Mike Brown gives a detailed Walkaround tour of the EAA's beautiful Bell 47 helicopter at Oshkosh 2022. Video sponsored by: Paradise Jets www.paradisejets.com Bryan Turner / justplanesilly
When he was explaining how the cyclic works to adjust the main rotor plane, he meant to say the principle involved in getting the action of the main rotor plane to tilt is "gyroscopic precession" rather than "geometric procession". When we get that old, it's easy to have trouble coming up with the proper word at times. Not a bad explanation but a newbie flight instructor would probably give him crap over the "geometric procession" mistake. . .
I'd also add that most of the people I've known with considerable time in a piston-driven helicopter don't have "Marty Feldman" eyes, but can tell pretty closely what their engine rpm is from the sound of it.
What a great video. I’ve been associated with helo pilots but am amazed at how clear and simple Mike explains the Bell and how it flies. Literally a mini ground school in 30 minutes. Really impressive presentation!👍👍
I fly model helicopters for 23 years now, and I thought I know everything about helicopters. Man, I could listen to this guy all day! Great explanations in a perfect way.
My Dad flew Bell 47s all over the Canadian North / Arctic in the late 50's. Later, he became a Tech Rep for Bell and did a support tour in Vietnam in '65. I was lucky enough to be raised around helicopters and the pilots and engineers who crewed them. Great folks!
That walk around was by far the best so far of one of the stars of a show I grew up watching, M.A.S.H. Both of you are appreciated very much and is what You Tube was made for.
I noticed right away how it sounded just like the ones on M.A.S.H.. in the credits you don't hear it but they did run some of them during certain scenes in episodes. there is also a video out that shows pics of where they filmed the opening credit scene with the choppers flying in over the hillside. it was in the Hills in CA somewhere..it still looks the same. cool to see..
in the late 80's - early 90's I worked at a Porsche shop in Dallas. Just around the corner from us there was a guy who flew a Bell 47 to work. I would often go outside to watch him come in and disappear behind the trees. On test drives I would drive by and see the heli parked between two buildings. Very cool way to get to work.
Back in the 1950s, when all we had in the UK was one monochrome TV channel, there were many imported US programmes. One I liked was 'Whirlybirds' about a couple of guys in their Bell 'eggbeater'.
I am retired from Bell Helicopter and have worked on everything from this 47, to the V-22 Osprey Flight Test Program. This was an excellent video walk-through and explanation for non-rotorcraft folks.. Great job!
The Bell 47 is my all time favorite helicopter. We used one dropping napalm doing controlled burns on clear-cuts getting them prepped for replanting. I usually went up with the pilot if I was the fire boss that day to go over the layout and burn plan. That pre-burn flight was always one of the best parts of the job.
Around 1957-1960 the TV guys from the Whirlybirds show came to Riverside Ca. at a grocery store, (I believe the name of the store was Sage's) and had a drawing. If your name was pick you got to fly with them. My mother put my name and my sisters name in. She was picked but was scared so my mother ask if I could take her place and they agreed. They had a similar or the same helicopter as your showing. I loved that show, never missed a episode. I was only 10 years old. I'll never forget that experience. It was very exciting. I'm 75 now. Thanks
I was lucky enough growing up to have had a Tennessee Highway Patrol helicopter operating across the street from our house. These 47s are my first exposure to heli’s. I had Whirlybirds on the TV and a real helicopter across the street. It is a cherished memory! This walk around was a real detailed explanation. Enjoyed it and learned a lot. Good job sir!
As he said, Bell didn't add anything to make it look pretty... but functionality has a beuty of its own. I trained in the "T" model in the Army in the mid 1960s.
Great walkaround... In the late 60's, Santa Claus used to land in a Bell 47 at the elementary schools in our town, they would land in the playground with all the kids standing off in the distance, really cool.
That was brilliant! These videos must be amongst of the most informative available on RU-vid. Only one surprise - the tail rotor shaft UJ was not a constant velocity (Rzeppa-type) joint. Hey, the design is over 70 years so what do I know!
Great video, thanks. I learned to fly on the Bell 47. Just as I was getting the hang of it, about 100 hours, they took it away from me and put me on to bigger turbine engine stuff, but hey what a lovely old aircraft. When Mike talks about ignoring the fuel gauge he’s right, visual check on the levels and time your endurance…. about 2hr50mins full to empty! With a bit of experience you would also not need to use the engine and rotor dual tachometer gauge much also - keeping revs right was all done by ear!!
When I was a teenager in the 70's, in a nearby neighborhood, the was a large house, and in front onf the house, the was a helipad, and there it sat a Bell 47. Not sure what happened to it after I grew up and beacame an Army Aviator, but never flew the Bell 47. I can't imagine the greenhouse effect as in the OH-6, the sun beat you up pretty good, even through the upper smoked pexiglass. Very nice bird, and well engineered. Thank for the video show. Well done.
