Triumph Choppers...

[SARGE]

Michael - there are people out there that think that engine was not a great choice for a motorcycle.. And yes Sarge, the oil recycling tray... gleep!

It would sound weird on a heliocopter with the click click of the tappets being louder than the whump whump whump of the rotor...

wouldnt worry too much about stalling though .. the basic physics of these machines mean that they will Auto-rotate to the ground... you are still gona hit hard and possibly flip the the left but you wont spike into the ground at terminal velocity

[Michaelt]

wouldnt worry too much about stalling though .. the basic physics of these machines mean that they will Auto-rotate to the ground... you are still gona hit hard and possibly flip the the left but you wont spike into the ground at terminal velocity

That's assuming the rotor is correctly designed, built and balanced, the pilot hits the clutch quickly enough and controls the autorotation correctly.

I wouldn't rely on any one of those, much less all three, considering the general level of skill and experience of most of the people that build and fly these things.

[SARGE]

That's assuming the rotor is correctly designed, built and balanced, the pilot hits the clutch quickly enough and controls the autorotation correctly.

I wouldn't rely on any one of those, much less all three, considering the general level of skill and experience of most of the people that build and fly these things.

true... we had a familiarization flight on a few of the US pre-retirement Huey's.. everyone on my team had to be able to get it off the ground and land it at least.. not horribly different from riding a motorcycle.. takes a bit more focus at first but the basics arent too hard to learn

[Michaelt]

true... we had a familiarization flight on a few of the US pre-retirement Huey's.. everyone on my team had to be able to get it off the ground and land it at least.. not horribly different from riding a motorcycle.. takes a bit more focus at first but the basics arent too hard to learn

I did a trial flight on one of the Heliflight H300CBi's late last year, I absolutely could not keep it at all stable in the hover, there's no way I could have landed it.

Getting it off the ground isn't that difficult though.

I'd do it again if it didn't cost $450 per hour, don't really want to increase my student loan by $20,000, aeroplanes are bad enough, and I'm probably going to waste most of my capital on a bike soon, after I sit my full car license test on the 4th of October.

RNZAF won't train me as a pilot either, due to my mild colourblindness, so I'm stuck with planes until I come up with my genius moneymaking scheme.

Michael

[SARGE]

RNZAF won't train me as a pilot either, due to my mild colourblindness, so I'm stuck with planes until I come up with my genius moneymaking scheme.

thankfully we didnt have to learn to hover .. it was just planning in case the extract pilots were unable to fly

i actually went into the Service to fly Cobra's or Apache's but i was a bit nearsighted.. so they told me

" we'll see if it clears up in a few weeks .. in the meantime .. here's your rifle ..."

[Michaelt]

thankfully we didnt have to learn to hover .. it was just planning in case the extract pilots were unable to fly

So I take it these heli's had wheels then?
Kind of difficult to land from the cruise on normal heli skids without doing a lot of damage to the undercarriage.

[SARGE]

So I take it these heli's had wheels then?
Kind of difficult to land from the cruise on normal heli skids without doing a lot of damage to the undercarriage.

thats why they were the 'pre-retirement' birds.. wasnt too many gracefull landings during the few weeks we were doing it .. old 1970's issue hueys are built like a brick anyway.. not much padding on the seats though and you usually came out 2" shorter than when you went in...

they didnt let us in the good shit.. and if they did.. it was usually to hand us a rope and shove us out the door..

[Michaelt]

thats why they were the 'pre-retirement' birds.. wasnt too many gracefull landings during the few weeks we were doing it .. old 1970's issue hueys are built like a brick anyway.. not much padding on the seats though and you usually came out 2" shorter than when you went in...

So, uhhh, what happened to them in the end?

Where can I get one?

[SARGE]

So, uhhh, what happened to them in the end?

Where can I get one?

hehe ... these things were held together with chicken wire and duct tape in the early 80's anyway .. doubt theres much left of them.. i think the military mothballs them or uses them for spares to keep the next generation of crash trainers in the air