SJ Rotorcraft and Blue Hill Helicopters, based at Norwood Airport, want the government to reimburse them for the cost of a chopper totaled during in a crash on a flight during which one of their prospective pilots was being tested by an FAA inspector.

In a suit filed yesterday in US District Court, the companies allege the inspector, who they say was not qualified to fly the craft himself, put the helicopter into a simulated power loss that turned into a real power loss during the May, 2010 flight from Hanscom Field in Bedford to Minuteman Field in Stow. The goal was to certify the pilot as a flight instructor.

Just a few months ago whilst on the way back from a weekend in Vegas with Adam, Kaz, The Zak and Swrrrly, UHUB-1 hit a pothole in one of the taxiways at Hanscom- causing my monocle to fall into Adam's glass of port, Swrrrly's Cuban cigar to nearly set the Alpacian leather on fire, and the door on The Zak's soundproof chamber to pop open.