Mike Loades is a respected author, broadcaster, director, and action arranger who has made numerous television appearances as a historical weapons expert and military historian. Mike founded the first horse archery club in California, the California Centaurs. You may have seen his work on the History Channel or on National Geographic. One of his recent projects was the movie, Assassin’s Creed, which ended up grossing over 241 million against a 125 million budget. He has several DVDs available: Archery: Its History and Forms (1995), and Going Medieval (2014). He is the author of Swords and Swordsmen (2010), The Longbow (2013) and The Composite Bow (2016).

The Ka-27/Ka-29 Helix helicopter family is a follow-on to the Ka-25 Hormone helicopter. Like the Ka-25, the Ka-27/29 has contra-rotating stacked rotors eliminating the need to a tail rotor to counter torque. Like most helicopters, the Helix’s cockpit is very visible and unfortunately, the seats included by most kit manufacturers do not bear any resemblance to those of the actual helicopter.

This set from Aires, part of its Quickboost line, seeks to remedy this by providing very nicely detailed seats with the harnesses. The set includes four seats, which allows you to outfit two kits as there are only two seats in the front cockpit of the Helix. The seats are not identical, they each have different configurations for the lap belts, as unless the helicopter is at an airshow, on the actual aircraft, the lap belts end up in lots of different configurations depending on how they are unbuckled and set or tossed aside.