The Hiller Thriller....
Gotta love those old Hillers, especially the 4 seaters, so retro looking today.
I have just returned from a short trip to San Francisco this week, which included a visit to the Hiller Aviation Museum at San Carlos. This is a fascinating building out at the airport there with many old aircraft, and restoration workshop onsite, all set up by Stanley Hiller himself.
Two amazing Hiller facts;
1) I was informed the -12 is still in production (my late step father learned to fly on one in the early 60s with the Royal Navy).
2) Whilst airborne, Stanley Hiller used to demonstrate that aircraft's stability characteristics by climbing onto the outside of the machine, whilst a colleague would do the same on the opposite side - leaving nobody in the cockpit! The museum has a photo of him doing precisely this.
Personally having learned to fly with the Bell 47, this is not something that ever occurred to me to try........