No helicopter is why you still are alive.
Glad your trip was great!
Thanks. We also had a helicopter tour planned in Alaska 10 years ago, but were grounded by weather. I guess the world just doesn’t want us to see it via helicopter.
One of my law partners years ago was an Air Force pilot who was so proficient flying jet fighters, the AF chose him to be an instructor. His advice to me was “Never get on a helicopter. They are not aerodynamically sound. If they fly and land without crashing, it is a miracle.”
I have followed his advice to the letter. Probably why I am still here.
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A pilot friend of mine once said flying a helicopter is like trying to stand on a beach ball.
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I’ve only done it twice (for fun)…Grand Canyon and Iguazu Falls. Not sure which was more awe-inspiring (I knew all the safety concerns, but after some thought just said f-it), this is my favorite shot of Iguazu
eta: for scale, that’s a ~20 foot wide walkway on the far left side. The boat trips up to as close as you could get to the bottom of the falls were scarier than the helicopter, the sound was deafening and water+rocks scares me more than gravity and a fiery crash does.
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Sounds like an awesome trip HH. Thanks for sharing.
We took a family helicopter trip to the Grand Canyon this summer. I figured that if all of us were on it when it crashed nobody would have to deal with the heartbreak. The sensation when it first levitates is particularly unsettling.
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I’ve flown on several helicopters over the years but only for work, and only over water. The first was when I was 18 and I was going to a platform in the Gulf to meet the supply boat I had just signed on with as a deck hand. The most impressive was a Statoil helicopter in the North Sea with full survival gear. The most frightening was over the Arabian (Persian) Gulf on an old helicopter overloaded with workers from all over the globe. Guys were standing and literally holding the rail beside the open door as we flew to the platform.
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This is me. The helicopter for work thing, not the overloaded part. It beats swinging out to the platform on a rope.
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The rope swinging thing was fun at 18, not so much in later life.
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That describes pretty much everything
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The “f__k it” bravado works great on the ground. Not so much in free fall. I guess they never crash on sightseeing flights.
Lots of miracles related on here.
We did a float plane tour in Alaska. It was great. Not long afterward, one of those same tour planes crashed, killing everyone aboard. It does happen.
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Yep, it does. Rented cars and vans crash on excursions as well, but it may be safer being on the ground. Dunno. I am sure there are stats about this somewhere.
Most all of my posts in this thread are teasing, but my staying away from helicopters is serious and real. I am not a white-knuckle flyer when I travel, and I recently returned home after two enjoyable trans-Atlantic flights. I do stay away from light planes too, however. You were braver than I would have been with the float plane.
Mrs Hawk is a white-knuckle flyer, even on the 777 we just took. She squeezes my hand until it bleeds, and cries most of the takeoff and landing time. It was all I had to get her on the float plane and the little crop duster to Placensia in Belize, though she enjoyed both of them afterwards.
Amazing to me you were able to do so.
I once was very nervous on takeoffs but was ok and calm on landings. My brother, who was a private pilot for years, told me “You have it backwards. Landing is where the bad shit happens.”
Somewhere along the way my white-knuckle tendency disappeared, and I now enjoy the flying part too. Of course, I have never been in an emergency either.
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I guess technically all crashes happen upon “landing”. I’ve flown quite a bit for work over the years, and have gotten used to it, I guess. For me, the worst part of flying is the other goofballs trying to stuff their non- carryons into the overhead bin, followed by the sitting around the airport for hours. I’ve flown on a number of company planes/jets/helicopters and they are usually pretty good, but my company is really good at making safety a priority. Not everyone is. The older I get the less I like flying though.
If you’re talking to me about the “f-it bravado” comment, you and I just may see things differently. I viewed those 2 chopper jaunts as a “I’ll never be back, once in a lifetime” thing. I’ve felt the same trepidation before getting on serious whitewater in a raft, or flying in a small airplane, or surfing in some spots, or etc…
Frankly, I get more worries driving a 60 mile round trip on 281 from ranch-to-ranch on a regular basis (esp around 8 am and 5 pm), you can’t take the commercial trucks + tourists lightly. “Con! Sonar!..Crazy Ivan!” type stuff.
This should be a fun thread though, sorry if I contributed to any sort of downer.
I have no idea what you mean by “downer,” and apparently you did not read my comment that most was teasing.
ETA: I do not do those other things either.
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All good, Jim.
Which was the teasing comment? I did read them all, though not all do process the same way on the internet.
If you want to be a commercial helicopter pilot - oil business, corporate, medical, law enforcement - you need 1500 hours minimum and some jobs a lot more. If you aren’t ex- military, where are you going to get those hours? Grand Canyon, Hawaii and the like. If you are on a sightseeing trip, you might have a veteran pilot or you might get one with less than 200 hours. You can get a commercial ticket with 150 hours. Plus these sightseeing trips are not routine (if there is such thing) point A to point B flights. There are conditions - updrafts, down drafts, rapidly changing weather, limited forced landing sites - that call for more than a minimum of experience. No sightseeing flights for me.