Here is a nice video from New Zealand from the very early eighties. It features ZK-HMB, a Hughes 500D operated by Alpine Helicopters Ltd. Doug Maxwell, one of the venison industry's legendary pilots, is flying with Colin Yeates (I think) shooting the net gun. The ship the helicopter departs from at the start is probably the
Ranginui, a vessel Sir Tim Wallis purchased to support his helibourne deer recovery operation. The ship had a helideck just big enough to accommodate a pair of 500s and the hold was converted to store the carcasses, and later live deer! The flying in this video is actually quite tame by standard NZ venison recovery standards but the heli is still skilfully flown. The approach and nose-in to the bush at 11:00 is quite nice. The scenery isn't to shabby either.
Airborne | Archives New Zealand | ecast TV
This video should possibly have gone into the "Video Thread" but it has a nice nostalgic feel to it so I thought it might fit in better here.
500 Fan.