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Flew up to Oshkosh on Thursday and came back Sunday night. Camped in Vintage in our vintage 1966 Cessna 310K. The weather and event both were great! Got to see several helicopters-Safari, Rotorway, and Mosquito manufacturers were all there and flying. Of course I had to take a ride in a Bell 47. We waited 2 hours 28 minutes to ride it 5 minutes for $49 each. I think it was well worth it because for 5 minutes it was a surprisingly good ride! I wanted to see how it lifted me and a friend who weighed about 255. I'm at 215 so that's a pretty good load. It picked us up with ease! Only pulled 26 inches mp to hover at 3 feet. Smooth and almost no bounce in flight or hover. It had the Lycoming engine. They had three of them that they flew literally all day every day. Only had a slight magneto problem on one of them after all that flying. You had to sit in chairs and play musical chairs as 2 people rode it everyone would stand up and rotate to the next two chairs. You had to hold your spot or you got bumped to the back of the que. This worked very well. Plus you got to watch the Bell 47's come and go for 2 hours .

Sounds like you had a little fun .its good to take a ride in something different once in awhile. I like the bell 47 good old helicopter especially the ones with the Lycoming engine hear franklin is little under powered but there still ok I just love that... blade slap noise they have.... sounds like a real helicopter thanks for sharing your story.....

I think I saw that 310K. It was parked three rows south of where we were camped under the wing of the trusty Cessna 170. I sat out on the 47 ride, but both my daughters went. They came back grinning ear to ear. We watched the airshow from the mezzanine of the HAI (Helicopter Association International) building. We were one table down from a group of Chinese folks wearing Enstrom shirts. I talked to the Safari reps at some length. They have made some improvements to the rotor head and their new exhaust reduces back pressure. That is a machine that just keeps getting better. I am still sifting through the pictures.

Yes it was a blue and white 310K. Loved that camping spot next to the ultralight field where the safari, mosquitos, and Rotorway helicopters hung out. I was in the HAI building a LOT as we had our grand daughter with us and she loved the helicopter rocker for kids they had in there! We also got tickets to the Shell VIP building close to there from our fuel rep(Eastern Aviation Fuels) and man was that awesome. Great place to watch plus breakfast, lunch, and one day dinner not too mention all the ice cream and cokes/water you wanted lol. Bob Hover was also there nearly every day signing autographs. Enstrom had I think 3 machines there. Eurocopter was there. I saw a Bell 407 and though the Robinson factory wasn't there some operators had a R22 and R44 there.