Your blogger, Bryan R. Swopes, takes off from Van Nuys Airport, California (VNY) on his Commercial Pilot – Rotorcraft – Helicopter flight test with Federal Aviation Inspector Wade Stearn, on the morning of 17 May 1980. The helicopter is a 1947 Bell Model 47D (modified to Bell 47G standard) s/n 22, N182JR. (Author’s collection)