The name Michael Maya Charles should be familiar to everyone on this forum.  He's all-around good dude: Writer/author, musician, aircraft owner, pilot...  He's been mostly an airline pilot, but he's also got good helo credentials, typed-in and flying a Skycrane fighting fires.  In other words, he's not just a glorified Robby jockey.  He knows a thing or two about aviation, unlike some of you mental "giants" who post here, for instance.  (It saddens me to say that some of you must be really insuffereable pr*cks in real life.  But hey, if you're a helicopter pilot, that's probably a given.)

Anyway, Michael got invited out to Garmin HQ to fly a Bell 505 with Garmin's latest helicopter autopilot and write about it for Vertical Magazine.  In the article, he says:

"I simply hit the blue LVL button on the cyclic, and the autopilot did a nice job of smoothly returning the ship to straight and level, then holding that basic attitude for the pilot to re-engage an appropriate upper mode..."

If you're at all interested in this new development in helicopter technology (and you should be), you can read the whole article here:

Garmin’s gamechanger: Flying the 600H in the Bell 505 - Vertical Mag

So some guy nobody has ever heard of called a helicopter a ship. The nurse called the helicopter a ship yesterday and they're still both wrong and they sound like morons. New technology? lol

The one who calls it a ship, or the one who gets so upset about it?

the one calling a helicopter a ship

Mommy, mommy they called it a ship

Mommy, mommy they called it a ship

and still, nobody in adulthood cares.

It doesn't matter what they call it, it doesn't make your appendage any bigger. it's just a taxi and you're the driver.

No need to admit you are nobody. Don't beat yourself up because no one knows you or your cause to prevent the world from calling a helicopter a ship.

Love it.   

https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/helicopter

let this go a long time ago. The guy is twisted. Just ignore him and let him get back to licking the windows on his school bus.

the helisas does the same thing but the button isn't on the cyclic, so no, not exactly earth shattering.

has been around for years. 

Regarding ATC communications:

1) Would a tower or radar controller ever call a helicopter an "airplane"?  No

2) Would a tower or radar controller ever call a helicopter or airplane a "ship"?  No

3) Would a tower or radar controller ever call a helicopter or airplane a "bird"? No

Not that hard.

Aircraft, chopper, copter, choppa, helo, heli (for my British mates out there), or haw-ter-ter (what my kids called it when they were 2-3 year old) are all completely acceptable terms for a helicopter in normal conversation when talking about a helicopter.

Colloquially, in conversation about it's characteristics, to call it a bird, a ship, or a girl/she ("she's a good bird, we have two ships at our base, she handles well, she's being feisty today, this girl's the best in the fleet") are all fine when shared in the context of describing the aircraft, but can be wrong/confusing or make you sound dumb depending on the context.

But for real: Army guys - stop calling helicopters "airplanes".  Wrong on so many levels.  Something happens in the brainwashing of senior leader courses as it's mostly senior warrants, many commissioned officers, and even XP's (which is most shocking).  

That's funny.  Over the years, I've known some helicopter pilots (as you say, usually all former Army guys) who call a helicopter, "the airplane."  I'm always amused but I've never said anything.  Because as you say, context is everything.  Oh, and I really don't care :-/  

that's not new technology.

"Hey genius, that's not new technology."

Hmm...so reading comprehension is not your strongest asset, eh?  Because if it were, you would have noticed that I didn't say it was "new technology."  Rather, I said, "...new development in helicopter technology."  What that means...and what most adults with at least a high school education understood...is that the 505 is the first "small" (i.e. single-engine, five seat) helicopter to implement Garmin's wonderful new avionics package/autopilot.  (And actually, the way the autopilot servos work *is* new technology, but never mind that.) 

The fact that it's got an emergency feature that will bring the ship back to level flight while at the same time protecting it from low-G situations is quite remarkable for a two-blade rotor system.  It shows that Garmin has put a LOT of thought into this system.  I...I'm not quite sure why an actual helicopter pilot would minimize the significance or importance of such a development, considering how many I-IMC accidents occur in our industry.  Ohhhh, that's right, that's never happened to *you* and so it's not a problem for anyone else either.  Right?  I mean, isn't that how helicopter pilots think?

I will readily admit that I am not a genius.  But I *can* recognize that the 505, with its FADEC-controlled engine and advanced avionics and now autopilot, is a new development in helicopter technology - just as Michael Maya Charles did.  That fact that you don't is kinda sad.  Typical, but sad.

So carry on, bruh.  I literally cannot wait for your next ranting, immature, homophobic post.  (Here, I'll even set it up for you!)  It would give me such pleasure.

new devolopment in tech is way different than saying new tech lol

why is it so remarkable that it works on a two bladed system. Answer: it's not.

the Genesys Helisas doesn't? Nothing that I can see. OP acts like he just discovered electricty. He calls a helicopter a ship too, which is to be expected.