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View Full Version : Real or PS: croc vs AS350


John Eacott
7th Nov 2011, 20:26
This photo has been doing the rounds for the past week, I'd be interested to know whether it's for real...or a PhotoShop achievement?

http://www.eacott.com.au/gallery/d/4593-2/ATT00197.jpg

fijdor
7th Nov 2011, 22:37
The croc is real, the helicopter is not.:hmm:

JD

newfieboy
7th Nov 2011, 22:54
John,

A few years ago in the mid of winter,I was doing the night shift change at a drill in a 350. On the way back to camp we saw a lone wolf trotting down a frozen river. The Geo onboard was a young cute girl from Toronto,who had never seen a wolf in the wild.I normally leave the wildlife well alone, but she wanted some photos, so I pulled it into a hover at about 10ft and 50 metres from said wolf. Well the old boy was having none of that and decided to see us off. He ran at us, jumped up and grabbed the skid, and wasn't going to let go....:Dafter about 2 minutes of trying to persaude him, we gently lowered him to the ground.He let go,looked at us in an amazing way, turned around and trotted off,not before a final turnaround stop and stare at us like he was in awe.....:ok:I always wonder the story he told Mrs Wolf and the kids when he got home. Amazing experience and the young girl got quite a few pics she hadn't bargained for. Will email her see if she can send me the pics to post. Anyways,cut a long story short, I suppose that could be a real pic if a wolf ain't too bothered, would think a croc might not care either..........:ok:

John Eacott
7th Nov 2011, 23:56
newfie,

They would be photos worth seeing!

Re the croc photo, the AS350 is registered to a Sydney based operator, but privately owned and known to 'get around a bit' so currently no one that I know is able to verify the picture.

But I do wonder how such a shot would just happen to be taken, with someone conveniently on the ground in just the right place, at just the right time? Me, I'd be taking it from high up the nearest tree :p

EMS R22
8th Nov 2011, 00:15
Personally I think the photo is a croc......:ok:

birrddog
8th Nov 2011, 02:22
John, the aircraft is or was allegedly owned by the brother of an Ozzie Photographer Rod Thomas.

I saw questions posted to his website where he had photos of VH-BUK and talking about trips he was (or was going todo) in her.

Some folks posted on his site and asked if it was true though so far no response.

heliduck
8th Nov 2011, 03:38
I was leaning towards photoshop when I first saw it, but then I noticed the drag marks in the sand behind the croc. Now I'm thinking setup. Is that tape I can see around the crocs snout?

76fan
8th Nov 2011, 10:40
Doesn't an AS350 normally hover right skid low? Especially with a croc hanging from it.

mickjoebill
8th Nov 2011, 22:13
Not sure about reaction from rear seat passenger, he seems to be giving the croc a "V" for victory sign.


Mickjoebill

Shawn Coyle
8th Nov 2011, 22:20
Could the machine handle that much lateral CG and still have any lateral cyclic remaining?
How much would a croc like that weigh?

Droopy
9th Nov 2011, 03:59
I wonder what the photographer's intentions were if the croc let go at that point......

MBJ
9th Nov 2011, 17:04
Looks like a setup to me - the croc is the photographer's pet and is given big toys to play with!

BlenderPilot
10th Nov 2011, 05:01
I'm really good at Photoshop and that photo looks real to me, it even shows the exahust blurriness on the trees behind it, and there is no halo around any of the images. I doubt it's a fake.

touring_pilot
10th Nov 2011, 05:15
I've flown over hundreds of crocs throughout northern Oz, and all of them have taken off at speed! The last thing any of them would want to do was get closer to a hovering chopper.

Arm out the window
10th Nov 2011, 08:03
I beg to differ there, touring pilot - I was taking some national parks guys up to a pad which was a sandbar on the Daintree.

Problem was there was a bloody great croc sunning himself on the middle of it, and he wouldn't move for us - a Jetbox hovering a few feet away.

