A view from the other end of the monocle.........
I wuz there!
Given this all happened about 30 years ago now.
These guys were not paid a retainer or on an hourly rate. Payment was only on what was captured and/or shot.
In the day's when a live hind was worth NZD 3500.00 straight off the hill the pilot and shooter were probably on roughly NZD 125.00 each or possibly more.
2-3 hour good run in the morning in the spring with a start about 0415 could end up with ~ 12 in the bag. A run in the evening could bring another 6 or so and finish around 2300. Rinse - repeat.
You do the numbers.
Nobody is saying it is a good or a bad thing although a lot of skills were learnt at the time probably similar to a military conflict and you certainly got paid about 10 times as much as some poor sod in the military.
I think our Chief Pilot at the time was about 25 years old and had about 7000 hours by then. Flying commercially since about 19. I dont think flight and duty times were invented then!
Maintenance wise it was all about availability and keeping your co-workers alive. Additional inspections above and beyond the maintenance manual were regularly conducted.
With blade strikes it was the case of course to inspect the blade and repair if within limits and if not replace.
The productivity was so high that we had a large holding of spares. Engine chip? Dont fluff around trying to troubleshoot and replace modules - chuck another engine in and get it back in the air! Same with gearboxes etc.
I remember going shopping one day to our parts supplier - A set of blades, an engine complete, various other parts. Gave him a check for 275K, threw it all in the back of our Cessna 206 and flew home!
It served me well and I got out of it at 24 years of age as LAME, Commercial Fixed Wing Multi, Commercial Helicopter pilot.
A large majority of these pilots went on to become the backbone of skills in places like PNG with Pacific etc. due to their experience in the mountains and with sling and long line.
In Un Zud a helicopter is like an a$$hole - everyone's got one. ~800 odd machines for about 4 million people. Granted these days about 320 odd are Franks offspring but that wasn't always the case. There appears to be only about 50 H500 variants left.
The 350 is probably the basis of things commercial with about ~ 120 between B thru B4. Also throw in about 20 ~ 355's.
AS,
Pavé of Venison was de rigueur. For breakfast in the winter and still warm when it hit the pan!