Anyone Familiar with Helicopter Emissions Standards?

[On the Road]

(or lack of standards)? This is from my girlfriend's son. Not sure exactly where to post. Have cross-posted to GD to reach a wider audience, but those threads sink pretty quickly.

[div class = 'excerpt']Could you ask something on DemocraticUdnerground for me? I want to know if there is a Vehicle Emissions inspection program for helicopters, like the one for automobiles. Also whether there is a guideline or limit to how long helicopters are allowed to idle on a helipad in Baltimore city. The reason is that I work in a University of MD building right next to a hospital with a helipad.

Several times a month, my building would be filled with horrible engine exhaust
smell that causes headache and nausea to a good number of faculty, staff, and students. The cause is the helicopter exhaust getting into our building's air intake. Our building retrofitted some baffles to draw air away from the helipad, but the helicopters are sometimes pumping out enough exhaust to fill the entire area outside the hospital down to the street level. It seems my building doesn't have any other way to deal with this issue other than a costly and slow redo of the
entire air intake system. I wonder if we can minimize the problem from the source, that is, from the idling helicopters.

[Dead_Parrot]

1. I don't know of any...

...and I'm not sure it would help, as these standards tend to apply to 'running normally' engines, whereas you've got engines idling and in startup/shutdown. Plus if they're emergency vehicles, they might get an exclusion anyway.

Limits on time spend idling would probably be a question for city hall but again, expect exemptions.

Best bet might be to kick up a fuss over osha compliance... http://www.peutz.co.uk/info/publications/file.php?pub_id=56 might be useful.

[kristopher]

2. I'd start with OSHA.

I'd start with OSHA and the impact on the UMD workplace. I think you want to know workplace air quality standards, not emissions standards for helicopters.

I'd also want to know why they are sitting there burning fuel. In the AF they often do it for maint checks or to fill required flight time for a pilot's monthly qualifications (are they sitting there hovering?). In this case, however, it sounds like they are on standby for transport. If it is something like the former, then you could possibly persuade them to move the activity to a different location. If it is the latter I doubt if there is much that can be done through persuasion.

[Submariner]

3. Cool down idling?

Helicopter turbines, which are the same as airplane turbine engines, need a minimum of 3 minutes (5 minutes is better) at idle to cool down the turbine engine.

An airplane engine accomplishes the cool down phase while taxiing from the runway to the gate, where they can just shutdown the engine once the plane comes to a complete stop. The slow trip from the runway to the gate cools the metal surfaces of the engine sufficiently to allow the immediate shutdown when the plane comes to a stop.

A copter engine is running at full RPM until landed, thus the very hot engine, so the long idle is strictly an FAA requirement to cool down the engine so it does not crack from running full RPM before total shutdown.

[leveymg]

4. There are standards for visible smoke from passenger jets, but none for helicopters, AFAIK

Best advise is to have the university ask that landing choppers be oriented away from your building when they do their final landing and cool-down, so the exhaust flow is pointed in the opposition direction.

There are scrubbers attached to the HVAC system at airports, but I bet that would cost a fortune to retrofit.

[leveymg]

5. epa has guidelines here, but I believe only for large passenger aircraft:

http://www.epa.gov/otaq/aviation.htm

[Loudmxr]

6. No but if they are anything like JetSki standards we are in trouble

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. Its FAA jurisdiction...EPA and local governments have no real say about the helos

Complaining OSHA or your the MD state equivalent could force your employer to do something.