The Navy uses helicopters to tow mine sweeping gear, and I heard that at least once helicopters were used to launch sailplanes for a contest. How do you calculate the tractive effort that a given helicopter could exert at a particular speed, density altitude, etc.? Thank you, Peter...

Can anyone explane me how tracking and balancing is done on EC 120, AS 365 N3 and MD900? Any help sincerely appreciated. Frederik C

Is it true that a Dauphin can mesure vibrations of the main rotor gear box all by itself? I also red that he is alble to do a bit of the tracking and balancing also by himself. Is that also treu and if yes, how does he do that? Many thanks.

Good morning, I am looking for tracking lights to put at the tip of the blades to see tracking during flight. Have you heard of E-Z Track tracking lights? according to website made on C-GOEZ They seem to be small, cheap, use only two cells and have a feature where the centrifugal force from the...

What is involved in purchasing a helicopter that is registered in Canada and re regestering it in the US? This is what got me asking: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2482209464&indexURL=1#ebayphotohosting Joe

If all you've ever flown (seriously) is helicopters and 99.99% of your time is in turbines, how hard is it to transition to fixed wing? (not asking FARs, just practical stuff) Bart

I'm looking for some detailed online information about helicopter transmission design, particularly those powered by gas turbines. This would include the main rotor gearbox and the planetary reduction drive on the turbine. I'd prefer a website with graphics and/or photos. I haven't had much success...

I wanted to let folks in the group know about a free e-mail newsletter some may find of interest. The Transportation Communications Newsletter comes out Monday through Friday and has a rundown of news items and other information related to all aspects of communications in the transportation field,...

Does anyone here have experience in all three of these type a/c? I would like to know which of the 3 would handle cross winds best and which has a safer overall operational record. So far, I've read that the gyro is better with crosswinds (ref Dr. Taggart) than even some factory fixed wings. I...

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I've just read, with great dismay and disbelief, information which Rick Stitt and his partner, Andreas, wrote with regards to me. I'd like to ask...what did I ever do to them to deserve such lies except give him $22,000 of hard earned cash, a year and a half of my own sweat, and refusing to lower...

Hey gang. A good friend is a high-time civilian pilot who is interested in going over to the Tsunami-damaged areas and flying relief missions. Additionally, he recreationally flies an Alouette II here in L.A. and the owner of that bird is willing to have it shipped overseas for this purpose as...

I'm just having more fun than should be legal and it probably isn't if I look far enough into the County, State and Federal statues, but I am never-the-less. I have pretty much followed the Cafe numbers for header length and the 4-into-one collector. Keeping in mind friendship to my...

Has anyone tried the program at Group3 that allows you to build PIC time in a 206? I found it when I was looking for a transition course, and it just seems too good to be true. $135 for 206 time? http://www.group3aviation.com/site/helitrain/pic/bottom.html I'd be interested to hear from anyone...

FAR 91.409 involves itself with requiring some sort of special inspection program for turbine powered rotorcraft. Builders of Amateur Built turbine powered rotorcraft are being forced to generate some inspection program documentation to get the airworthiness certificate. Nearly all of these...

Some friends bought me a really spiffy coaxial RC helicopter for my birthday. Holy canoli these things are a stinkin blast! A little humbling at first too, it took me a while to figure out the trim hickamajobs, and flying one without it being trimmed is damn near impossible. I crashed pretty...

http://tinyurl.com/38q9t5 Your interesting story for the day. Enjoy.

Here's a pic of their blades layout: http://batman.mech.ubc.ca/~hph/thunderbirddesign.gif (note the blade rotation arrows) What I'm wondering about the blades: - Why the odd taper? I'm guessing the taper alleviates tip losses, but why does it begin at the ~.6 span mark? I'd expect taper across...

Yes, I confess. I don't know much about rotorcrafts. Especially regarding gyrocopters my knowledge is even more limited. However, on the net I just stumbled over UFO HeliThruster. Rumors are that it is rather stable. The manufacturer not only sells kits but also (FAA-?) certified planes. If I...

I have a simulator models for the UFO-Helithruster and SparrowHawk gyrocopters for use in X-plane 7.0 and above. Email me for a copy. Noel