busy cockpit

so another interesting fact about the

Triple Two it’s going to be the video of

interesting facts

glass windshield heated as well or part

of the certification process as we said

earlier there will be two other videos

PreFlight and startup on the startup

video we’ll spend a fair bit of time in

the cockpit I’ll go through all the

switches the buttons the old pilots all

the lights you’ll really enjoy seeing

how to start trouble too

what’s our Takeaway on treble to then my

personal opinion I think it’s a

phenomenal designer a really pretty

helicopter but did you know you can

still get brand new parts for a triple

two from Bell today so when you buy a

brand new bell that’s what you’re buying

into the support is unrivaled and we

have moved a long way forward with the

429 the 407 and the 505 clean cockpits

glass no circuit breakers is the way to

be but it does take you back here the

pilots were in a busy environment back

in the day with all those switches and

all those gauges but

phenomenal helicopter join us next time

on the PreFlight video

[Music]