East Farmingdale Fire Company HQ Thunderbolt 1003

[Truckie6119]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdMGoMGqgeQ

[ver tum]

Wow! That's one slow wind-down! It sounds like the blower is forcing air into the back of the chopper instead of the front. I wish someone could post pictures of the inner workings of one of these TBolts with slow wind-downs, so we can compare it to a normal TBolt. I'm particularly interested in the way that the blower pipe is configured.

[kswx29]

Love the echo.

[guitarguy1985]

Wow! That's one slow wind-down! It sounds like the blower is forcing air into the back of the chopper instead of the front. I wish someone could post pictures of the inner workings of one of these TBolts with slow wind-downs, so we can compare it to a normal TBolt. I'm particularly interested in the way that the blower pipe is configured.

I wonder if that also causes the chopper speed to not slow down when the blower is on. Usually the pitch drops about 4 semitones, In which case this Thunderbolt is probably on chopper setting 1. Might explain why some Thunderbolts are unusually high pitched, like the one in Hawaii.

[ver tum]

wonder if that also causes the chopper speed to not slow down when the blower is on. Usually the pitch drops about 4 semitones, In which case this Thunderbolt is probably on chopper setting 1. Might explain why some Thunderbolts are unusually high pitched, like the one in Hawaii.

That's exactly what I'm thinking. In fact, if I'm right about the blower blowing air into the back of the chopper, the chopper may even spead up a little instead of slowing down while the blower is running. If the air is forced into the side of the chopper though, I would think that the chopper's spead would remain the same, whether the blower was running or not.

[3t22]

the reason why this 1003 winds down slowly is because it's a series B which used a different chopper motor. Instead of the Model 2 motor the series A and C used the series B used a small C-face motor.

[ver tum]

I don't think that would effect the wind-down spead. We've got a bunch of B series 1000T's here in Louisville, and most of them have normal wind-downs.

[JasonC]

I don't think that would effect the wind-down spead. We've got a bunch of B series 1000T's here in Louisville, and most of them have normal wind-downs.

Louisville doesn't have B series Thunderbolt's. B series are very rare and look physically different from a normal Thunderbolt. I can't tell from the video if the 1003 is b series or not but good hypothesis since the normal C-face chopper motor would offer less resistance than the normal chopper motor. Also, the air from the blower actually acts as resistance tot he chopper, thus slowing it down faster

[ver tum]

Sorry about that. I thought that since most of our TBolts had B series blowers, that they were B series TBolts.

I'd still love to know how the blower pipe is positioned on those slow wind-down TBolts though. On the one at Conway Middleschool, the chopper winds down at the same spead, whether the blower is on or not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waV0idL6IO0

In most cases, the blower would slow the chopper down, but it doesn't appear to do that on the Conway Thunderbolt, and some other Thunderbolts.

[guitarguy1985]

Here's another Thunderbolt that winds down the same speed whether or not the blower is on. It's been posted here before I'm sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCLdEC8-S44

It's not high pitched, but all the abnormally high ones I've heard also have the slow wind-down.

BTW that Conway Middle School Thunderbolt sounds like it is on chopper setting 8 (if that existed). So if the 4 semitones thing holds true it's probably on level 6 like you said in the comments.