German helicopter-stuntflying video

[Frank N. O.]

I placed it here since it shows a level of helicopter manouvrering I never knew was possible, and a helicopter that seems to match the Gazelle and Lynx in manouvreability, a Bo-105 btw.

It's a stream from german tv, PRO7 with former Viva-TV (german music-tv station a'la MTV) presenter, comedian, singer/songwriter (with a weird sense of humour) and talk-show host Stefan Raab. This is from the segment Raab in Gefahr (Raab in danger) and formerly has shown him box the top german woman boxer, and getting beated to a pulp, trying to race the woman speedskate champion with a headstart, lost I think, or just won by inches.
The pilote is one of three licensed professionals in Germany and have flown for a german action movie called Der Clown (The Clown) (and the first person in the middle is an actor and the person on the left in the start was the producer for that, and all three helicopter pilotes) as can also be seen on the Hummer H2. I guess you can easily see this Raab is a bit of a nutter as the british put it so fittingly but to give more info for those that don't understand german, the small paper bag in the inner pocket of the pilot before flight is just what you'd think it was, although it looks small to me but it was for the pilot, not that he needed it. The pilot explains some of the manouvres he will do, also just before take-off and Raab asks several times if he still has control of the helicopter after several physics-defying manouvres.

The stream can be seen here and I tested it just before posting, just wait a short while for it to load: http://tvtotal.prosieben.de/components/videoplayer/0698/0698-00-06-wm_midband.html?mode=
It's a wmv stream-file btw.

I hope you enjoy it
Frank

P.S. I chose this since I'm sure you've all seen the presenter getting buzzed by a Spitfire playing lawnmover but this being from Germany was more rare, aspecially since I gather that many here are from North-America.

[fireflyr]

How do you say "I think I dirtied my underwear" in German?

That is the most spectacular helicopter display I've ever seen, hands down.

[Stef]

Oh my god!!! I didn't know you could do such things with a helicopter!!! Respect!

[fireflyr]

Mike, I didn't understand (of course) what the guy with the microphone was saying but he looked like he was talking s**t to the pilot, who it seemed to me, took great pleasure in getting Mr smart ass sick----was that kinda the gist of the conversation?

Give you any ideas how to handle smart asses on a helitac crew?

[Mike]

i can't get the damn thing to play right . all the computers here are too slow it seems..
i'll see if i can find a better machine somewhere. I really want to see it!

[chuckar101]

Yeah you definately need to see that Mike.  And I agree with Fireflyr, it does look like hes badmouthing.  And you need to learn some of those moves, would be great to mess with a hotshot crew like that.

[Frank N. O.]

How do you say "I think I dirtied my underwear" in German?

I think it goes something like "Ich denke das ich meine Unterhosen beschmutzt habe".

I'm really glad you enjoyed it, and I hope Mike can get it working.
Try the direct stream-link, paste into WMP mms://wms.e-tv.de/tvtotal/2005/03/21/0698-00-06-wm_midband.wmv

Actually Stefan Raab isn't badmouthing the pilot at all but keep asking if he still has control (clearly concerned for his own safety), and that he (Raab) doesn't know where he is anymore (lost orientation). He asks for a pause early on, and in the end he nearly said the equiivalent of Holy Sh.. (Ach du Sche...). He's generally in a high-spirited jolly mood and not offensive at all but I can see why it can look like different, especially with such a calm collective pilot. I'll see if I can translate the main part so you guys can understand what he's saying.

I never knew a helicopter could do barrell-rolls that easily, or do a forward flip/roll or inverse loop if you will, or that insane downward spiral, rotors first!
Btw, the hat isn't moving much but I think that's because this is a pilot that, how can I put it, makes the helicopter to most of the work and only perform adjustments, meaning he uses the aerodynamics and forces of nature to assist the manouvres, like g-forces and hence the hat isn't moving much, does that sound correct?

Frank

[Gulfstream Driver]

Looks like most of those maneuvers were positive G's.  Very freaky video.   

[FlyingBlind]

How do you say "I think I dirtied my underwear" in German?

That is the most spectacular helicopter display I've ever seen, hands down.

Ich glaube ich habe meine Hosen geschisst

[Frank N. O.]

That actually sounds more accurate than my translation, nice one.

Mike did you ever get the stream to work?

Frank

[Mike]

WOW!   I just saw the video. Respect !!

