R44 lands on houseboat - Hawkesbury River

[markfelt]

Lucky this houseboat didn’t drift any closer to the riverbank vegetation.

May have ended up with a moist Robbo

https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-11/man-rescued-amid-wet-weather-floods-on-nsw-south-coast/11952864

[gerry111]

Hmm..
I wonder what Marine Rescue NSW crew really thought about this?

[Sunfish]

Did they have life jackets?

[thorn bird]

Did they fill out dozens of forms, wait a couple of months, pay a huge fee for CAsA permission?

[Capt Fathom]

Why is it different from any other helipad / landing area?

[Superfly Slick Dick]

What’s the big deal with this story?

[Sunfish]

They are bloody lucky that:

(a) The houseboat roof was strong enough, and

(b) there was nothing that could be blown into the rotors.

Speaking as someone who was involved in a near miss of that sort involving a helicopter landing on a pier and a sponsors banner.

[Capt Fathom]

Sunfish. Everything has a risk. It’s called life! Get on with it. :}

[Art Smass]

They are bloody lucky that:

(a) The houseboat roof was strong enough



In the article "After several other failed attempts, the houseboat's skipper said a helicopter he owned was en route and could land on top of the boat, which was designed as a helipad."

[Squawk7700]

Oh the humanity! Think of the koalas and children whose lives were put at risk here! Surely there is a strict liability offence in here somewhere??

Headline should have read something like, “helicopter makes normal landing on a purpose-built helipad on a houseboat.”

[gerry111]

Let's forget about CAsA here.
Marine Rescue NSW is manned by volunteers. They sometimes have to risk their lives saving risk-taking idiots who get into trouble.

[Global Aviator]

A story no story story.

Makes me think I’d like to fly the whirly birds.

Sunny would love to have a beer with you one day. You are experienced in every single thread on prune, I look forward to the stories!

[Bend alot]

In the article "After several other failed attempts, the houseboat's skipper said a helicopter he owned was en route and could land on top of the boat, which was designed as a helipad."

Has a wind sock and called Land On.

I assume the super yachts helicopters are not static displays.

[Sunfish]

I’m not experienced in flying at all. But while some of you sat in a cockpit for your entire career, my career spanned ten different industries - which is too many, but all too common today. I also “get around” socially and was involved in lots of sports and activities.

[Capt Fathom]

I also “get around” socially and was involved in lots of sports and activities.
Ok, that counts. You’re in!

[Duck Pilot]

All the armchair experts at work here!

How many of you commentators have ever flown a helicopter, let alone a licence to fly one?

Some of the propaganda that has been posted in relation to this thread is absolutely crap.

My opinion is that the pilot done a good job considering the circumstances. I have a CPL H and type rated on the R44 as well.

[gerry111]

[QUOTE=Duck Pilot;10685855]Some of the propaganda that has been posted in relation to this thread is absolutely crap./QUOTE]

There's a first time for everything..:E

[Jetstream67]

Houseboat name says LAND ON. Maybe gave someone a clue

[Sunfish]

Ducky:How many of you commentators have ever flown a helicopter, let alone a licence to fly one?


I’ve never flown one, but I damned near crashed one.:E

[Lookleft]

my career spanned ten different industries - which is too many, but all too common today. I also “get around” socially and was involved in lots of sports and activities.

So what you are telling us Sunfish is that you weren't any good at anything and when your bosses found out you had to move on. I also get a sense from your post that you are a bit of ladder climber and that your favourite food is Fig Jam.

[Sunfish]

A ladder climber? Perhaps in the same way pilots go from gd3 instructor to GA to turboprops to SO, FO, CAPT in narrow body then wide body. The polite term is career progression - more responsibility, more money.


Furthermore, if you knew anything about management, you would know that the way most organizations hire management these days is from “outside” , meaning that internal promotion is rare in commercial organizations because either staff are judges “too valuable” to promote, “too stupid” to promote or they want “fresh outside experience” to reorganize the business. Most people with a business degree mirror my career path. Sadly, to move up, you have to leave.

[ScepticalOptomist]

I’m not experienced in flying at all. But while some of you sat in a cockpit for your entire career, my career spanned ten different industries - which is too many, but all too common today. I also “get around” socially and was involved in lots of sports and activities.

Then kindly move onto a forum where Pilot isn’t in the title.. :-)

[Sunfish]

Then kindly don’t comment on things outside pilots experience.

[Squawk7700]

Every single manager where I work has been promoted from internally and that has been the case for over 100 years. It works really well ! But as a manager, what would I know ! ??

[Sunfish]

Squawk:Every single manager where I work has been promoted from internally and that has been the case for over 100 years. It works really well ! But as a manager, what would I know ! ??

Then you are very lucky! The normal situation is that senior management has a “use by” date or the organisation is set up to deliberately burn people out and discard them or the management is replaced when the strategy changes.

I was once asked to take on a GM’s job for a certain company. The incumbent, the directors told me, had successfully pulled the company through the 1990 recession, he was a cost cutter. “But now the economy is expanding, we want a new GM who is a business builder” the Directors said to me. -So that was the managers reward for successfully navigating the recession; to be fired and replaced with a salesman. I didn’t take the job.

[Atlas Shrugged]

What's all this nonsense got to do with someone making a perfectly normal landing in a chopper on a helipad on a houseboat?

[Lookleft]

What's all this nonsense got to do with someone making a perfectly normal landing in a chopper on a helipad on a houseboat?

AS if you put Sunfish in the same category as the serial pest that would invade horse races and other major events then the nonsense just becomes white noise.

[Andy_RR]

Sunny must be a balloon pilot with all that management experience. Does anyone remember that story? I'm sure the Internet does. Let's see if I can find it...



... here 'tis


​A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He spots a man down below and lowers the balloon to shout: “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised my friend I would meet him half an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.”The man below says: “Yes. You are in a hot air balloon, hovering approximately 30 feet above this field. You are between 40 and 42 degrees N. latitude, and between 58 and 60 degrees W. longitude.”

“You must be an engineer” says the balloonist.

“I am” replies the man. “How did you know.”

“Well” says the balloonist, “everything you have told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost.”

The man below says “You must be a manager.”

“I am” replies the balloonist, “but how did you know?”

“Well”, says the man, “you don’t know where you are, or where you are going. You have made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problems. The fact is you are in the exact same position you were in before we met, but now it is somehow my fault.”​​​​​​

[Squawk7700]

If they had landed a hot air balloon on the house boat, now that would have been newsworthy!