Once upon a time... when I was still young
and unexperienced I went out on a photo mission in a 300. I told the photographer on the phone that I would land first, shut down the a/c and give him a short briefing on how to behave and talk about the various locations he wanted to go to.
Somehow he didn't want to listen, was more the kind of guy "been there done it".
Upon landing at the airfield he missed the main rotor blades only by a couple of mm's as he approached the a/c (rotors still turning) as I parked it on a slope. He jumped into the a/c and yelled at me: "Come on let's go, I'm in a hurry". I told him that it was stupid of him to get into the a/c while the rotors were still turning and that I didn't like it. Nevertheless I was trying to give him a safety briefing but he didn't listen and just replied: "I've done that a hundred times before, you don't have to tell me what to do and what not." Finally I pointed out to him to secure his camera which he denied "I've got a special camera grip, I don't have to secure the camera". I just thought: f**k it, let's just get this job done and go home.
We finally got airborne, everything went fine until he started to push it again. "Ok, stay here, hold position, a little bit sidewards, backwards upside down." "Excuse me, but that is kind of unsafe in an underpowered a/c like the 300." "Well, the last pilot I flew with did it." So I continued, pushed it to the limits and... well beyond.
720° later and 800' lower I was lucky enough to recover from LTE and finally had a positive indication on the VSI.
