From the fall newsletter, recently made available online:
- Eddie and Amanda Kisfaludy flew an R44 newscopter around Greenland as part of a UK-to-San Diego trip!
- The R66 (turbine-powered) newscopter is now certified, unfortunately with an HD camera system rather than 4K (i.e., you might get better footage with a $3,000 DJI Inspire 2 drone).
- Robinson pushed its 800th R66 out the door to a customer in China.
- Peter Wilson and Matthew Gallagher, both of the UK, flew an R66 around the world (121 days; 32,000 nm; 43 countries).
Readers: Are there any great trips left to be done by helicopter?
Related:
How about breaking the U.S. coast to coast speed record in a piston helicopter? That would be exciting. If you will go, Phil, so will I.
The FAA really has to recertify it if the image sensor in the camera changes?
lion: I think if it is permanently plugged into the helicopter, “yes”; if removable easily (plugs into the gimbal with a quick-release) then “no”.
Mark: https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2009/may/05/california-group-sets-new-helicopter-speed-record says the current record is about 59 hours for the round trip. It is pretty tough to find official records, e.g., at https://www.fai.org/records ; I have a dark suspicion that nobody cares! (the interface is interesting; “helicopter,” “aeroplane,” and “female” are categories–is “female” a kind of aircraft?)
I think a helicopter trip to 50,000 feet would be neat!