My first helicopter...

[mnmcote]

Should I have tried to stop the blades..?

 

[Overread20]

Helicopters look odd when the blades are fully static whilst flying. The same is true of most rotary aircraft because we never see them flying with the blades still, our eyes only see the blur of motion so we expect to see it. It's why aviation of rotary aircraft is one were where people often use shutter priority mode - setting the shutter speed just fast enough to catch the action whilst panning, but slow enough to let the blades blurr.

 

[petrochemist122 147]

Should I have tried to stop the blades..?

Stopping the blades is easy, and ruins the shot. I think you've done remarkably well, enough blur so that the blades are obviously moving, yet not just loosing them as a disk... Personally I find getting this much blur while keeping the body sharp is awkward (not a problem with planes, but rotors are much slower than props)

 

[robbins.photo]

Should I have tried to stop the blades..?

Nope, as the others have mentioned it looks pretty goofy with the blades completely stopped in mid air. Trick is to get a high enough shutter speed that the body of the aircraft is sharp and doesn't such much motion blur but still low enough that the blades themselves still look like they are in motion. It's a bit of a trade off at times, but I think you did a great job with this shot.