Originally Posted by
Vortexringshark
Your last paragraph shows the attitude that will keep killing helicopter pilots. I get that we operate differently to fixed wing around weather. This is because we can slow down or land as it turns crap. They can't therefore have higher mins. That doesn't mean we shouldn't have any minima.
Your story reads like you were hover taxiing at or below tree top height in cloud just to drop a dude at his hunting spot. You said yourself it was tense but I get the feeling you would do it again. Just because we CAN do that doesn't mean we SHOULD do it. Had you been on a rescue then yeah maybe that's worth it but in your case the juice ain't worth the squeeze.
I do want to note that I have never faced the commercial pressure that does appear to be the main issue
First, I never said that I was *below* the tops of the trees. Nor was I hovering. Those are your incorrect assumptions. (You should try being a commercial helicopter pilot sometime. Then you might have some basis for posting on a helicopter forum.) Secondly, your "feeling" about whether I would do something is particularly irrelevant and nonsensical. The POINT is that helicopter flying is not as "black and white" as some people fantasize it should be.
FIGJAM? Nah. Sometimes it's FILJAM. Sometimes we're just lucky. And over the course of 35 years of doing this for money, I have occasionally been luckier than I deserved.
But also, sometimes we're good.