The guy isn't really talking $**t to the pilot. He sounds very nervous. He does give him a hard time about his white gloves though and then asks the pilot if he can get some too because they could come in handy to wipe the puke off his lap...

Did you guys notice that the little strings on his special hat never really move much?
It's because the helo can't really do any agressive maneuvers and very seldom you feel any kind of g-forces. (I have a water bottle standing next to my seat and it hasn't tipped over ever....)
The only time you would feel them in this video is when he pulls out of the loop. (technically it's not a loop either, you just pull the helicopter inverted and let it "fall through") he he "just" . . . . that's funny!

But there are very very few helicopters you can do this with. A Bell would loose the whole rotor-head if you tried this...

Cool stuff! I would be scared to do this.
Red Bull is actually working on putting together a helicopter aerobatics team with two BO105's here in the states. They are in our shop right now. Hopefully they'll get going this summer and we'll see them at an airshow.

[Frank N. O.]

Glad you finally got to see it! It's fantastic isn't it

About the hat then I also thought that the manouvres the pilot does are more working with mother nature instead of against her but that still looks scary as heck for the unknowledgable about helicopter performance, and appearently that knowledge is rare since normal helicopters can't do that. That reminds me of Blue Thunder where Malcolm McDonnel's (spelling?) character says it's aerodynamically impossible for a helicopter to do a loop, but the modified Gazelle does any in the movie (to my knowledge it actually did it for real but I'm not sure).

It seems you know the helicopter used Mike, how does that compare to the other super helicopters around, which to my knowledge list the Westland Lynx and the Gazelle? Does the BO105 have the so-called Fixed-Head rotor like the Lynx or is there another secret to it's fantastic manouvreability?

Frank

[Mike]

It seems you know the helicopter used Mike, how does that compare to the other super helicopters around, which to my knowledge list the Westland Lynx and the Gazelle? Does the BO105 have the so-called Fixed-Head rotor like the Lynx or is there another secret to it's fantastic manouvreability?

Frank

Well, I guess I would have to check into that. I am not sure what rotorsystem the BO105 has but I don't think it's a rigid one like the one of the Westland Lynx. I think it's actually what they call a "fully articulated rotor system" but I'll look at one in our shop. Could be that it's just great flying and knowing your machine...

The Lama is a pretty old system and is actually the grand daddy of the AStar (Ecureul for you Europeans). I don't know much about the Gazelle to be honest....

 My buddy Roland who is also in the forum every now and them probably knows a lot more about this than me.
I think looping a helo isn't all that complicated or too dangerous since it's a lot of positive g-forces but like I said, they "fall" through the loop and it's not like a loop an airplane would do. Negative G's can get you in trouble, especially with a semi-rigid rotorsystem like the Bells have (206, Hueys, and so on...)
But this would get us deeeeeeep into rotor aerodynamics

[Roland]

Right Mike, here I am

To answer the question of Frank: yes, the BO 105 has a rigid main rotor head and that is his main secret to do this kind of aerobatics. Rigid means there are no bearings between head and blade which are needed to operate a helicopter after all (to explain this now it is certainly too complex). The BO 105, as well as the Westland Lynx, does the “bearing work” within the blade-root-area.

This idea of a “stiff” rotor head gives the possibility of very quick manoeuvres, which are used for tank-attacking helicopters. It is developed at the late sixties, beginning seventies last century.

As Mike stated before all manoeuvres are flown positive, but a “stiff” main rotor head reacts very quick and allows some minus too. Modern helicopter have this kind of features (“stiff” rotor head) installed already, but in different ways. I have done a looping on an AS 365N Dolphin as a Co-Pilot. Eurocopter has a video of a Dolphin/Panther flying a looping and one can’t see the rotor blades even move out of track.

Mike states correctly that negative manoeuvres on helicopters with semi-rigid rotor systems are troublesome.

[Frank N. O.]

Thank you both for the replies, it's a pleasure to learn more about these amazing machines

Is a loop in a helicopter really a loop or more like a backwards flip like an acrobat can do, or can it do both?
From the sounds of your posts then it seems I guessed correctly that the german pilot actually worked with rather than against the forces for those manouvres despite the wild look of them, and that makes me happy that I could guess correctly on such matters, I love learning about such things

Btw is the Lynx (with special rotor-blades) still the record-holder for the fastest level flight in a helicopter at a little over 400 kph (250 mph)?

Frank