You say "Heli", I say "Helo". What gives?

[Dontsaynice]

OK, gang...newbie here. Riddle me this.

Who, in God's name, abbreviates the name of rotary-wing configurations as "Helis" versus "Helos" (pronounced "HEE'-LOWS") as He intended? ;)

My ~30 years experience in military aircraft industry in the states is exclusive use of the latter vice the former. Are they used interchangably? Does it depend on which side of "the pond" you are from? USA versus everyone else? Military versus commercial? Northern versus southern hemisphere? Or what?

Please enlighten me if you would. Thanks.

[Hedge36]

I was raised in helos. They fly helis on the other side of the pond.

I suspect "helis" are helos with backward-turning rotors.

;)

[Gordy]

Helos---left side of pond.....Helis---right side of pond...

On another note...Got hammered in Pax River back in 88....Tri-nats ASW....would like to say I remember most of it---sadly though.....

[CityofFlight]

Well, Mr. Don'tsaynice, guy....I've got to bring spelling back out. (did this to someone else recently)


Is it Helicopter or Helocopter?

There might be the answer for everyone!! :p ;)




As if 2 sides of the pond will ever agree.

[griffothefog]

Don't know what you are worried about yankydoodle, you have already bastardized the rest of a perfectly functional language :eek:

Never mind, we know you gotta get some history from somewhere :E

Go figure......

[Gordy]

Giffothefrog

Get over yourself alreadys.....

It is all about perspective.....Me thinks a lot of the English language came from afar in the first place....Is not the root of the English language based upon a mix of Latin, French, Gaelic, Greek.....? One example---In Latin---"Agricolie"=Farmer....ergo Agriculture... (I am sure my spelling is not the best but oh well, point made)...should I continue???

People in the US are mostly immigrants from other countries----all of whom left their home because of all the "A$$holes" there no doubt....

Funny how you will all complain about your lot in life, how expensive the flying is over there in the great UK, yada yada f'kinkin yada...and all want to come to the US to fly...... Maybe the Americans took a perfectly good flying system and "LEFT IT ALONE", instead of "bastardizing" it into an elitist flying organization....hmmm hitting close to home maybe.....

I should prolly shut up before I bastardize your glorious language anymore and pi$$ you off and get banned......

[Whirlygig]

bastardized Oh sweet, beautiful irony. ;)

Gordy, just try saying, "ha ha very funny".:ok:

Anyway, I'd always believed that "helo" was more a military term, particularly Naval and that "heli" was used in the civilian world by those who know know any better. :}

Cheers

Whirls

[parabellum]

English as spoken in the USA is much closer to the English language and spelling that the Pilgrim Fathers arrived with than the English spoken in Britain to-day, which has been 'Europeanised'.

At the risk of repeating myself, there was a very interesting Nat. Geog. programme all about it.

[spinwing]

Mmmm ....

Gordy old darling ...


If you ever give up flying .... I think you could have an excellent vocation as a "Game Fish" .... you certainly took the 'baited hook' and ran with it .....

..... "Chill" bro :cool:



Take care .... :}

[LookingUpInHope]

So Mr. Webster didn't set out to deliberately change the spelling of American English, and thus take it further from British English?

...A language where a sheep becomes mutton, a cow becomes beef and a pig becomes pork? Where the Ruler is Regnant, Rex/Regina, Monarch, King/Queen and Majesty. Where I can put on my pyjamas and sleep in a bungalow.

English, to quote someone, doesn't so much acquire words from other languages as knock them out in an alley on a dark night and rifle through their pockets for spare grammar.

[spinwing]

Mmmm...

BLOODY HELL .... I hope no bastard ever gets stuck into us Ozzies for talkin 'strine english' ...... :}



:ooh:

[Whirlygig]

So Mr. Webster didn't set out to deliberately change the spelling of American English, and thus take it further from British English?No, there were no standardized spellings in either Britain or America in the late-17th/early-18th centuries.

In Britain, Johnson put together a dictionary (in which he famously misspelled "dispatch" as "despatch") in the late 1700s ... in American, Webster put together a dictionary inthe early 1800s. Who's to say that their spellings were perfect? All the dictionary did was standardize the spelling and there is therefore, no right nor wrong.

The English speaking settlers who first arrived in American spoke English little different from Shakepearean English; Americans still use "gotten" whereas the British just say "got". But the British still say "forgotten" and "ill-gotten" and it's the same linguistic derivation.

However, I still think "helo" is a military expression.

Cheers

Whirls

[Gordy]

spinwing....

..... "Chill" bro

I guess huh...twas late in my neck of the woods at the time...Kept me amused for a minute or two though, so no harm done.. :)

[the delaminator]

Helos---left side of pond.....Helis---right side of pond...

Nope. We here on the upper left side of said pond ( Canada) say Heli in the civilian world and Helo in the Military world. Why this is however I have no idea.

By the way. Upper left refers to our Geographic location and not our political leanings.

