Guy departing from a helipad in the bush.
The area around the pad had been cut during the depths of winter so it is covered with 2-3 foot stumps.
Anyhoo our hero leaps into his Hughes 500D, fires up and departs.
Upon rotation and at a speed of around 10 knots and an altitude of 20 feet Miss Allison throws a hissy fit and quits.
OH flares and does his best but the helicopter impacts with a little forward speed, snags a stump and rolls over.
We fascinated, concerned observers, rush over to the machine.
As we arrive the pilot’s door flips open and OH lifts himself up to the side of the machine.
We look at him…he slowly looks at his watch then looks at us and says: “Yes, it’s still ticking!”
Timex watches..takes a licking and keeps on ticking. Another Timex torture test for the books.
Only injury- one of the guys twisted his ankle on a stump rushing to the wreck.