"The OTHER Kevin in San Diego" skiddz "AT" adelphia "DOT" net wrote in
message ...
On 25 May 2006 11:01:28 -0700, "Mike Rotor Nowak"
wrote:

We got to meet the pilot (DJ I think was his name) at HAI... he said
the updrafts were so intense, the collective was bottomed out at the
hover, and to decend, he had to do nose dives (pretty dramatic on the
video). The power to hover up there was virtually nil... hell, he did
a toe-in the entire time, never set it down fully.

They had the chopper there too... not highly modified at all, just a
factory B3 with a flight recording computer and some cameras. No crazy
stripping jobs, it still had all the seats... and Eurocopter made sure
to flaunt that the configuration on the stand was the same as it was
during the attempt.

OK, I stand corrected. **WOW!!**

Agreed! I have to ask though. My admittedly limited experience suggests
that completely bottoming the collective could cause some overspeed issues
with the main rotor. Did they make any comments on that?

Just wondering!
Fly Safe,
Steve R.