Coming to you straight from the pages of the Clive Cussler novels : NUMA's own Sikorski S-70 Blackhawk ... with custom upgrades.

See, if you are the National Underwater and Marine Agency and the US President is your former captain, and you already raised the Titanic, and next to finding old shipwrecks your job is to save the world every other year (or every new book)... see, any regular S-70 or UH-60 just won't do. So this one doesn't just have a fancy paint job, it also has lots of extras.

To name some:
- It has a modified watertight hull and extendable floats so it can take off and land on the ocean and deploy divers
- it has a searchlight
- it has a drogue side scan sonar to tow through the water in search of old shipwrecks
- It has Dirk Pritt and Al Giordano in full scuba gear ready to either jump in the water or parachute down from the air... Probably in an effort to twart the latest plot by a megalomaniac madman and save the world from certain doom.

.... Okay. Let's start with the beginning:

I changed the controls to my own favorite layout of engines to VTOL slider, collective pitch to throttle

So:
- Start: push VTOL all up to revv up engine, slowly push Throttle stick until heli starts floating, increase Throttle some more to gain height and use left stick Pitch/Roll to steer.
- Cruising: slide VTOL back to +50%, play with Throttle until craft flies level, go sightseeing or play around with the various AG-buttons
-Landing: Slide VTOL back to about 25% up, play with Throttle and Pitch to descend, line up with landing space, pull back to brake and kill engine (VTOL down)
- On water: before touching down, activate AG1 to deploy floats.

AG1: extends and retractable the floats. Use for water touchdowns or for just floating around and deploying sonar or launching divers

AG2: Opens searchlight hatch on the left side of the fuselage. When searchlight is active, use Trim slider to turn light

AG3 opens the fuselage doors
- When doors open, push Trim for frogmen/paratroopers to exit ship. The launching is sequentially: Dirk Pritt jumps first when the slider is 50% up. Al Giordano follows at 70%. The three remaining NUMA frogmen jump.simultaneously at 90%. Dirk, Al and the three frogmen have their own (orbit) cameras you can swap to so you can follow them dive instead of following three helicopter.
- When the helicopter is resting on the water, the frogmen will jump into the water and swim away (they float with their heads just above the water line)
- when the helicopter is flying, the frogmen will parachute down

AG4 deploys the Sonar drogue on the right side. Use Trim to reel the drogue in or out. If you manage to fly at 100 ft or less, the drogue will touch the water and float behind the helicopter.

AG8 engages the gyroscope/autopilot. It is active by default. In theory, you can fly the helicopter without gyro, if you are very carefully with the controls and watch out not to oversteer. But then again, why would you. Just leave the gyro engaged and enjoy flying.

Hope you enjoy my build.