That poor engine; deliberately stood on it's bum & strapped in a treadmill cage of toil it's whole life, never knowing the cool & joyous feeling of a virgin slipstream through it's fins, an overworked galley slave in an egg whisk - what a life eh? : )
I'm in Australia and I am starting my Diploma in Aviation for the Bell 47 and Robinson 22 from 04/01/24( career change at 47 years old ) and this guy explains it so well and he didn't rush it, I could listen to him all day! It was awesome to hear about the mechanical side of things and the terminology on how things work and what they do, so thanks mate..
Imagine the guys who flew the early versions before they knew all the refinements that were required for safe flight. Way more complex than fixed wing flight.
Mike gave my son-in-law and me a ride about 15 years ago in the -47. And, Mike and I both flew for Flexjet for many years as well. He is like the Energizer Bunny..never stops.
This machine was so much fun to fly I had to come back and get a refresher course from Erik. I remember the first thing I was told about our Bell-47 was...when you walk up to begin your pre flight and you dont see it dripping oil, dont fly it cause it aint got any in it...LOL! True story. It auto rotated much like the 206 I fly these days...Great machine!
I know right? I MUST have missed that the 1st time I watched this vid. Amazing really..that “WOOD”:rotor BLADES would LAST that long, virtually worry-free because of zero ‘stress fractures’.
What a joy to listen to the low-key no-nonsense explanations. Especially love the almost off-the-cuff comments which show the thousands of hours of experience with the machine. Like the comment about the tail rotor control with your little finger, the oil pressure switch position, or about the early Huey's running take-offs in Vietnam. Love the open-plan design which allows inspection of nearly every major component.👍🏻
I had a flight at Oshkosh in one of these in 2005. I got up early, and ended up being the only passenger for that flight. I stilll have the pictures somewhere.
Ive got about 50hrs in the Bell-47. A good point he makes is adjusting throttle as you pull more collective because there is no correlator that adds RPM for you in this machine. Its truly real flying at its best!
I just asked him and he said that they were given to the pilots by the EAA at Oshkosh. That’s my dad-❤️Smartest & kindest man I know! (Sorry I couldn’t help more)
I did my commercial check ride on a 47 G2 with wooden blades in Canada and flew tours over Niagara Falls. I also flew them with fixed floats landing on water. I live in the UK so unfortunately will never get the opportunity to fly one again.Full Autos onto a lake with the floats was great fun.
Did you hear about the blonde who died in a helicopter crash? The rescuers got to her before she passed,they asked what happened? I got cold so I turned the big fan off.
Only mistake I caught was that it is gyroscopic precession, not geometric precession. Everything else was great. Maybe he was nervous at the beginning becoming a star and all that!
I’m so hocked on that thing. Looks so comfortable I need do get some training flyng h ?? How do I sign up ? How much for the training ?? And where is it ?? Thanks
Excellent video I am trying to promote a reconstruction of one of these birds in our company.Do you have an email so I can ask you some details ? Thanks and congratulations for the 47
I learned to fly helos in a Bell 47 back 40 years ago ,even though though they are underpowered compared to today’s helos, I love them. You can’t beat them for the visibility .. That big bubble give unrestricted sight. At first it’s tricky flying level as you don’t have that instrument panel in front of you to give you reference like in airplanes. Just too much fun .
Best walk around of a Bell 47 I've seen, amazing work! Mike sure knows his helicopter! I spend my days flying a G2A1 model in the simulator at home, love these things, so simple! One thing I dont think was mentioned is the lack of a governor on these, those that know helicopters probably picked that up anyway or already know, but its pretty important detail, meaning you have to manage your power all the time unlike in most helicopters after these, the governor tries to keep the engine power at a level sufficient for the workload you are putting in to the system. Some later helicopters do not even have a throttle at all, computers manage it instead. I love it in the sim, sadly never been in a real helicopter. Imagine in 1949, I think it was a French pilot, who took one of these to 18550 feet. Not sure what model that would been, but I imagine it would probably had a bit less power than this one. I tried to do it in the sim, and I got to 15300 ft, and it took me 75 minutes to get up and down and I had to fly over the alps and some cold weather to even get close, if its warm weather it would not do it ofc. And thats how it would be in a real one as well. I love that simulators these days have gotten good enough that you can sport individual characteristics of different aircraft very quickly, same for many racing and driivng simulators. Getting down was sketchy, as you can very easily over speed. When climbing you are almost working as if its a glider, in the sense that you hunt for some updrafts or something to help you get up higher, we dont have thermals yet in the sim, its coming end of the year, but yeah, it was very difficult. Done it twice now. I will try to hit 18550 ft!
Police dept I flew for had a "D" and a "G" model . the "D" model had no hydraulics on the controls. It's here I would disagree with Mike Brown. I found the non-hydraulic controls to be more precise especially in close in operations. The "G" model had the wooden main rotator blades and an aluminum tail rotator. Our line mechanic would regrease the tail rotator shaft bearings every 10 hours of flight, and you could tell when it was a fresh grease job because of all the excess grease slung from the bearings on the tail frame. We flew ours at 300RPM on the main rotor. I timed a fellow pilot do a practice full-on autorotation from 500 feet. 15 seconds is to the ground with about a 3 - 6 foot skid across the grass.
