Some more pictures of the 2007 Fairford Airshow Chinook Belgian Seaking. These guys already saved hundreds of lives in the North Sea
I don't think "looks" have that much bearing on Bell's bottom line. And I seriously doubt Robinson has made much of an impact on Bell's market share
I can do anything I want on my last day at work. Unfortunately I don't see that happening anytime soon.
Weirdo: Therein lies the problem. The LR looks like the JR. The 407 looks like the LR. The 427 looks like a 407 on steroids. All share the same terrible setup of 2 compartments, poor visibility (to the front) for the back compartment seats, no crashworthy seats, no leg room (for the LR and 407) and skinny seats. Bell gave the scenic flight niche to EC, R44/66, IMHO. Hedge36: I agree. The Bells look great. Sitting inside is the difference. EC has more modern layout, all facing forward, one compartment, etc. I beg to differ on the Robinson comment. R66 was designed solely to win against the 206B. I know of at least 8 operators who have replaced their JR's either for tourist flights or corporate work with R44's/R66's. BTW I think Robinsons are ugly beasts. Don't want this to be a 'pick on Bell' discussion - I like both brands ; it's just that Bell had the whole market to themselves at one stage and they squandered it all.
Robinsons are ugly, with their squat bodies and weird rotor mast. I like the Colibri best. It's just... I dunno, clean-looking.
Primary instrument training at Ft. Rucker in 1969 was done in the OH-13S turbocharged model of these guys (I had the ball in the needle/ball gauge freeze in position one day - really baffled how the instructor pulled that one off). jdg
As I recall, around 400 of these were built for the Army to replace the H Model. The MR Blade was 1 foot longer and the tail boom was 14 inches longer. It had a Lycoming engine too. But I didn't know they were equipped for IFR training?! Must have been interesting flying in the soup.
Yeah, really interesting when the controls started icing. Most of the time it was under the hood. In advanced instruments we headed to the clouds on purpose in the Hueys that actually had real instrumentation and flying in locations that had working approaches. Doing instrument approaches in Nam with minimal working instruments was always interesting - did a lot of NDB stuff and more than a few GCAs courtesy of the Air Force at Phu Cat Air Base. Never saw a working ILS as the Air Force was mostly TACAN. jdg
Helicopter pilots have all the fun! sorry for the crappy cell phone pic, it was all I had with me. View of the landing pad, without the girls
