Helicopter Demonstration Spectacular

Taupo Times, Volume XIV, Issue 65, 19 August 1965, Page 5

Helicopter Demonstration

Spectacular

A demonstration in Auckland recently showed off the helicopter used in survey work. Cars halted as a helicopter hovered motionless nearby over the sea. What spectators could not see were the pilots hands held up above his head. The pilot, Mr M. J. Alexander, was demonstrating the "hands off" control of the helicopter which fitted with an antomatic stabiliser. The only one of its type in New Zealand and the first one sold commercially, the machine is a Hiller 12EL model. By simply pressing a button the pilot can activate a black box, technically known as the stability augmentation system. It can hold the helicopter in any particular phase of flight and yet the pilot can immediately resume manual control. Mr Alexander brought the helicopter alongside a lamp standard, pushed the button and explained how it would be possible to leave the controls to change the electric light-bulb. The main feature of the Hiller is its safety when the engine fails. Due to the inertia and the blade form,

the machine will not drop straight to the ground. Mr Alexander demonstrated by cutting out the engine and causing the helicopter to gain altitude before landing. An intrigued audience watching the helicopter stand still, fly backward and shoot up vertically in an emergency take-off procedure. Mr Alexander recently used the machine for survey work. Fitted with special instruments, it can hover with a tolerance of two inches and measure altitude to oneeighth of an inch. He said that in this way 50 square miles a day could be cpvered, From the ground the rate would he /one square mile a day.