Helicopters - Mans Reach for TRUE Flight

Helicopters are the most versatile flying machines in existence today. This versatility gives the pilot complete access to three-dimensional space in a way that no airplane can.

If you have ever flown in a helicopter you know that its abilities are exhilarating! The amazing flexibility of helicopters means that they can fly almost anywhere. However, it also means that flying the machines is complicated. The pilot has to think in three dimensions and must use both arms and both legs constantly to keep a helicopter in the air! Piloting a helicopter requires a great deal of training and skill, as well as continuous attention to the machine.

Aircraftbuzz.com wants to provide you the information you need to learn about all of a helicopter's different capabilities and how it's able to do such amazing things! A helicopter can do three things that an airplane cannot:

� A helicopter can fly backwards.
� The entire aircraft can rotate in the air.
� A helicopter can hover motionless in the air.

In a car or a plane, the vehicle must be moving in order to turn. In a helicopter, you can move laterally in any direction or you can rotate 360 degrees. These extra degrees of freedom and the skill you must have to master them is what makes helicopters so exciting, but it also makes them complex.

To control a helicopter, one hand grasps a control called the cyclic, which controls the lateral direction of the helicopter (including forward, backward, left and right). The other hand grasps a control called the collective, which controls the up and down motion of the helicopter (and also controls engine speed). The pilot's feet rest on pedals that control the tail rotor, which allows the helicopter to rotate in either direction on its axis. It takes both hands and both feet to fly a helicopter!

The TRUE Freedom of Flight - Helicopters!!!


		"A helicopter is an assembly of forty thousand loose pieces, flying more or less in formation" - a quote from a life-long helicopter pilot Although fixed-wing aircraft receive all the attention by most historians, helicopter flight was the first flight envisioned by man. In fact, the ancient Chinese were playing with a hand-spun toy that rose upward when revolved rapidly and as early as the mid 1500's, the great Italian inventor Leonardo Da Vinci had used his fertile mind to make drawings of a machine that we now know as the helicopter. Aircraftbuzz.com cannot ignore what may be man's closest approach to true flight!!

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News Articles for Pilots | by Aopa.org


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Land-use measure passes California legislature

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Calif. legislature sends flight school reg delay to governor

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FAA resolves Kings issue

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Flight for the Human Spirit arrives in California

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EU blacklists 2 Ghanaian cargo airlines (AP)

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American Airlines pilot cleared of alcohol (AP)

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Comair to lay off workers and halve fleet by 2012 (AP)

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JetBlue to fly between Boston, Newark starting May (AP)

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JAL to slash routes, aircraft in turnaround bid (Reuters)

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JAL to slash workforce as part of restructuring (AP)

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Frontier Airlines to launch new Costa Rica route (AP)

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Airlines back in profit in second quarter (AP)

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Japan Airlines to launch budget carrier: report (AFP)

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Summary Box: American hit with $24.2M penalty (AP)

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FAA seeks $24.2 million penalty from American (AP)

	AP - Federal officials are seeking a record penalty of $24.2 million against American Airlines over maintenance lapses that caused thousands of canceled flights in 2008.

FAA hits American with $24.2 million penalty (AP)

	AP - Federal officials are seeking a record penalty of $24.2 million against American Airlines over maintenance lapses that caused thousands of canceled flights in 2008.

Record $24.2 million fine proposed for American Airlines (Reuters)

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Summary Box: Air New Zealand profit jumps (AP)

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Air China says first-half profit up 60 percent (AP)

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Air NZ profit jumps on lower fuel hedging losses (AP)

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Ohio aviation firm to build plant in Alabama (AP)

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Brownback vows to defend Kansas aviation industry (AP)

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FAA close to fine against American Airlines: source (Reuters)

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