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The photo above

The night-flight photo you see above is Mike Groul's XCell 60, as photographed during the Bremerton, WA heli fun-fly of 1996. The photo turned out so well I made it the 'banner' image over all of the heli pages here...

Drag Racing

The helicopter in the right-hand lane eventually won the day. His secret? Flat-bottom blades, tons of pitch, and a very high head speed. Drag racing is kind of fun to watch, but I still wouldn't want to be the 'christmas tree' guy.

- spinning up, waiting for the signal to begin

- hovering, lining up as per the starter's direction

- launching down the strip at the word go

The Bird Incident

In mid-summer 1996, a bird flew between myself and my helicopter while I was hovering perhaps six or eight feet away from myself. Startled and a little annoyed, I put the helicopter down to see where the bird had gone off to. Evidently there was some tasty stuff in the grass at the edge of the helipad.

Annoyed and mischievious, I proceeded to buzz the bird at a distance of several feet. The bird was oblivious to the helicopter. I buzzed the bird a bit closer; the bird kept pecking at the grass. I landed in the middle of the helipad briefly, then picked up and sat down a bit closer to the bird. Repeat, getting closer each time. It didn't even notice. Buzz the bird some more; the bird shows no concern, in fact no interest in the helicopter at all, even when we were ruffling its feathers with the turbulence from the main rotor.

After several minutes of this, it became apparent that the bird quite simply did not care one way or the other about the helicopter. My girlfriend took some photos, a friend of mine repeated the process with his helicopter, the bird still just didn't care.

- me hovering directly over the unflappable bird

- Derrick hovering right next to the bird that would not be bothered

The Vertol

One of the guys I fly with (Rusty) has a Hirobo Vertol. At the time these photos were taken, the fuselage was still under construction and he was still learning to fly it. In spite of Rusty's experience with conventional helicopters, he started flying the tandem with the assistance of 'training gear.' The elevator channel is reportly too sensitive for mere mortals, and is quite a challenge even with the assistance of a second gyro.

- just sitting on a picnic table at the field

- all control mixing is mechanical, which makes for some complex linkages

- one of the three-bladed rotor heads

- hovering - note the single 'training stick'

Wreckage

- try to avoid this

Other folks' photographs...

Contributed by Joe Howard: Contributed by Mike DeMetz: Boom strike sequence contributed by Jeff Dickison: Vario Night Flight Images contributed by Tonny Andersen

Nexus Rotor Heads, original and updated versions contributed by Gary Heath, who says:

The original is on top and the "improved" is on bottom. In addition to the wider "double tapered" area, this area is about 50% thicker on the new head.

I had to kinda' push my dealer to find out the differences and get my free replacement heads (I have two Nexus') so I wanted folks to be able to see the difference for identification of the type.

It was reported that the reason Kyosho is providing these *free* replacements is because of some failures at rotor speeds of 2000 rpm, and "wild 3D" flying.

My concern is; Kyosho is not saying why the replacements are being made avail. and because the Nexus is a design that caters to new heli pilots, that can sometimes not get the pitchs set right, and maybe create a situation that could exceed the 2000rpm, and possibly be a danger to themselves and others.

And..... the newer head is a stronger design, *and* free!

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