PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Helicopter over Grand Canyon - which company wont kill me ?
Old 28th Jan 2009, 15:52
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ReverseFlight
 
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A few years back I rode into the Grand Canyon valley floor in one of the larger heli tour operators from Las Vegas airport (I apologise for forgetting their name now).

About 4 or 5 helicopters from the same company took off in a convoy at the same time. The chopper in front of us was flown by an ex US-army veteran. He flew very low along the nap of the earth and scraped from cliff edge to edge.

I was in the last chopper in the convoy flown by a soft-spoken Latin-American gentleman who was obviously civilian trained. He flew all sectors at least 1000 ft AGL and did no low-G or wingovers or anything like that - just absolutely straight and level with no frills whatsoever.

Yet these two pilots worked for the same company and flew the same mission at the same time. I still have the whole thing on video and occasionally I review it and wonder whether the pax in the other chopper got sick or realised how many close calls they had that afternoon.
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