Old Grump Fixed Wing Guys... WTF?
Hi All. New to Prune, building time,1100 hours, and am 51... working on career #2. :-) I love flying Helicopters.
So... one of those things that I never knew...and I am wondering if it is a CA thing. There are a lot of fixed Wing pilots that hang around airports (retired I suppose), and for what ever reason... they like to bitch about the helicopters. They come and bitch to me face to face. I am in a 44 now, moving up to a 206... but I seem to run into a number of these folks at a number of CA airports. I fly about 10 hours a week.
For example... Hovering up to a circular fuel island... Cessna 210 on the other side...is done filling...but the guys are hanging out... just chatting away. Cool with me. I hover up on the other side... and they get bent out of shape because they don't like me blowing air around them. Mind you this is black top and concrete...not a dirt parking area. So minimal dust.
I understand not blowing dirt into someone's hangar, but these people ... it is way past that. Another example... I have an paid for/assigned parking spot the ramp. I make an approach to the ramp (avoid the flow of fixed wing traffic)...an white SUV is parked in my helicopter spot... so I fly over the car...and park in adjacent spot. The old guy in the car guy gets made that I blew his car. He said I should have landed on the runway...and taxi'd in properly. The stories I have ...go on and on.
I asked the local placer county Sheriff's Dept AS350 pilots about this... and they said it wasn't just me. They have fixed wing guys yelling at them...for the same stuff. I guess if you hate the cops...this makes sense. I come from an Army/LE family. So, when I heard the story...I was really surprised. This was at a rural airport in CA.
So the Question: When I fly cross country to AZ, NM, TX, LA, MS, AL, TN, FL, etc... I never have ANY of these problems. Are old fixed wing CA people as-holes? Does this happen in other states? When someone taxi's up, and or blows **** around... I just assume I am at an airport and it is kind of expected.
Just wondering. Oh, yes, this morning, ran into a Local CA Airport for gas. This is a public airport, listed on the sectionals. I had 4 guy wildly waving at me that the airport is closed to helicopters. Really? I sent an email to the FISDO in Sacramento, asking for guidance on that. Nothing in the NOTAMs.