Yea I noticed that with four onboard, and fuel, it was operating quite high on the torque, around 90-92% or so, to rise into a hover and around 88% to maintain the hover? I bet with five onboard it would have taken around 95-97% to climb into a hover, and 92% to maintain. A single 504 shp/376 kW Safran/Turbomeca Arrius 2F seems a little low on the power for an aircraft like this. If I owned one I would look into upgrading with a more powerful Arrius with 600-700 shp and whatever main gear box upgrade it would need, if any, for the increased power. What I would love to see is a twin Colibri with two of those Arrius 2F's, or two more powerful ones. Two 2B2's, or two 2B2 Plus like the H135 has would be nice with 633 shp takeoff/580 shp cruise, and a twin input gearbox. If I was going to stay single engine, which I doubt I would since I like redundancy, I would go with whatever modifications would be necessary to put an Arriel in, in a 730 shp t.o./692 shp cruise range like the 1E2. My ultimate Colibri would have twin Arrius engines with some stylish cowlings like the AS355N's, the twin input version of the AS350 B3 main gearbox like in the AS355NP, vertical plates on the ends of the horizontal stabilizers for more yaw stability, and a custom made reversed direction of rotation H135 main rotor, or reverse the Fenestron and vertical surfaces to accommodate the normal counter clockwise H135 main rotor. Not that the three bladed Spheriflex main rotor isn't a great rotor design, but I really like the 135's main rotor design, and its diameter is a few inches close enough to the Colibri's to work just fine. If not then it wouldn't take much to trim the blade tips a few inches. Now the new Blue Edge blades, I adore them. I might just have to invest the dough to have some custom Blue Edge's for my H135, H120N main rotor. Although I suppose a twin Colibri would be designated H122N.

Yea, I also like the H145, with the Fenestron in place of the conventional tail rotor. Have you seen the new H160? Now that's a nice aircraft, expensive, but nice. They now have the Blue Edge shape for Fenestron blades to quieten the Fenestron even more than just the asymetric blade spacing that spaces the noise out over several frequencies instead of one main frequency like the original symmetrically spaced Gazelle/Dauphin Fenestron's. The H160 with Blue Edge main and Fenestron blades and 2,200 shp Rolls Royce/Turbomeca RTM322 engines would be so nice. I really like the H160 version of the X3, called the RACER, that uses adjustable pitch pusher props on the ends of A frame winglets, driven by the engines through drive shafts, that not only control torque and yaw, (no tail rotor,) but also unload the main rotor of forward thrust and propels the RACER to up to 300 kts while the winglets and main rotor, provide the lift. Vertical rudders on the two vertical surfaces on the ends of the horizontal stabilizers control yaw at high speeds. The main rotor RPM's are reduced by up to 20% in high speed flight to reduce advancing tip speed, and retreating blade drag, and make the main rotor more efficient at higher speeds. I think I would have a RACER with a stretched fuselage, either 2,200 shp RTM322's, or 2,700 shp GE YT706-GE-700 engines, a six bladed main rotor based on the 180 kt capable RAH66 Comanche main rotor system which was based on a design similar to the H135 main rotor design, and in place of the pusher props, have pusher ducted fans with light weight carbon fiber fan shrouds and blades with titanium leading edge strips, Blue Edge shape, and asymetric blade spacing for noise reduction. That would be a very nice aircraft. Even better, have a coaxial RACER with coaxial six bladed rigid main rotors with Blue Edge blades that provide more lift and no torque to control, or retreating blade stall/asymetry of lift issues, and ducted fans that are just for thrust and to assist with yaw control at low speed. The main rotors would also be more closely spaced to reduce drag at high speeds. The rigid rotors would be safer to have more closely spaced than fully articulated rotors without risk of contra rotation blade strikes.

Attitude indicators have a spinning gyro in them that uses a pendulum weight to erect the indicator to the direction of gravity. Oscillation of the indicator is caused by precessional nutation of the gyro, which is a rocking motion in the axis of rotation of the gyro, especially when the gyro is spinning up after the avionics power is turned on. Indicators that are equipped with a cage knob will erect the gyro more quickly, stop oscillation, and prevent the gyro from wear or being damaged by bumping into it's limit stops during oscillation or unusual attitudes. Twisting the cage knob left or right will also trim the indicator in the roll axis. A vacuum gyro's oscillation and erect time are a good indicator of the health of a gyro's bearings. If dust and contaminates get in through the vacuum filter they can do quick damage to the gyro's bearings with the gyro spinning at around 18,000 RPM's. If the attitude indicator is sluggish to oscillate or erect, then it's time for an overhaul. You certainly wouldn't want a gyro to fail in an IFR situation.

we had not the time to walk, we had to go inside :) thanks!

Thanks for the update....hope to see more videos from you!!

Yea, most of the time when they're doing airshow rides with a turbine helicopter they do "hot" egress and ingress, where passengers exit and enter the aircraft while it's running. This reduces the turbine cycles. A turbine engine has to be overhauled after so many startup cycles, because going from cold to hot and back to cold stresses and puts wear on hot section components, so doing hot egress/ingress helps extend the operating time before overhaul. Passengers are quickly egressed and ingressed to reduce fuel consumption between flights as much as possible. Hot fueling can be done but is dangerous and is usually not done at airshows, so even though it adds cycles, shutdown is usually opted for fuelings. Gary must have been in the next group after a fueling, is why the pilot had to start the aircraft. They hurry so they can get in as many passenger groups as they can. For safety and liability they don't allow passenger walk-arounds during fueling due to the fire risk from built up static even though they use a grounding cable, and "hot" walk-arounds by passengers are not allowed because they don't want the liability of passengers, and those with no experience with helicopters, walking around a tail rotor, or Fenestron, and risking a blade strike and severe injury. The insurance company would raise hell for having to pay a settlement and hospital/funeral bills for a passenger injured or killed being allowed to walk around a running helicopter. And of course rotor blades are expensive,,, just kidding. Safety is the #1 rule when it comes to aircraft.

+Heli PadUSA thanks! that was the Castle "Veste" in Coburg Germany.

You're quick with answers! Thank you! Very cool!

Yes, the EC120/H120 is equipped with a FADEC, and it controls the startup to prevent hot or hung starts, and controls the operation of the turboshaft to make it as economical on fuel consumption and as efficient as possible. It also records over limits for torque and other operation parameters for maintenance.

@@FredtheDorfDorfman1985 120B does not have a FADEC inside. You have to keep T4 and Torque in limits manually during startup by using the twist grip carefully.

cool...!!!

Coburg

Danke!

Ahh, Upper Franconia, Bavaria Germany, Dad's people's ancestral home. I thought it looked awfully nice for some reason. Vielen Dank, dass Sie uns Tom Windy wissen lassen!