We had to go and find another pad, he wasn't going anywhere.

topendtorque
10th Nov 2011, 09:43
Yeah well, didn't one grab hold of an R22 and throw it on the mud flat up in the north not long back?

I also remember several very cranky female crocs, one in particular used reside not far from the old Lizzie Downs Homestead site. This site happend to be a favourite for barra. Come nesting season it was very wise to take a big berth of her territory.

JulieAndrews
10th Nov 2011, 15:57
It's real - I am the croc in the picture and was hoping to having some of that large Shiela sitting in the back with a splattering of Avtur.
I was minding my own business when this photographer guy (a 'snapper'?) came up to me for some close-ups of my afternoon nap - I left his shoes (visible in pic) as I can't abide the taste of rubber, just so false and hurts the jaw...........

Heliport
10th Nov 2011, 16:46
Lots of people thought these pics (http://www.pprune.org/private-flying/212917-pictures-aircraft-water-skiing-genuine-not.html) were fake.


H.

206Fan
10th Nov 2011, 16:53
Never seen them pics before Heliport. Amazing!

Colibri49
10th Nov 2011, 20:29
Shawn Coyle. Yes it probably can handle the lateral c. of g., because around 1970 in a former life on the dark continent I did something vaguely similar, only deliberately pre-planned by my crewman. We ended up lifting a dead 16 ft Nile crocodile tied to the aircraft step on the crewman's side.

I was an incredibly naíf and stupid 20 year old who got talked into it by the old hand crewman in his forties. He wanted to skin the beast, but the game reserve officials got wind of it and we nearly ended up on a criminal charge because they thought we'd shot the animal.

When I pulled up into the hover with the croc hanging below, the cyclic was almost to the RH lateral limit. During the half hour flight back to base at around 40 knots, the croc started to swing and take the aircraft beyond control authority. I twice entered a banked left turn to stop the swinging and regain authority.

On arriving back at base I realised that the confined LZ between trees would never allow an OGE vertical landing without overtorqueing. The crewman got annoyed with me and used his knife to cut the rope around the step from which the croc was swinging.

The stink of the dead croc and the stink from my boss were things you'd never want to experience. I won't give any more specific details, to protect the innocent and preserve my embarrasment.

krypton_john
10th Nov 2011, 22:44
Heliport, the pics are cool, but as a barefoot waterskier I can tell you that it's not as big a deal as you might think.

Unhinged
14th Nov 2011, 11:46
The Airlie Beach taxi driver who dropped me at Proserpine Airport today (a cousin of the Townsville refueller, I'd say) reckoned the photo was taken by the boys on one of their helicopter safaris up Cape York. Said he'd had four of them in the taxi a while ago and they'd told him all about the adventure and showed him the photo.

Every croc I've ever met while flying a helicopter has disappeared at high speed and shown zero inclination to try to bite the noisy intruder, but that beach and background does look very like the Cape ...

onetrack
14th Nov 2011, 12:37
It's fake. The croc is blurred too much, and in particular where the snout is gripping the skid. The passenger can barely see any of the skid at the best of times, even with their nose up against the window.
Then there's the photographers location. Standing on a croc-infested beach? I think not. In a boat? Maybe... but there should be water in the pic if the boat is afloat.
I smell a clever PhotoShop effort. The AS350, the beach, the background, are all original pic, the croc has just been added.
99.9% of crocs slither away at extremely loud noise, such as a chopper would make at that distance from the croc.
The only exception would be if it was protecting a nest, and that would be the .1%. There's no nest close, and the croc isn't cornered, it would make for the nearest water at a rapid rate.
Fake, fake, fake. As fake as the picture of Great White under the Golden Gate bridge, leaping out to grab the guy on the ladder under the National Guard Black Hawk.

Vertical Freedom
15th Nov 2011, 00:47
Its real, if its in colour & posted here - it must be true := Come on all You doubting Thomas's ;) have a little blind faith :ok:
:pVF:cool: