What is it about...........?

[KNIEVEL77]

What is it about aviation but Helicopters in particular that everyone finds so fascinating?

My first introduction to Helicopters was at the age of 5 during a tour onboard one of Her Majesty's Frigates which had visted the River Tyne in Newcastle where I got to sit in a Lynx.

Ever since i've been hooked.........but whenever that beautiful noise of a helicopter is heard you see men and women, young and old craning their necks for a look.

It seems the fascination with Helicopters is universal, just some of us take it to further limits than others!

Wishing you all a Happy and if not Prosperous, a Healthy New Year.

K77.

[seanbean]

I suppose it's the "novelty" of being able to stop, and then try to land - rather than vice versa. Also with hels there's just so much more that can go wrong (all that kinetic energy within a few feet of your head...).

Happy New Year to you all!

[Gypsy_Air]

For me, aviation in general is fascinating because of the freedom it gives you to see the world from a different perspective, but helicopters in particular interest me because they're more of a challenge than fixed wings and do many important jobs which fixed wings couldn't.

[206Fan]

but helicopters in particular interest me because they're more of a challenge than fixed wings

Thats exactly why i want to fly them, also seeing military helicopters flying over all my childhood days got me inspired with the aircraft aswel!

[darrenphughes]

Ever since i've been hooked.........but whenever that beautiful noise of a helicopter is heard you see men and women, young and old craning their necks for a look.

Unless they live on Long Island where they're craning their necks looking for their phone, to call the helicopter complaint hot-line!!:ugh:

Top Gun got me hooked on aviation, but I'm not quite sure what got me hooked on helo's. Maybe it was was the military choppers overhead when I was a kid like Davy07. I did grow up along the border after all!

[206Fan]

I live just north of the border a bit outside newry, my high school was beside the busiest heliport in the UK while the army were still operating here. I remember the chinooks came in one day while i was in class, teachers mug of coffee bounced right of the table (freshly poured too, she wasn't emused).. Have memories of the wessex landing beside our house, unfortunatley never got any photos of her.

[ShyTorque]

Chinooks, Wessex. Ah yes, those "Army" helicopters were everywhere not too long ago.. :oh:

[wardy20]

Living across the road from a hospital with a helipad determined my future! alouette 3's and dauphins mostly.I remember the day an RAF sea king flew over our house and landed at the hospital,think i set a world record on my bmx trying to get to see it!


Mr Hughes, I hear you've got the aviators. not long now til puberty kicks in and you can grow yourself a moustache and look just like Goose!

[darrenphughes]

Mr Hughes, I hear you've got the aviators. not long now til puberty kicks in and you can grow yourself a moustache and look just like Goose!

Well, you might as well look the part if you're gonna try and be the part!

think i set a world record on my bmx trying to get to see it!The gears and chain probably had to be replaced after that overspeed!! Hope you checked the spindles!

[wardy20]

The rear sprocket nearly melted! she was in mx for a week!

[KNIEVEL77]

Choppertop,

You mirror my story too, always wanted to be a pilot, careers teacher told me I wasn't intelligent enough so joined the BBC as a Sound Engineer, went Freelance in 1991, continued to work for the Beeb until a few years ago when they ditched 'specialists' for 'jack of all trades', still Freelance but it's tough out there now, everyone undercutting everyone else then one day I thought 'b@llocks to all of this i'm going to learn to fly"!!!!!

So i'm in the process of selling my collectables to help achieve an ambition.......to pilot a Helicopter!

K77.

[wardy20]

Fair play Knievel! Best of luck with everything! I'm up to me eyes in debt, in a foreign country where you drive on the wrong side of the road, but heading for
my cpl eventually. couldn't be happier!

[206Fan]

I'm up to me eyes in debt

Join the club!

careers teacher told me I wasn't intelligent

You will soon prove him/her wrong the day you get your licence!

[DennisK]

Wonderful post .... come on in guys .. the water's fine.

All I can say is that every day of my thirty-eight years in helicopter aviation have been an absolute delight. Every flight has been a gem .. a bit like sex. Even when its been bad .. its still damn good.

As some of you will know, I've had it kick me in the teeth on a bad occasion in 2000 but even that hasn't changed my love for this industry and 99% of the guys who inhabit it.

