BDA, how times change. At the Hanover Airshow in 1982, the HEER attended with a CH-53G. I looked it over closely and you know-it looked like it came off the production line-absolutely spotless and in the charge of a Leutnant, who was personally assigned to that tail number.
As to this thread, Sergei Sikorsky was there and arranged for Karl Zimmerman to get a demo ride in the UH-60 we had there. It was supposed to be a pilot demo in which we would demonstrate, and then have the guest pilot take a turn in flying to pretty much the approved envelope limits. BUT, Sergei then seated himself in the back, followed by Karl’s spouse and child, one of our Marketing guys and several other “ guests “. The pilot demo was obviously off, but after getting us out of the airport zone, I handed the controls to Karl, and planned on talking him thru a docile flight that wouldn’t require the use of the barf bags we always had along. After a few minutes of gentle turns etc, Karl descended toward an open farmers field, then proceeded to kick the speed up to 130+ and at 15 ft or so, he talked me thru what he did on a BO-105 anti tank training flight, as we sped along, between tree lines etc. I was sitting on the edge of the seat with my hands lightly on the controls...in case. Karl looked over at my concern, smiled, and said on the intercom “ John, you really ought to try this sometime “. One of the seemingly longest flights I can recall.
The beauty and combined technical excellence with ballet-like artistry demonstrated every day by Karl at that show in his 105 acrobatic demo is a whole different subject. That flight described above was a set-up for the sort of event this thread addresses.