Are You Good At What You Do?

12 Replies to “Are You Good At What You Do?”

1. That is Junior does Blackface good

2. Not on facebookmine, would be good I would think.

   I do have my own amazing helicopter pilot story to add. Many may be familiar with the area. We were traveling as a family back to the Okanagan from the Calgary area, driving west on the Trans Canada #1 thru the Kicking Horse Pass. Came down the long hill and proceeded over the bridge that crossed over the Kicking Horse River. There had been years of construction widening that west ascent portion, so we were used to delays and activity. As we went over the bridge, a 210 Bell helicopter was lifting off the pad on the south west edge of the highway. The chopper moved over the near vertical narrow valley walls and then violently tipped to the left so as to be able to clearly view the call letters on the belly of the body. It then dropped like a stone into the canyon. I nearly drove off the road, believing the helo had struck something and expecting a huge explosion or mighty crash. As I drove up the other side of the pass, we were all wondering what to do, call for rescue services or what!

   When we had nearly reached the top of the climb, some 800m up, we could see the helicopter flying out the bottom of the valley heading SW towards Golden.

   We could only imagine if any of the passengers had been as freaked out by that sideways dismount from the cliff’s edge as we were watching it. My stomach still turns a bit, nearly 15 years after the fact.

   That pilot had titanium cajones.

   1. A bonehead move like that has nothing to do with the composition of the pilot’s testes. It just means he had no plans for next day.

3. Glacierman

   Could be that helicopter pilot was “tossing himself off the cliff” in order to get off the ground .

   It was done a lot in the early days of the helicopter because of underpowered engines and high density altitude (thin air up in the mountains) (gives poor lift)

   Typically the pilot would rendezvous with a prospector – geologist at the end of the day (often up in the mountains) …. when all the rock samples were loaded the machine could not manage a normal liftoff so the pilot would over-rev the engine and rotor system for a few seconds …. then pull lots of collective pitch into the rotor blades ….. which would yank him a couple of feet off the ground … then the pilot would purposely launch the whole machine over the edge of the cliff.

   Now of course he is falling into the valley , but the “fall” provides some “air speed” which increases the lift potential and he mostly attains a normal flight ….. which of course is to a lower altitude which has denser air and also he has burned a few gallons of fuel making the machine a bit lighter and a normal landing can be done at base camp.

   I love helicopters (I trained on the Bell 47G2) …. am an avid reader of helicopter history and biographies of pilots who flew in the Canadian North …. not a dull moment and plenty of hilarious stories of some of the things those pilots would do.

   Best wishes

   1. Thanks for you insight Arnie!

      You are most probably correct as to the why of how he did that. But to be literally less than 200 feet away while he does it is a bit disconcerting.

      That portion of the valley/canyon appears to be fairly narrow, as the river would probably be 500 feet below, possibly a bit more. To correct the fall and fly out would have taken some mighty fine piloting skills. It was unbelievable to watch and then see it flying out the valley floor.

   2. Very kewl Arnie…
      I have the utmost respect for those that fly Helo’s..
      4 separate appendages all controlling different aspects of flight..
      just wow.

      Puts juggling into perspective.

4. Flew choppers for many years, all Bells ( 206, 212, 412).
   Precision was always key, getting that level of precision required really smooth hands which not many of the pilots had. I did (just saying).

   Always nice to see a good pilot, particularly if you are the one being rescued.

5. That was amazing. The pilot adjusted for the weight of the new passenger and you can barely see the helicopter shift – by inches.

6. I agree with all the comments above, but my peeve is with the idiot skier, who probably was in an “out of bounds” area. Lately, I am reading many stories about stupid people, the scrapes which they get into and how normal/smart people have to rescue them. I must say that I am becoming very tired of all of the stupidity – perhaps as a civilization, we should all go back to if you do stupid stuff, you die.

7. Yep! I am. 🙂 Done many a “Hover Exit” and pickup in the S-76A, and other crazy stuff in the H-3, S-61, and S-92A.

   You either have a feel for it, or you don’t. 😉

   Helicopters have a magic many don’t understand. Here is a good description.

   for a Huey pilot.

   On 7 January 1967, John Steinbeck was at Pleiku, where he flew aboard a UH-1 Huey helicopter with D Troop, 1st Squadron, 10th Cavalry. He wrote the following about the helicopter pilots:

   “I wish I could tell you about these pilots. They make me sick with envy. They ride their vehicles the way a man controls a fine, well-trained quarter horse. They weave along stream beds, rise like swallows to clear trees, they turn and twist and dip like swifts in the evening. I watch their hands and feet on the controls, the delicacy of the coordination reminds me of the sure and seeming slow hands of (Pablo) Casals on the cello. They are truly musicians’ hands and they play their controls like music and they dance them like ballerinas and they make me jealous because I want so much to do it. Remember your child night dream of perfect flight free and wonderful? It’s like that, and sadly I know I never can. My hands are too old and forgetful to take orders from the command center, which speaks of updrafts and side winds, of drift and shift, or ground fire indicated by a tiny puff or flash, or a hit and all these commands must be obeyed by the musicians hands instantly and automatically. I must take my longing out in admiration and the joy of seeing it. Sorry about that leak of ecstasy, Alicia, but I had to get it out or burst.”

8. There is video from Airplane Disasters of a military helicopter taking a fatal tumble trying to do the same thing. The investigation pointed out that the air on a mountainside is very unstable. Guy was lucky.

9. Toeing-in is SOP.