Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

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Master Cylinder
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby Master Cylinder » Sat Nov 30 2013, 14:32

This was pretty interesting in 40' seas in the Southern Ocean

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To fly is human, to hover...divine!
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FerrariFlyer
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby FerrariFlyer » Sat Nov 30 2013, 21:33

Years ago when working as a crewman on the NSW fires we were tasked to winch lunch packs to ground crews. First and last time we ever did that for that particular season. I'd hate to think how much each of those packs cost.
reducing_Nr
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby reducing_Nr » Sat Nov 30 2013, 22:45

I can relate to that one MC, perhaps you remember this occasion as well?
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trgbox
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby trgbox » Sat Nov 30 2013, 23:47

Second command IFR ME renewal in 70kt winds! Very interesting indeed. lol.
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muppet
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby muppet » Sun Dec 1 2013, 03:46

Half way down an IFR approach on a really crappy down-to-minima dark night, rather windy and working hard, my co-pilot (other Captain) handed me a piece of paper with the following on it:

"Glass of water?"

That was quite interesting.
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby Skeeter » Sun Dec 1 2013, 04:13

High mountain flying in winter. Love that view!
(sorry for the crappy quality)

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BigHuey
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby BigHuey » Sun Dec 1 2013, 06:57

Winched a guy and his 5 dogs off a sinking catamaran north of Troughton Island in a Super Puma.
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Hello Pilots
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby Hello Pilots » Tue Dec 3 2013, 20:42

Flown an R22
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Skid Pump
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby Skid Pump » Tue Dec 3 2013, 21:56

Sprayed out of a R22 :shock:
Last edited by Skid Pump on Tue Dec 3 2013, 23:16, edited 1 time in total.
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Eric Hunt
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby Eric Hunt » Tue Dec 3 2013, 22:52

Gave flying lessons in a B47 to Tom Cruise and Eddy McGuire. Tom was good, Eddy locked in "D" and lost.
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Heli
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby Heli » Tue Dec 3 2013, 23:07

Lots of interesting stuff over the years, but taking Dad (91 and a WW2 Beaufighter pilot) for a fly last week and letting him have a drive was very rewarding 8)
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Eric Hunt
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby Eric Hunt » Thu Dec 19 2019, 05:49

Give this thread a bump.

In the mid-90s I helped Hevilift pilots to place the towers for the Skyrail cablecar project in north Queensland.

Skyrail was an ambitious project. It is a cablecar running from Kuranda, north of Cairns, over the rainforest tops, via a couple of treetop platforms and walkways, to meet up with a train through the forest. The Greenies were absolutely against this project, and were bitter when it was approved. It came with conditions, though.

No roads were allowed to be built to the site of each tower.
No trees were to be damaged, outside of the tiny base area for each tower - a $1million fine applied if a branch was knocked off.

So, the workers preparing the base had to park on the road and walk up to a kilometer through the bush, carrying their chainsaws and daily supplies, cut down the trees, manually dig the footings and prepare everything by hand. The greenies were there to watch the whole time and photograph any infringement. And the mongrels would sabotage the workers' cars while they were in the bush. Nice people.

These long-line pilots had a skill of which I was very jealous – they could move a load around on the end of a 200’ cable and put it within inches of its destination. Some days we were lifting skips of concrete, and the pilot put the nozzle in the worker’s hand, and kept it there even while a ton of concrete poured from the nozzle and the helicopter wanted to zoom into the sky – he just kept lowering the power to hold that lighter-and-lighter skip at the same height above the ground.

The most tense day was when we were lifting sections of a tower onto prepared concrete pads. These towers were darned heavy, so we had the minimum amount of fuel on board, and after each lift of one third of a tower, we galloped back for a small refuel to continue the task. So there we were, lowering a base section onto a concrete pad. The ground workers turned the base a little to align the first foot with the bolts, popped it on, and tightened the bolts.

Same with the second foot, but the third was a bit tricky, and they moved on to the fourth, which went on quite well. They returned to the third foot, but despite them pulling it, the chopper dragging it from side to side, it just wouldn’t go on. But one thing DID go on – the MINIMUM FUEL warning light, meaning we had a maximum of 10 minutes until the engines stopped. And the fuel was 4 minutes away.

The pilot said “Undo the other three bolts, we will take it back to base and see what the problem is.”
A pause from the other end – “These are one-way bolts – we can’t undo them!”

Rats.

The options were to release the tower section from the hook at the end of the longline, which would make it VERY difficult to ever try to pick it up again, or wait for them to do up the last bolt. We opted for 2 minutes of trying to do up the bolt, and then he would “pickle” the load to save the aircraft.

Luckily, the bolt went on after 1 minute, they unhooked the sling from the tower and we made it back to the refuel base with the engines still running, and with me manually shuffling fuel tanks to keep the lovely stuff running.

But I still wonder, do any of those @rsehole greenies ride on the Skyrail? Or have they moved on to Extinction Rebellion and glue themselves to electric buses?
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Jabberwocky
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby Jabberwocky » Thu Dec 19 2019, 09:05

I was lucky enough to race a WRC car. I was then even luckier and was given a few hot laps as a passenger in the car.

Love the stories Eric.
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby arrrj » Thu Dec 19 2019, 09:40

Great stories.

Landing on top of our tallest mountain, twice. But better, going through 21,000 feet in a B3 on the edge of Everest...with (let's say...) not much gear, furniture or fuel on board. (I wasn't steering, but it was huge fun).

It was a beautiful view and lovely day.

Merry Christmas to all.

Arrrj
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby bladepitch » Thu Dec 19 2019, 22:00

Got hired to hover inside Geelong cats stadium to dry out the pitch before a semifinal.

Another, Flew twiggy forrest and his mate around all weekend to a private party, some good conversations there..

Lastly, recently conducted a 10 hour day/night round trip, 4 refuels, head way off shore to winch up a holiday maker of a boat and get him to hospital..

Never gets too boring...
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havick
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby havick » Thu Dec 19 2019, 23:01

bladepitch wrote:Got hired to hover inside Geelong cats stadium to dry out the pitch before a semifinal.

Another, Flew twiggy forrest and his mate around all weekend to a private party, some good conversations there..

Lastly, recently conducted a 10 hour day/night round trip, 4 refuels, head way off shore to winch up a holiday maker of a boat and get him to hospital..

Never gets too boring...


Was the winch off the Solomon Islands in a 412 per chance?
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bladepitch
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Re: Most Interesting thing you have done in a heli?

Postby bladepitch » Fri Dec 20 2019, 00:40

No mate, mine was 90 nm off Heron Island..

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