[Hedge36]

A Scot is bitching about pronunciation? Will miracles never cease... ;)

[EN48]

"Herb" is a male nick name (for Herbert). "Erb" is a plant. :E

[CityofFlight]

A Scot is bitching about pronunciation? Will miracles never cease...

Hedge... ROFL on that one. :D

[parabellum]

"Erb" is a plant.


Spelt Herb. :p

[Whirlygig]

Funny, what really gets on my tits is people who can't use capital letters correctly.

The correct but slightly old-fashioned British English pronunciation of many words being with H, is that the H is dropped, as in 'otel. Again, all that has happened is that American English has retained some different pronunciations.

However, one finds that punctuation rules on both sides of the pond are the same.

Still think helo is a military word. :}

Cheers

Whirls

[J.A.F.O.]

You say "Heli", I say "Helo".

No, I don't.

I say helicopter or aircraft.

[Hedge36]

And then there's the cardinal sin...

"Chopper". :ugh:

[CityofFlight]

The horror! :eek:








(Chopper...Isn't that a two wheelie thing with an engine?) :} :p

[Hedge36]

Yes... not to be confused with an actual motorcycle, of course.

[Whirlygig]

CofF, you mean you had one of these too?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/content/images/2007/05/18/raleigh_chopper_01_350x350.jpg

Cheers

Whirls

[widgeon]

takes me back to the old hover , huvver debate. At least we call the collective and cylic the same .Maybe we can all call it hubschrauber to avoid confusion.

[ppng]

Personally I don't care whether it is spelled "heli" or "helo", but "spelt" is a type of flour
:ok:

[CityofFlight]

Aaaw....Whirls... the memories. But you forgot the playing cards attached to the spokes using clothes pins. :}

[Whirlygig]

Spelt is indeed a type of wheat but it is also an acceptable past tense/past participle of spell. :ok:

Cheers

Whirls

[Ascend Charlie]

Wow, pots and kettles. A helipocter pilet complaining that poeple can't spell?

In Oz they are choppers. No Pommy connotations of genitals, no Yank thoughts of Hardly Davidsons. No political correctness. Just choppers.:eek:

if we had a choice between helis and helos, we take helos.:ok:

[Bravo73]

At least we call the collective and cylic the same .

Well, not all of 'us'. In his autobiography, Mr Bristow repeatedly refers to the the cyclic as the 'azimuth'.

But, to be fair, I've never heard anyone else refer to it as that.

[spinwing]

Mmmm ...

In Oz ..... we also have a lot of ..... 'BULL****' :rolleyes:





;)

[Heli-Ice]

spinwing

There is a test to make sure if its genuine bullsh*t

If it looks, smells and feels like bullsh*t and you throw it in the air and it stays up there, it sure is bullsh*t.

widgeon

Hubscrauber you say... try using Þyrla (Icelandic) instead, sounds a lot better :)

I have sometimes wondered why the difference in say, lift and elevator, fag and cigarette, gasoline and petrol?

[ShyTorque]

In my time in the British military (almost two decades), only the wavy navy flew "helos". We flew helis.

[Dontsaynice]

City...

But "heli" sounds so...dainty, nice, accomodating...Seattle-like, eh?

"Helo" sounds like something that means and takes care of business doesn't it? Regardless of sequence of letters in the unabbreviated word.

Just sayin' ;)

[Gordy]

Dsn:

But "heli" sounds so...dainty, nice, accomodating...Seattle-like, eh?

"Helo" sounds like something that means and takes care of business doesn't it? Regardless of sequence of letters in the unabbreviated word.


And then try working with the USFS who insist on calling it a "ship" all day long...I am starting a revolution at my base to at least call it an "aircraft"..

[birrddog]

They call it Helo because heli pilots have halo's!

[Dontsaynice]

Gordy...OMG...don't get me started. Oops, too late.

With all due respect to the USFS, calling helicopters "ships" is probably the least of their issues. No gov't agency should have oversight of contractor processes that they have no clue about themselves and are too proud to reach out for help from other agencies that DO understand the processes.

I feel better now, thanks.

[Gordy]

Dsn....

Would love to comment..."discretion is the .....", Ya know where I am coming from...

I am starting a "money box"...$1 everytime any time one of my crew calls it a "ship"....said $ will purchase copious amounts of "adult beverages" at the end of fire season gathering..... Nuff said... I am guessing you aware of the current "Operational Control" issues between the FAA, USFS and contractors....?

[Whirlygig]

I've always been bemused at the term "helicopter gun ship" ... well which is it? :confused: :} Does it suffer from a mechanical identity crisis?

Cheers

Whirls

[Troglodita]

As one of our large witty American Aviators (a heli-tubby like me - definitely not a helo-tubby) says to us "Tea Bags"


You may have invented the English language but we perpetrated it!


Don't lose the plot, people have the right to be let loose on their interpretation and use of their language whether they are over here or over there.
I think it capital that incorrect use of capitals is not considered a capital offence
- BUT - still cringe when oregano (orrygarno - not orregganno) is called a (an?) URB!

Another tip: -

Always ensure that you only fly aircraft that are insured!:=

Trog