Rotorheads calendar December 2011

[John Eacott]

December calendar is of an MD500D dropping a powerline worker during maintenance in New York State, early 2010. The helicopter belongs to Air2 of Baltimore, and is flown by Rotorhead Gary Arthur who is currently flying the Erickson Aircrane on fire contract here in sunny Melbourne, Victoria.

Before anyone asks, the three black discs on the starboard skid is to counterbalance the guy on the port skid :ok:

Wide screen size:
http://www.eacott.com.au/gallery/d/4644-1/December+2011+wide+thumb.jpg (http://www.eacott.com.au/gallery/d/4641-1/December+2011+wide.jpg)

Standard screen size:

http://www.eacott.com.au/gallery/d/4649-1/December+2011+thumb.jpg (http://www.eacott.com.au/gallery/d/4646-1/December+2011.jpg)


As always, for Windows users click on the thumbnail to open a higher resolution full picture, and then right click to select “Set as Background”. Mac users should select the background via System Preferences.

And to all helicopter professionals wherever they are, on the 25th have a Very Merry Christmas :)

[Nigel Osborn]

Great photo........don't know if I'd rather be inside or outside!!!!:ok:

[bast0n]

John - well yes!! Once he is off the skid the weights on the other side are still there so......................................?:)

[Nigel Osborn]

He doesn't get off till they land!!!

[bast0n]

Oh - I thought he hopped off to change the fuse or whatever.

He seems to be attached to the pylon with a harness which led me to believe that he was detaching from the helicopter. On the right of the top of the pylon is an orange tensioning winch of some sort and I assumed he was off to play with that. If he is attached to both, good luck to them all. Attaching winch wires to ships in the past has led to one or two damp incidents!

Nigel - perhaps it was you..............:confused:

D

[Canadian Rotorhead]

Quite intriguing. I used to drop off linecrew with a Jetranger which is, as you know, an underslung gimbal mounted rotor system and for the life of me cannot see why one would require counterweights on a 500, arguably the easiest light aircraft to do the job with. It has the fully articulated head.

Still a challenging job but not as much effort involved with such a stable and forgiving machine. I just wish I had a 500 back in the day!

[jab]

Its ok with one person but with two on the side, you are actually out of lateral CG unless you have the weights installed. Great helicopter for that work.

[bast0n]

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!

Thanks Jab - all is clear now.

D

[Canadian Rotorhead]

Thanks,

Yes, I was curious as I've never seen them installed before. The two utility companies I worked for contracted the 206 and now the Eurocopter 350/355 series.

All fine aircraft and a very rewarding job at the end of the day.

Cheers,

RH