ORIGINAL: flyinfool1
What we have found from flying helies, is that flying off of pavement of any kind is going to sand blast the heli and wipe out the bearings pretty quick. No how much you sweep there is always abrasive dust on pavement.
The cleanest surface to fly from is lush green grass.
that's not the case at either of the fields i fly at, one is 300x1500 concrete and the other is 900x2500 concrete, i've been flying heli's sense early 1990 exclusivily off concrete and i've never had bearing problems. our concrete is 'swept' 18hrs/day 5 days/week by Blackhawks and D model 58s and there is very little sand/grit on the runways.