http://www.softlab.ece.ntua.gr/~sivann/pub/Uploaded/alan_vegasfunflydemo_2004.wmv
Some pretty amazing flying here. I find it strange that the helicopter can generate lift when the rotor is so close to the ground as it is during one part. Why does it work?
Wings, both rotary and fixed, develop best lift when close to the ground. It’s called ground effect. A high pressure bubble underneath makes for a bigger pressure differential between top and bottom surfaces.
And wow. The that is one amazing pilot.
Ummm… how does a helicopter generate lift upside down?
And how does the camera never lose sight of the helicopter no matter how fast it jerks around? If real, the camera operator is as great a virtuoso as the helicopter operator.
Peace.
The video looks fake.
I’m not saying that it is fake - in fact the shots where we get to see the model closely would be really hard to do, but there’s something about it (which I think it mostly the almost too perfect camera tracking) that makes it look…odd.
The propellors must have reversible pitch.
I’ve never seen anything even close to that before. I thought it must be faked at first, but I don’t see any signs of it. An the engine smoke trail is a pretty good indicator that it’s not doctored.
Maybe the apparent camera steadiness was achieved by cropping.
Looks like decent camerawork to me.
The reason a helicopter’s blades can generate lift when they’re upside-down is because the pitch of the blades is variable. When the pilot goes inverted, he compensates my changing the blade pitch. You can climb straight up at great speed while upside-down. This doesn’t work on all helicopters, though, and most full-sized helicopters can’t do this. (Only a few military helipcopters have this ability, AFAIK)
Aw shucks that ain’t nothin. I can do that… (not) 
Seriously, that was some really great flying. I was told by many that in the world of R/C, a helicoptor was the hardest aircraft to fly. I wonder how many choppers did he go thru (crash) before he learned to fly like that?
Bolding mine.
I usually don’t do this, but I gotta call cite
I have seen helicopters loop. From what I understand it’s skill and speed that will allow them to pull that off. And they will lose a lot of altitude when they do.
But climbing straight up at great speed!!!. Hell choppers can’t climb straight up at great speed when they are in there normal attitude (‘hanging by the rotor’).
Upside down? Outside of not needing to include this in the design, the dynamics of the aircraft would be changed so dramatically by the center of gravity now on top of the rotors, It would be an incredibly difficult feat, even if the helicopter was designed to reverse pitch on the rotor.
enipla, R/C models typically have a power to weight ratio that is far greater than full size aircraft. The scale effect - if make a flying machine twice as big as the original it has four times as much lift area but weights eight time as much - is why you can have a fly the size of a fly that can fly but if you made it the size of a 747 it would be crushed under its own weight, forget flying. The scale effect plus a high performance two stroke engine that will drain all onboard fuel in a few minutes is why that R/C chopper can do such energetic maneuvers.
padeye
Sure, much more power available for a shorter period in an RC.
But reverse pitch and fly upside down? Maybe an RC chopper can do this. But as I mentioned, the dynamics of flight for a chopper would be so screwed up I doubt it could be done.
Anyway, flying_monk suggested military choppers can do this. That’s what I was really addressing.
And this. You can climb a lot faster while moving forward than in a hover.
I imagine JohnnyLA will be along in a while.
Meet the pilot, Alan Szabo Jr.
He is sponsored by one of the major RC helicopter manufacturers, and competes in world RC flying competitions.
Yeah, I think there may have been a ‘steadicam’ filter applied to the video.
But then, it may just be superior camerwork with a bit of anticipation from familiarity with what he expected to see.
Anyone who has any experience with R/C nitro-powered engines like that used in the Raptor copter will tell you the most amazing thing is that the damn thing never stalled!
I believe the legitimacy of it, because I’ve seen some freaky stuff in the R/C world.
But after tinkering with little engines like that, you can’t imagine how fuel manages to flow to the engine reliably, consistenly and strong enough at all time to support those maneuvers.
At 4:01 and again ar 4:11 there is a brief view of an airliner flying through the frame far in the distance. I’m absolutely sold that it’s real.
It’s real.
My hometown has an annual RC fly-in and I’ve seen some of the stuff the best pilots could do.
It wasn’t quite as good as this, (I think the best pilot there was rated 3rd in Canada) but I’m sure a better pilot could do it.
RC helicopters are cool stuff, but I’d hate to be on a real helicopter doing similar maneuvers.
Aside from the airliner, as Boyo Jim mentioned, you are also hearing the sound of the wind and other various sounds that tell me it is legitimate. As for the camera work, it sure seems well-done, but to my untrained eye, nothing beyond the realm of reason. Seems like a perfectly realistic video.
Flying upside down is not entirely uncommon for some military helicopters. There are plenty of videos to be found on that, and you will surely see some of that if you watch the Discovery Wings channel for a while.
On the civilian side, there is really no need to design in the inverted flight capability, so you won’t see it. Some will go to a slightly negative pitch when the collective is full-down, but they are far from being capable of inverted flight.
I don’t know of any real helicopters that can climb “at great speed” straight up, even while upright, much less while inverted. You really need translational lift to get any good climb rate.
The pilot in the video is really good.
That said, I would like to know more about control systems, methods, rotor speed, I saw a lot of stuff that was dependant on gyroscopic principals and rotor speed.
Being a model, as has been said, has a lot to do with it.
I also think he had more control imputes on each finger than could be derived from just pedals, cyclic and collective controls as per full sized helicopters.
But he sure put on a show…
May have some real robotic applications for hazardous areas also.
I’m in the same boat as Philster. I’ve seen some crazy stuff with R/C helicopters. In fact, there were only a few moves he did that I haven’t seen with my own eyes before, so I 100% believe it’s real… However, I’ve never seen quite the speed and the precision (with very very little margin for error in some spots) this guy has.
My guess is that he used a helicopter flight simulator VERY extensively. They can actually be very accurate and worthwhile - they’ve definately improved my RC helicopter flying skill at minimal cost! But I’m sure he’s crashed a few times too.
Amazing.
I can understand how an upside-down helicopter can generate lift, but at one point this one looked like it was generating lift while at a 45-degree angle. Was it just illusion? How far off from vertical (relative to the chassis) can the net thrust be?