I bought my Bell-47G4 in May. It was a little bit of a project and finally got to fly it yesterday. As it was/is in British Columbia (the next province to the west of Alberta) I didn't even have pictures to post for you guys until now.

On a related note, I did my first helicopter solo today!

Hope to fly it back to Alberta on Friday with my instructor and finish my training there.

Glenn:

WHOO HOO!! She's a beautiful example of the classic.





Nothing in flying is more fun.
(but be careful over the tall trees on warm days)
(and get the utility company maps of the overhead lines)

Glad to have you in the Rotor Ranks!

Glenn,

Beautiful bird. Congrats on the ownership and the new skills. I'll bet you are learning a great deal.

--paul

Between the TV shows MASH and Highway Patrol, you got to love the Bell 47.

Glenn,

Congrats! As I'm sure you've discovered, rotating wings are SO much more fun. Great choice in the (Scott's) Bell 47 and you should be well-covered with parts given the new type certificate holders.

So cool. I am envious.....always wanted to ,earn to fly a helicopter!

Glen,
Great looking Bell 47. I always wanted to learn to fly one. I was based next to one of the best Bell 47 mechanics/flight instructors for many years. I saw him truck in a basket of parts and in a few months a beautiful 47 was introduced back into the arena. If you ever find yourself in need of hard to find parts, just PM me and I'll put you in touch with him.

That is ultra cool!

After several hundred hours of R-22 time, I did 5 or so hours in a Bell 47.

Totally different ride. Totally...

Best,
Rich

Thanks everybody


Bill, so far parts have not been a problem but I will definitely keep that in mind if I have trouble. As Charlie mentioned, Scott Bell now owns the type certificate, definitely something I considered when buying.

Glenn

Rich,

I am not in agreement philosophically with the Robinson Helicopter Company, they keep putting out AD's at huge cost to the owners. Also, I would never be able to fly even remotely enough hours before the calendar limits on a R22 or R44 came up.

I understand that auto-rotations in an R-22 leave very little margin for error. Although I would not yet feel comfortable doing them on my own, by time I soloed today I had done 10-15 full down autorotations.

Which Bell-47 did you fly? The school I am at uses -G2's. My G4 has metal blade and even more rotor inertia than the G2's.

How specifically did it compare to the R22?

Glenn

Very nice!

Do the metal blades have a life limit?

I thought the PIC in a helicopter was usually in the right seat. Is it different for the -47?

Yes, unlike the wooden blades that can be overhauled indefinitely, the metal blades have a lift limit. I not sure what is is but I think it is on the order of 3,000 hours. My blades have about 1,000 left and at 40-50 hours/year that's 20+ years. That's good because at one point some sources were quoting as much as 40AMU per blade

Glenn

Yes, the Bell-47 is soloed from left. I test flew a few Enstroms and the primary controls were on the left as well.

So I would use the word "often" rather than "usually"

Glenn