Wasn’t that always the point for lots of them?

The rotor disc doesn't care which way the wind is blowing - 'hovering' with 35 kts of wind is the same as flying at 35 kts which will be much lower on the power required curve - pointless claim really.

https://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/15...-downwind.html

In Robinsons, in my experience, it takes more power to hover downwind, than it does when into wind.

It's only the twitchiness of the tail causing you to make constant corrections that saps any power downwind - the main rotor is unaffected except for a possible slight ingestion of TR vortices.

I presume you are talking only about R22 and 44 - the piston engines may suffer a little from less than perfect airflow into the engine when downwind.

Selling for more, or less?

I think if you have a build number under 100 you would have definitely made money on your deposit, especially as Jason has promised that deliveries will start next year.

What’s that based on - your personal view? My belief is that Jason has already failed to deliver on a number of ‘promises’ and I’m of the opinion that there are many more to come…

Aren’t these “sell my place in the queue” more to do with lack of confidence than speculation on capital return?

I guess we don't know which one it is at this point. If the word about pricing of those slots comes out, then we can make an opinion.

Reminds me of my favourite movie...

Given Hill has over 1,200 orders for the HX50/HC50, Bell/Robinson must have lost some orders to them. I would love to know what Bell/Robinson think about that.

No prizes for guessing what they think about that..! 😆

I just watched the latest monthly update and ‘Ask me anything’ Q&A on YouTube. Recently, I’ve been following updates quite closely. I’m hugely impressed with everything the Hill team are achieving. Having had quite a lot of experience in the non-certified end of the market (Rotorway), there’s simply no comparison with the proposed Hill offering.

Like most, I have a healthy degree of scepticism about time lines and production numbers. However, I have every confidence it’s going to happen, and it’s going to be very good indeed.

JJ

Given that Hill owns a 66, I expect there will be questions!!!

From who? He can’t own a machine that doesn’t exist yet.

Presumably jeepys means a Robinson R66, according to wiki there have been over 1000 built…

From what I've heard not much with the HX version. However, once the HC certified model is released Robbie might watch it but that wont happen for a while, if it happens at all.

As to the selling of production slots, not much to read into it. Happens on the TC side as well. Know one original slot owner and one guy who bought a resell slot after Dec show.

I know what a 66 is, I was curious who will ask the questions. I read it as his customers, but maybe it meant Robinson.

For those who don't want to watch 2hrs:
- 1289 orders
- expanded team into production and certification/approval
- Engine:
- About to cut first 4 impellers. Production strategies done
- HP turbine disc done, being measured. NDT/quality (X-ray, measuring, etc) underway.
- turbine blades continuing work on processes; in the thick of it. Basically up to casting strategies (cooling rates, etc) and casting analysis samples for testing alongside blades.
- Super alloy main engine casing casting process wip.
- gears & drivetrain components (shafts) making the rest of the bits. Gears exceed spec so they're going to cut more weight out of them.
- injectors: combustion test rig wip on flame shape improvements. More needed. Lots of detail on the effort required to get to here.
- starter/generator: in the thick of it, released most parts to production to make 5 of them. High speed test device commissioned.
- Airframe/composites: prototype (production) new set of moulds for flying prototypes, using lessons learned from fuselages last year.
- Lots of detail on firewall tests to choose final solution for flight prototypes
- Paint shop work (booths, equipment)
- Digital cockpit: discussion on some UI experiments from first principles to look at various VSI, Airspeed ideas. Night tests.
- Production facility: almost finished digging out & cementing slab for gantry mill (which requires special slab for precision). Gantry mill installed in ~1 month.
- electrics/lights, cabling in. Cement foundations outdoor done. Paint floor, environmental controls coming. Will take a while to move all development centre machines in & recalibrated.

I would love to know what decade customer number 1,289 is getting their aircraft

Sooner than customer #1290 which is what matters. Also they're funding its development, significantly increasing the likelihood of getting the helicopter at all. People buy Vans kits and don't get to fly it for 10+ years. Instead of focusing on delivery, let's focus on milestones. If they can get an engine completed and running reliably on a test bed this year, I think that would be fantastic.