Here’s a thought on Top Gear. I can understand doing a Korean show or other non English speaking show, but why do they have to do a US or Australian version. the original hosts are much better and the stunts and stories are just rehashes when film by local versions. Like that helicopter stunt, done in the US and originally in the UK. So for the English speaking shows, do something original not yobbo as in ours, or don’t bother. Save your money and do something else.
Matt Taylor
Little late on the musings, there.
Sonic
An American version I kinda understand, as the UK and US are really quite different. I never understood to point of the Australian version though… It really wasn’t needed, as we already embrace the UK version.
The Australian version wasn’t accepted, and was cancelled.
Zaccy16
totaly agree, the aussie one was nothing compared to the uk one, the uk one is much funnier because those three idiots work very well together! can’t wait for the new season!
Zaccy16
Exactly!!!!
MW
three episodes through the new season already
Zaccy16
Not on free to air!
MW
but who waits for free-to-air these days? plus i can’t stand the amount of ads channel 9 runs when they show it, making a 61 minute show into 90 mins
Sydlocal
It is a helicopter so it wouldn’t have been a stall in the context of a fixed wing ie too slow and departing controlled flight. Basically he banked too far too close to the ground and didn’t have the power/height/talent to recover. It had nothing to do with going so slow that he stalled. There may have been main rotor blade stall right near the end from quickly pulling in too much collective to avoid hitting the ground, but he was going to hit it anyway regardless of if the main rotor blades were stalled or not!
larry09
It was a condition of the licence agreement. The foreign versions are produced by a BBC subsidiary.
“Helicopter crash caught on film ” – umm, well Top Gear is “filmed”, isn’t it ? Duh…..
bd
Well, while I think the original TG is so much better than the US version, Americans have a tendency to not want to watch original British versions (unless it’s a relatively small audience watching PBS or BBC America).
That’s why British shows like “Man About the House” (“Three’s Company”), “The Office”, ‘Coupling”, etc. were remade for the US audience.
Luke Brinsmead
Ouch, how can a helicopter so easily stall like that?
huwtm
To low to slow to acute an angle, the rotors lost lift. Next stop ground.
Sydlocal
It had nothing to do with being too slow, except for maybe the rotor rpm decaying from pulling in too much collective!
Sydlocal
It wasn’t a stall Luke. It was simply a too severe manoeuvre with too much angle of bank that close to the ground and not enough height/power/talent to get out of it.
huwtm
Actually what happens aerodynamically is the rotors stall, The rotors being a moving wing can’t provide lift, they then enter a stall. No lift you hit the ground. From what I could see and I’ve only watched it once, he came around pitched over, it reached a critical no lift point which is what I was calling to slow, (See for cobras to do some of their maneuvers they need high speed to carry them through) he was to close to the ground to recover, so hit said ground.
huwtm
Cobras are highly manoeuvrable and can perform many maneuvers other choppers can’t, but requires speed and altitude. As you know the rotor is actually the lift body, so if it’s not carrying enough speed, it can’t provide lift, = stall
Sydlocal
Hence why I said rotor rpm decay decay above. However he was still going to hit the ground no matter what long before his main rotor rpm would have decayed and angle of atack high enough from an arm-full of collective to produce main rotor stall. A rotor head stall would not have been the cause of this accident. If there was a rotor disc stall, it would have been in the last couple of seconds after it was enevitable that he was going to hit the ground. He simply had too much angle of bank and too much pitch angle too low to the ground without the engine/rotor/aircraft performance available to recover. In trying to ‘save’ the situation and/or lessen the impact, he would have ‘pulled hard’ on the collective requiring more power than he had available hence excessive angle of attack on the main rotor blades and decaying rotor rpm causing them to stall. But he was already on a trajectory towards impact with the ground long before that happened.
Also the rotor when he was banked over hard would have still being producing sufficient lift as the lift produced from the rotor disc has very little to do with forward airspeed (there are parts of fwd airspeed on a rotor that does effect lift produced by the disc, but only by a small percentage and not a huge impact on this situation ie when passing ETL on acceleration etc). In this case, a higher forward airspeed would have given him a higher power margin, but only a few psi of torque extra and not enough to enable recovery from this situation. However it was the angle of the LIFT VECTOR due to high AOB/pitch angle on the other hand that caused him to lose the height he did. All the lift in the world won’t help you much when the lift vector is virtually perpendicular to the force of gravity!
The AH1 Cobra (the two bladed pre-W version) is manoeuvrable, but NOT highly manoeuvrable. The fact that it has a teetering rotor head (if it is pre W) puts paid to that as it limits certain manoeuvres (especially negative “G”). Even a Squirrel should be able to ‘out manoevre’ a teetering head, two bladed AH1. Many everyday ‘non-military’ choppers can do manouvres the two bladed Cobra can’t. Remember that the Cobra is basically a UH1 with a different body!
huwtm
yeah true, very old now too.
Sydlocal
It just goes to show how good the original UH1 design really was!
huwtm
Sure is one of the cooler helicopters around, but gee it’s been in service a long time. I had a Revell model of one when I was kid.
Tuffguy
The Aussie version was just pathetic and thus cancelled. There was a Russian version for 1 season, never to be seen again. The US version is actually very good and a totally different show than the original. I believe they were going to make a Chinese version too so why not a Korean version? Nothing like taking a top rating show and having your own version, look at shows like big brother, survivor, dancing with the stars, etc, etc. It is just what they do and of course the original is always the best.
Peterm
Yes, I watched the US version a couple of weeks back and it was surprisingly good. The Korean version has been around for a few years now. I’ve not watched it because it isnt subbed, but Korean TV generally has very high production values, so I’d guess it’d be pretty good.
Noddy_of_Toyland
Wow we must be watching a different show. The USA version is cringeworthy, second only to the Aussie version for misinterpreting the appeal of a series. The hosts have no charisma or humour.
huwtm
I agree with noddy
Peterm
Well I suppose that I set the bar pretty low after enduring an episode or two of the Oz version
bd
The US version is bleh (would much rather just watch the original); the Korean Top Gear is pretty good.
simo
this was actually aired a few seasons back. the korean version of top gear is nowhere as good as the uk version. sure, the korean version of the show has been a huge hit in korea, but it utterly fails in the professional side of things.
simo
oops i meant a few months back, not a few seasons back.
http://www.facebook.com/nick.runnalls Nick Runnalls
I like the US version, you actual hear the whole of Australia gasp when they announce the price of the cars, and we realize how much we are being ripped off. Car Advice and motoring journalists choose to cover there ears, and make a turd eating grin, our politicians laugh at us and pay there kids private school fees with their kick backs. I can’t believe that the prices are not bleeped out as they are so obscene.
huwtm
Good point
Crazy n00b
Kim Yong IL has 1 fewer attack chopper to deal with.
