Nice, love the sound of a Huey, how did you end up meeting these guys? that is too Cool. what did they think about the Bell -47?

I work in a gay bar as a stripper and these guys hang out there along with Stan, Jeff , Larry and Gordon. Easy to strike up conversation when they are so vulnerable.....

What I want to know is, did they know you took the huey? and did you bring it back with no scratches

Probably because it is so HOT... they want to enjoy the early part of the day. Kinda like Mexico, siesta after lunch...

I grew up in Houston TX, where 100D-F and 85-90%RH was normal in the summer... staying out of the heat in the early afternoon was necessary.

Best time of the day is early in the morning for myself. I love turning my shop into a jack-o-lantern at 6 a.m during the winter months. Getting up early lets you take off early if your tasks are done, or work a little more to stay on track.

Late risers lose that option, unless they cut into end of day family time.

COOL Gabor, sounds like you had a weekend to remember!

Any possibility of a Huey finding its way to Benson Days 2015...

I would lay $$$ it would increase attendance... of both aviation types as well as civilians.

Nah....this Huey belongs to the cops. Not likely a Bensen Days attendee. Talking about barking blades.

Besides, if they did show up at BD, they would prolly start busting everyone and writing citations for everything

I still think it is the coolest thing when helicopter pilots swap machines!!!!!!!!!!
WHat an awesome ride??????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those who do not know the finer details of helicopters...

In the video: It seemed like the blade 'WHOP' every now and then, made a real WHAP sound... just a random, yet loud and distinct WHAP.
What causes that?

THX

John- The rotor blade is hitting the vortices off the blade in front of it. This is very turbulent air and its actually sonic booms.

How I understand it GG is that the air being compressed by the rotor means that the wop wop noise is actually quite directional, it is always happening all around the machine all of the time but in a really narrow 'beam' of sound waves, but the way the sound waves hit our ears is only when the sound is directly at us. Sort of like the sound of a prop on an aircraft turning in the taxi area, when the prop is at a certain angle to us on the ground, we hear the prop make that 'bitey' noise, then it goes back to the normal quieter sound..... so if 10 people on the ground at an airfield scattered in different parts of the airfield, when one hears the wop wop, doesn't mean they all hear it.... they will hear different wops at different times, when they become in line with the sound coming off the rotors.... Hard to explain.... When we fly our gyros or helo's, we rarely hear the wopping because it is being deflected away from us, but in a cruise, or in an energetic turn, you may hear it for a short time, when the rotors start throwing sound towards the pilot, or you hear the sound bouncing back off the ground or buildings when landing....

Think of the sound the rotors make compressing the air like golf clubs hitting golf balls of sound constantly, you only hear the wop when the blades send a 'golf ball' of sound in your direction.... you may hear it, but the guy 50' away doesn't at the same time you hear it. Changes in wind direction, cyclic or collective inputs by the pilot or the rotors flying into up then downdraughts or even waves in the air will change where the rotor sends the 'packets' of sound.... that is why you can see a heli coming, then you hear some wop wops, then you don't hear any, then you hear some again.... our gyros do it too, but obviously not as loud because of thinner, undriven rotor.... but when you hear a fully loaded Huey or the bigrescue choppers/sky cranes..... they sound like jack hammers when the rotors (with chord like a Cessna wing) send the sound directly at you on the ground....


Can you imagine the sound in Viet Nam when there was hundreds of Hueys coming and going in various states of load would have sounded magnificent

That is also why 3 or more blade heli's (lighter ones) make the wop wop less, but a chook (Chinook) or sea king nearly loosens fillings in your teeth on the ground

Love that sound

Yeah, the sound of a fleet or flock of Hueys coming... was the sound of American military strength... I wonder sometimes if it was intentional to 'psyche out' the enemy... however it turned out to be an announcement to get out the RPG's and shoot them down.

I guess I did not word the question properly...

When watching (and listening) to Gabor's video above... there was a single WHAP, distinctly different than the usual WHOP-WHOP-WHOP....
What I am curious about... is what causes that distinctly different SINGLE WHAP...

THX!

GA

John- There are certain combinations of speed and descent rates when a helicopter gets into the condition where the following rotor blade interacts with the vortice coming off the blade its following. Typically happens when descending in an airport pattern. Google "VBI"....vortex blade interaction...as I am too slow typing it all from memory! My instructor stressed trying to keep our sound footprint small over residential areas. Sometimes you can descend at a higher rate or fly faster or slower to get out if it.

This interaction is mostly with powered rotors which fly with the tip path plane tilted forward. A gyro typically doesn't get this interaction because the tip path plane is tilted back, and the shed vortices from the front advancing blade pass over the blade that's following it.

I can really make my Helicycle blades pop by getting in the right rate of descent and speed. A helicopter flying at a few degrees if descent angle gets into this interaction angle everytime. A gyro with an unpowered rotor is flying below its shed vortices almost all the time. Now when you bank a gyro hard, is when you start hitting its shed vortices, and you get the beaver tail slap on the water sound that is so cool.

A Huey does not fly through the air, it beats the air into submission!
The cool thing is that they sound the same on the inside.

MamaGyro and I have had a few rides from the local Army heritage foundation.
http://www.armyav.org/



The only thing better than a huey ride is a COBRA ride!!!!

The answer to the question of what the sound is: Air separation from the the blades. The same sound the whip gives. The only difference is the size of the surface the air separates from. Whips have small surface so the sound is higher. Huey blades are a bit larger surface so the sound will be obviously lower deeper. When you load the blades you are forcing more compression on the air surrounding the airfoil therefore more air separation occurs. Steep turns, steep descending and rapid climb out will produce similar results in the whopping sound. If you think about it it is the same thing thundering is. As the lightning strikes through the air the electricity heats up the air momentarily and the air expands from the heat and as soon as the lightning is gone it retracts. That moving air mass is the sound of the thunder

The single odd wop could be a cyclic input, sending one right at the camera in your instance

Imagine adding the sound of barking M60's to all the wopping of a flock of heavily loaded Hueys

THX guys!

Will have to visit that Heritage place... and maybe get a ride.
THX Scott!

My last ride in a Huey was March 6th, 1970 to the 91st EVAC.

My last ride in any helicopter was a Bell 47 in Pigeon Forge, Tn.