For Robbie Pilots Aspiring To Become Aerobatic Pilots
 

Ran across this video the other day.

I am not quite sure what to say.

Perhaps one can be too bold which tends to prevent one from being too old.

Don't believe in Hunter S. Thompson's philosophy SAS? “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”

They're skidding, got the smoke, the Robbies may be used up and worn out, and the guy is proclaiming about the ride.

Actually for most of my life....yes very much so.

Then.... I got a few peeks over that great abyss due to my own doing and I decided to walk a bit further back from the edge!

Mortality is an abstract concept to the young but becomes far more defined with age, experience, and exposure.

,...and I thought it was going to be a video about cattle mustering,...meh.

Ok - I fly fixed wing, but that just looks crazy on so many levels.

• Machine and rotorhead not fit for purpose?
• What would the airframe loads be like on the poor little R-22?
• Danger of inadvertant IMC due to smoke and CFIT?
• Abrupt pitch, roll changes close to the ground during auto-rotation on a low inertia rotor?

Am I right - or are these guys rotary legends like old Dennis whatisname?
I wonder if all three pilots are still alive...?

The auto was a bit sporty, but other than that there don't appear to be any manuevers that are anywhere even close to mustering or ag work, much less aerobatic. Nothing outside the limits of the POH. Other than the standard issue Robinson hate, what's the big deal?

That's why I was asking... to get a rotary wing perspective.
I'd always understood it was basically designed to fly point to point - and that many of the crashes resulted from people pushing the envelope, doing things it was never designed to do.
I've never seen one flown in that way...

I must admit I mis-read the name painted on the engine cowling!

Good coordination well practised, seems like they know what they are doing.
No risk to anyone else, whats the problem?:cool:

There is some very competent handling there and their formation skills are good - but does anyone know how old that video is and if they are still going?

Their display involves sideways and backwards speeds you wouldn't normally expect a Robbie to do and I would think they are at the limits of their control travel on some manoeuvres but it seems to work for them.

The leader is ex-Army, are the rest ex-mil as well?

At first I thought: Lunatic doing such maneuvers in a Robbie. Looking closer at the videos I noticed that the rotor disc never appear to move out of plane to any significant degree. Given the freely teetering head that indicates to me they knew indeed what they were doing. No unloading of the disc. No maneuvers against inertia of the fuselage.
Rotor RPM appears to be under control continuously. Since Rotor RPM and Disc tilting against the stops are the two big fatal gotchas in a Robbie I would say it looks very controlled and pretty safe (for a display).

I'm always bemused by internet forum posts that begin with "I don't know much about X, but here's what I think about X in detail"