On Thursday, January 21, 2016 at 9:51:56 AM UTC+3, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
Eric, I take offense to that statement, helicopters are as fast as gliders, in fact they have a high cruise speed! )

Depends which helicopter. the Hughes/Schweizer/whatever 300 cruises at 160 km/h. I believe there are plenty of 300+ km glider flights done at higher average speed.

The R22 is a little faster, 90 knots or 167 km/h. I've blasted past them a few times, climbing, with both of us in ridge lift.