Nick, someone with sense. I have to agree all flying requires skill, thought, support and in all aspects there are judgement calls to be made. We all like to think what we do is special, therefore that makes it all special. Long live helicopters.
Letting down to sea level, hover taxi to the rig and then climb up the leg to the helideck. Did we ever do that? No...oops another 2 inches on the nose.
Happily those days are long gone with a little help from the Regulators and once they sort out the weather I'll retire.
Sorry if I offended any HEMS drivers, it's one of the few jobs I have never done, but in mitigation my views were based on the fact that an old company in my past used the HEMS operation as command training operation before letting them loose offshore