Knievel .. and all the others stuggling to get on board. Keep at it and be proud to join we COFs. (crusty old farts)

Safe flying to you all,

Dennis K

[KNIEVEL77]

Thanks Dennis, my only worry is that if I take it no further than my PPL(H) then it will have worked out as a very very expensive hobby! A great hobby however!

[206Fan]

Thanks dennis.. The aerobatic flying you do is an amazing bit of flying and its something i want to follow in aswel like you done when i get into the industry!

[Noiseboy]

It is simply human nature, for thousands of years humans have looked up, wondering what the birds see, wondering what it feels like, wondering what it is to experience that degree of freedom... and now we are so very lucky to be alive at a time when WE can say we know, it is only natural for others to still be looking up in wonder.

Why does the helicopter get special attention? because it is the most natural way we have found to fly yet, we move our wings, we can sit effortlessly on the wind, we can move, or not move wherever we could possibly wish to be. (or mostly I guess where the person paying the bill wants to be!)

We have all been afforded one way or another the chance to fulfill one of mankinds longest held dreams, that's why it is so special, and also why it is so incredible that some seek to put obstacles in each others paths and restrict the opportunities for more people to share in the privilege!

Have a great year, happy flying to all!

[GS-Alpha]

I think Airwolf takes the blame in my case :)

[KNIEVEL77]

I've just bought the Airwolf Soundtrack on CD from Amazon!!!!!

[spinwing]

Mmmmm ....

Young PUNKS .......

Anybody out there remember a TV show called "Whirlybirds" .... it ran during the late '50s ....... (and no not the 1850s)

GULP .... I do :\

[ToTall]

I remember my early days. It was military day and via some friends I was invited to sit in the back of a Huey. I was 5 or 6 I think. They took of and I was the only civilian that got to fly with them.
From that day I always wanted to fly helicopters but did not manage to realize that dream after many years of flying everything els. Now happily getting in to an industry that is so fun.

Keep them flying or beating. :ok:

[Bertie Thruster]

I remember it spinwing!


http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i97/nmhsu/whirly.jpg?t=1230973217

[boatpro]

For me it was growing up in the home counties, living near Stapleford and North Weald and reading stories of the Fighter Boys of the B of B. Always wanted to get in the air.

In '84 a family member PPLH'd in an Enstrom at Goodwood and I have been fortunate to sit next to him for 100's of hours since.

Finally, after years of just dreaming, I leave tomorrow to fly to Florida where I start my PPLH training in Palm Beach at 07.00 on Monday morning.

The dream is about to become a reality and I cant think about anything else, go to bed thinking about it, dream about it all night then wake up and read about it all day. But I am sure that a lot of you remember those days, so, wish me luck.

Great Thread

[percyprune]

Also told by my school careers guidance teacher that I should stop
day dreaming and look at getting a proper job :}

8500hrs plus, 6500 or so on helicopters later. Everyday a pleasure. Its my hobby and I get paid to do it, what more can you ask for :ok:

Some helicopters don't do much for me (R22 to be precise) but at the end of the day the ability to get off the ground, go somewhere interesting, work with a great team, meet interesting people, stop in mid air, look at the faces of people sitting next to you (especially fixed wing pilots as we slow through 40kts!!!) beats it all :O

I just wish I could go back and start again, too much fun :)

percy

PS I am NOT putting down the R22, for those Robinson drivers out there, it just didn't do a lot for me. Give me the B47 any day :D

[KNIEVEL77]

Boatpro,

Good luck, i'd be very interested in learning more about your PPL(H) training in Florida........duration, costs and why you are doing it abroad etc! PM me if you wish!

Have fun,

K77.

[206Fan]

Knievel..

I done mine in west palm beach FL with cloud9 helicopters.. got it done in five weeks, passed the checkride at 50Hrs, was there for 6 weeks thou, took a spin in the raven II while i was there to check her out.

My reasons for going abroad are the same as everyone else who go to florida, its cheaper and i wanted to get the hell out of ireland for a few weeks:}

Thou i went over the end of july 2008, alot of thunderstorms about, was 35 degrees the whole time i was there, tis fun pre-flighting the robbie in that:E

[newfieboy]

Early 60;s remember a show, Skippy the Kangaroo I think it was, maybe you can confirm Spinwing. anyways lots of Bell 47 action, think that was the start. Then a few years later getting hoofed out the back of Wessex;s to spend many miserable nights sitting in a wet hole in the back of beyond while the drivers went home for tea, medals and Mess P###up;s decided it for me. Now 10,000+later still get a chuckle out of it everyday I;m at work.:ok:

[boatpro]

K77,

Will keep you informed how it goes, motivation for me, like most others is cost. Also intend to do a lot of flying out there.

