I really think that GCN overreacted a bit to these photograps that Autorotate posted. (No disrespect meant Giovanni!).
Pictures like the one below can be found all over the internet after brief search.
Seeing airplanes or helicopter doing unusual maneuvers are not necessarily dangerous or illegal! Its not like fare paying passengers are carried on board. (I hope).
I would just feel better about flying one of the types of helicopters shown knowing that they can stand a bit of abuse, not that semi roll or split S or semi-Immelman done properly would put any unusual stress to a aircraft.
If done properly these manuvers can be executed within 1-1.5 G´s.
The pics look great and are not necessarily showing anything illegal if unusual attitudes are not specifically prohibited in the flight manual. Which I dont remember seeing in the H-500 or AS-350 RFM!
"Pic removed by Aesir!"
Last edited by Aesir; 25th April 2004 at 22:22.