Originally Posted by Anti-Talk
Re the quick stop, I do know the incident I am fairly sure what you saw was a downwind quick stop as access to our hangar space was conveniently blocked by other helicopters and a fence line (not ours!), there are nearly 30 on this airfield and a downwind, tail wind, level quickstop would have been unsafe, as would a downwind transition to a hover over a 5 foot fence line with a 10kt+ tailwind. Downwind quickstops with a turn and flare are actually trained in europe and are not 'hot dogging' they do however require a high level of skill and co-ordination.
Ahhh, I see: You teach to a level *beyond* the FAA's PTS. You guys teach to some "European" level of skill. Well, I'm not sure that pilot would want to try that maneuver in front of an FAA guy who knew something about helicopters.
Look, I've been around the pattern a time or two. Don't tell me what I saw. What I saw was what I initially described: an R-22 coming over from the hangars to the FBO side and do what looked - to me - like a fairly aggressive, "hot-doggy" type maneuver that did not seem operationally necessary. Remember, I flew out of that field that day; and in fact, I spent quite a lot of time there hanging around and doing what I love: watching helicopters and airplanes fly. The winds were light and straight down 26. I saw where everybody was parking, including out in front of your office. And what I saw was not a "downwind quickstop" or any such nonsense.
But as I told you in my response to you PM, they're not my machines and not my pilots. And if that's the type of flying you feel is acceptable to demonstrate to low-time students (some of whom were also watching), it's *your* call.
Justify it any way you want, dude.
Uhhh, that's the way they train in Europe! Yeah, that's it! Fine. But do not try to give me any weasel excuse that the pilot "had" to do that. He was having a little fun and probably didn't think anyone who knew any better was watching at 7:30 in the morning. And with maybe one exception, he was right.