Going for three weeks and will get as much done as time allows, will go back for a couple of weeks in February to finish off and hopefully add 10 hours on R44, initial training on R22.

Visa and legal documentation was all very easy and I have also got my FAA and CAA medicals done here before I leave.

Only 7 hours and counting to get on that big red Virgin fw to Miami, almost feel like leaving for Heathrow now, just to speed things alond a tadd.

[206Fan]

You going to bristows boatpro?

[boatpro]

Hi Davy07,

No not Bristows, Palm Beach Helicopters

:ok:

[topendtorque]

The thread does ask - aviation- so if I may seek the indulgence of the mods generosity to not only pay homage to OZ's most famous fixed wing aviatrix, who died very recently, even tho respects have been posted on Jet blast and elsewhere, I thought that a bit of one of her innumerable interviews really struck a chord with this thread.

Speaking to the ABC's Peter Thomson in 2006, Ms Walton said she was thrilled by the exhilaration of flying.
"The freedom of the air. The freedom of flight," she said on the Talking Heads program.
"And you completely remove yourself from the world. And you can voluntarily remove yourself from all those ... everything that's near and dear to you. And you voluntarily return."
She said if her father had had his way, she would have followed in his footsteps and run the general store in the town of Mount George, New South Wales.
"He was a very hardworking man. He believed in working 16 hours a day. And he thought everybody else should," she said.
"When I came down to visit mother, I went out to Mascot in 1930 and had a trial instruction flight with Captain Leggett.
"And that convinced me that that was what I wanted to do. So I bought myself a flying helmet and then I went back to the country to save up and grow up."


Vale Nancy Bird Walton, taught to fly by Smithy at age eighteen. One of Qantas' latest aeroplanes is named in her honour.

[Nigel Osborn]

Newfieboy
You're right about Skippy the Bush Kangaroo! I had the pleasure of flying the Bell 47 for Skippy in 1967! Great film crew & great after work parties!:ok:

[Tickle]

Although I am not a pilot, I have always had a strong fascination with helicopters. I love the way helicopters move and wobble (even though it is unintentional!) and dance around above the ground. Watching the blades spin up from a stop and slow down to a stop at the end of a flight.

Growing up in Melbourne, Australia, the older noisy police Dauphines were the choppers I saw the most. Then Blue Thunder came out, then Airwolf was shown on television and that cemented it for me.

I went to school with a kid who's father ran a helicopter company (starting with J) and have tried to get back in touch with him with no success. We used to hang around down at the Yarra and World Trade Centre pads watching the Jetrangers, Australia's first A109, Squirrels, an H500 and various pistons operating on weekends.

There's nothing sadder than after watching a helicopter start up, take off, fly away and it gets quieter and quieter and I know it's time to go home but I don't want to.

I've only ever once been up in a helicopter and it almost ended in a disaster when we had a forced landing in a city park. But it hasn't stopped me from being fascinated with them.

[R44-pilot]

My love for helicopters came from the fil Deadly Encounter which starred Larry Hagmen.

I watched it on tv 12+ years ago, when I was between 8-10 years old, Finally after so much searching I got a copy last year.

It go me hooked on helicopters and especially the Hughes 500 (still never been in a 500 though :\)

Amazing film, great flying and yet a good story. (Also loved airwolf but cant stand that actor who plays Hawk and the crappy storys!!)

I've asked quite a few heli pilots if they've seen it and havent had a yes yet.....

He's the intro YouTube - Deadly Encounter - intro (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xB0O1MKXF3k)
and a teaser YouTube - Deadly Encounter - Larry Hagman (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve1nb7GjkjI&feature=related)

Best film ever!! :ok:

[Heliringer]

I really enjoy the job but when you have been out flying on a charter and it's time to finish, you get the guys out and wash the helicopter/preflight for the next day. You're just about to jump in the car and go home when the phone rings and you need to go out again!!!
The flying and views are nice but a bit of stability would be great.

Honest I do love my job but I just can't plan ANYTHING:ugh: