Rotor Heads! Sound Off!

Listen Dane....you gotta use the correct name here inorder to get their attention.....FLING WING DRIVERS.

 

I flew a bell Jet Ranger once, does that count? Flew about two hours in it up and down the California coast. It only took me ten minutes to hover the thing competently to the amazment of the instructor. I would add a rotorcraft rating if it wasn't so damn expensive.

 

Well, I had some really good instruction and a serious interest in the things.

 

Most of my hours are in MD500's C/D/E. Couple hundred in Agusta 109's, and a few Bokal and Jet Ranger and fewer still in R-22's

 

Whats an MD500?

 

One primary difference is the MD600's have NOTAR which does away with the traditional tail rotor and instead uses a ducted fan to provide the anti-torque effect.

The MD500 in the picture above with the V tail is a C model, the D was the first to have a T tail, and the E and later variants had a pointier canopy nose. They did make a hybrid 500 series with NOTAR the MD520N.

Of course, the turbine engines got bigger and bigger with each variant.

Here is a good run down of the differences:
http://www.mdhelicopters.com/Rotorcraft/Models/

 

R-22s and 300CBs for me.

I was explaining the difference between fixed-wing and rotorcraft flying over dinner with friends last night (I fly both). In a fixed-wing if you take your hands off the controls odds are good it will continue to fly straight and level. In a rotorcraft, if you take your hands off the controls the only thing you can be sure of is that it won’t fly straight and level.

Ian

 

Our Aerospatiale tech rep used to refer to our jets as "fixed rotors".

 

Greetings all. I own a Robinson R44 Clipper II
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Didnt pilot them; just fixed.
UH1-H, OH58, AH1 and Sh!thook.

 

Not bad at all, pretty predictable if you figure 10-20% above what Robinson says.

Adam

 

Glad to see there is a site to chat about helicopters