It might be an old design but the MD-500 still holds some fascination for me.  It is an agile machine and has a five bladed rotor which gives it a distinctive sound.  Paint it in a sinister paint scheme and I am sold.  This one was flying around at Boeing Field when I was down there recently and I got to shoot it a lot as it was flying a lot of pattern work.  (I missed a cracking shot of it as well but that is a different story.)

The first time I was shooting it, I could see some flashing light coming from inside the cockpit.  Looking at the shots afterwards, the guy in the right seat was using some device which would flash periodically.  I am not a specialist on helicopters but I do know the rotor tracking is a thing that has to be done so I wondered if this device was a strobe to freeze the blades to allow them to be tracked.  Anyone know whether it is.

The second time I was shooting it, the pattern was reversed so I got to see the other side of the airframe.  Some cabling was clearly taped to the outside of the fuselage and then going in through one of the doors.  No idea whether this was for the same purpose or something else.  All good suggestions (and maybe some silly ones) are welcome.