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March 2024
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Helicopters

Hello Friends – I have always had a facination with “vertical flight”.  When the opportunity afforded itself, I was able to take helicopter training for a short time in an Aerospatiale AS350 during part of my work stay in Japan –  all thanks to Mr. Maezawa, President of Japan Digital Laboratories.   Mr. Maezawa inspired me and that was the start of my interest in flying helicopters. 

When I returned to the United States, I began training in a Robinson R-22 at the local flight school, where I completed my helicopter rating as part of my Instrument/Commercial Pilot’s license.  I then decided to build my own helicopter, so I purchaed a helicopter kit from RotorWay International – called the Exec 162F.  The RotorWay Exec 162F was great kit.  Constrution was fairly easy, taking about one year to build, with an additional few months of debugging and flight testing.  

Flying both the R-22 and the completed Exec 1662F was great fun for a season…  After a couple of in-flight engine failures with the Exec 162F, I decided to sell the project and put helicopters aside.  As they say, “Time to move on…” 

I then turned my attention to building a high-performance fixed-wing aircraft called the Turbine Legend (featured in this site).  However, flying helicopters was a great experience for a few years, and I will never forget the thirll and joy of vertical flight!

In any case, I hope you enjoy the images of this experience as they are added to this part of my web site in the near future.  Check back for the addition of photos and updates…

 

RotorWay 162F Helicopter Experimental Aircraft Project

Aerospatiale AS350 – Flying in Japan

Robinson R-22 

These two videos show a fun flight taken by Carol and me back in the late 90s.  We started out from Camarillo Airport, CA and flew this Robinson R-22 down to Torrance Airport to look at a Cessna TR182RG that was for sale.  We didn’t buy the Cessna, but we did have a lot of fun on this cross-country flight along the California coastline.  The first video here shows a typical helicopter approach and landing at Los Angeles International Airport.  After the short touch-down on top of the International Terminal parking garage, we departed back to Camarillo.  The second video shows our departure from LAX, up past Santa Monica and along the Malibu Coastline and Pepperdine University, enroute back to our home base, Camarillo Airport.  I hope you enjoy the flight!

 

 

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