Quote -  One of my projects requires an exploding helicopter. Since I can't afford to do it in real life, CG is the next best thing. BTW I will be shooting for realism.

Did you ever watch the recent Zatoichi movie?  They used a highly stylized CGI splash for blood which was clearly not realistic, nor intended to be realistic.  It was a very cool touch.  They could easily have used paint squibs, but someone clearly decided that this was a much more interesting effect.  THIS is what's awesome about CGI.  It frees us from the constraints of a physical medium, allowing us to more accurately reflect the images of our imagination -- which are rarely consistent with physics.  Just check out the breasts on any of the multitude of bikinied Vickies in the galleries...