Nice post, Rotorboi
If you were to ask most helicopter pilots what the technique would be to perform a loop, they'd probably recite that for a fixed-wing: dive for as much airspeed as you can get and then pull, pull, pull. But most helicopter pilots also probably misunderstand just how much pitch power the cyclic has. Rotorboy ("Fair Flair") tells us that he started his loop from
straight and level flight!
And if an Angst-rom...sorry,
Enstrom can be looped from 100 knots S&L, imagine the loop a 206 could do! (Uhh,
if the deck fittings kept the transmission attached to the airframe, that is.)
Granted, a helicopter loop will probably not be symmetrically-shaped like that of an airplane, but hey- a loop's a loop.
I never saw Mott or Mike Meager or Rotorboy do their routine, but I've heard from those who have that it is awesome to see a helicopter doing what we've always assumed was "impossible."
I understand Nick is working on a Comanche airshow routine with a maneuvre called the "hover roll." Reportedly, he's gotten it to work, but the downside is that is uses up an hellacious amount of altitude
