Friday, January 28, 2011

The Twinstar

I'm not certain, but I believe this is me flying the Vildosola Racing Team several years back.  The Twinstar was definitely one of the quirkiest helicopters I have flown, and impressed upon me the need to never let your guard down.  Electrically unreliable and notoriously underpowered, it was the embodiment of  a technical requirement  being technically met:  twin engine safety and reliability, without the safety and reliability part.

Many people are under the impression that two engines will enable the aircraft to remain airborne should  one of them fail.  That was certainly not the case with this  aircraft, and is certainly not a given for the Bell 222 which I currently fly.    

As a side note, this aircraft was sold to another company some time ago, and not long after that  the new company's pilot forgot to latch one of the engine's cowlings and took off.  Ah, well.    

 The black and red aircraft in the photo are the Twinstar's single-engine sister, the AStar.  

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