Originally Posted by Heliport
The Crane was the last of Igor's personal babies. It was the direct outcome of the S-60 experiments that were done with the piston H-37 drive train. Here is Igor and his engineering team out for a quick flight underneath the first crane. Never mind computer designed, here you have a real case of putting your faith on the line!
On that S-60 flight, the pilot was Jack Peterson, and his co-pilot was Jim Kay.
After takeoff, Jim checked to see if the platform was behaving itself, as he glanced back to look, he said to Pete, "Pete, don't do anything sudden!"
"What's wrong, is the load swinging?", Pete asked.
"Nope, worse. The Old Man is up and walking around!"
Igor had undone his belt and began strolling around the tiny platform, oblivious to the fact that there was no railing, or that they were 1500 feet above the ground! After much strenuous gesturing, Igor got the hint and sat back down!
Took several days going through this thread but it was worth it. Do not fly helo for a living but have 40-50 hours in them from time to time, so know just enough to be dangerous in the things. Saw the above post and photo with it and it reminded me of an old friend.
Was at an airshow recently, where I am a judge for some of the antique airplanes. I also hold a hot dog/hamburger lunch for anyone associated with this model of plane at the airport. Walking around the area was an older gent wearing a hat and just looking around at all of the planes. I recognized him, having known him for a while as well as his being a member of our QB group here in the area.
I called for him to come over and enjoy a free lunch with us. There were about 20 others around and it seemed that no one knew who he was. Turns out that he was looking to buy an antique plane to fly around in so we spent over an hour talking about the pros and cons of each one.
After all of this discussion one of my friends was sitting next to this gent and having a good time. I mentioned to Gareth, who has about 30 years in the Army flying everything they have, that he should talk to the new guy about helos. Gareth asked why and it was at this time that the newcomer introduced himself.
He was Sergi Sikorsky, the son of Igor Sikorsky and still involved with Sikorsky Helicopters. He is still flying at the age of 81 years old but semi retired out here in Arizona. Anyone wanting to meet him who comes to the area in either March or October, PM me and can help at the fly-in.