Most unusual application for a helicopter?
Thread Starter
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 1,334
Likes: 0
From: Cambridgeshire, UK
Most unusual application for a helicopter?
Purely to expand my interest in helis...
The name of the helicopter game definately seems to be versatility. I have seen various unique modifications and applications, from B47 crop dusters to the machine (think it was an S61 - Discovery Channel) used for relaying cables over the new japanese Akashi Kaiko suspension bridge. The machines used to recover the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules are also well worth a mention, despite being unmodified.
What is the most unusual helicopter application you have been involved in or know about?
Mart
The name of the helicopter game definately seems to be versatility. I have seen various unique modifications and applications, from B47 crop dusters to the machine (think it was an S61 - Discovery Channel) used for relaying cables over the new japanese Akashi Kaiko suspension bridge. The machines used to recover the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules are also well worth a mention, despite being unmodified.
What is the most unusual helicopter application you have been involved in or know about?
Mart
Better red than ...
Joined: Aug 2004
Aviation Qualifications: CPL
Posts: 1,415
Likes: 0
From: Appleby-in-Westmorland Cumbria England
Or persuading an airfield owner to pay for 2 hrs hovering about the field at dusk to 'prevent fog forming in the morning..'
Avoid imitations
Joined: Nov 2000
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 15,110
Likes: 1,083
From: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
Flying all night over a plantation to prevent frost on Florida orange trees?
My most unusual flight was a mercy mission for a Killer Whale. A landslide took out the power to Ocean Park which stopped the filtration and cooling plant. We were tasked to deliver an underslung 6,000lb generator to the road just below the whale's pool on an 80 ft strop. As I brought the aircraft to the hover, the whale came up out of the water, leaned on the edge of his pool and looked me straight in the eye from just outside the rotor disc! I'm sure he winked at us...
The flying circular saw takes some beating though.
My most unusual flight was a mercy mission for a Killer Whale. A landslide took out the power to Ocean Park which stopped the filtration and cooling plant. We were tasked to deliver an underslung 6,000lb generator to the road just below the whale's pool on an 80 ft strop. As I brought the aircraft to the hover, the whale came up out of the water, leaned on the edge of his pool and looked me straight in the eye from just outside the rotor disc! I'm sure he winked at us...
The flying circular saw takes some beating though.
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 100
Likes: 0
From: canada
MANY years ago, training in 500d, with the maiden flight of the boeing 767 at yxs, on rotation taking off, one of the wheels fell off and bounced down runway and into grass - tower asks to try and locate tire
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 38
Likes: 0
From: Den Helder
Hmmm.
How about replacing an older powerline with a new. They wanted me to pickup an temporary cable to lay down along side the old one. Our CP decided that a 1000 fot sling would be maximum lengh. Actuallt it became airborne at 850 feet. I then had to "try" to lay it down with precision. The first lift it was picked up in the middle of the cable so I had to pickup another end again and do the same thing. A bit uncomfortable to get the sling airborne at 850 feet. I was in a AS350B3 and the weight of the cable was around 1 ton.
Another one was when i was flying as a target for a new radar. They wanted me to hover at 10 000 feet for over an hour.
To simulate a real windy day for a television program. Hover over the actors for 3 minutes. Job done.
Batchler Party. At 8000 feet they stapped a fake parachute on his back and blindfolded the poor guy. We pretended to be climbing to 20 000 feet but in realety i gently descended to a friends house were there were a swimmingpool. Once there they gave him the handle for the backpack and told him to pull it as soon as he was outside of the aircraft. (Wish i could have seen his face). So at about 5 feet above the pool the kicked him out. Bastards :-)
How about replacing an older powerline with a new. They wanted me to pickup an temporary cable to lay down along side the old one. Our CP decided that a 1000 fot sling would be maximum lengh. Actuallt it became airborne at 850 feet. I then had to "try" to lay it down with precision. The first lift it was picked up in the middle of the cable so I had to pickup another end again and do the same thing. A bit uncomfortable to get the sling airborne at 850 feet. I was in a AS350B3 and the weight of the cable was around 1 ton.
Another one was when i was flying as a target for a new radar. They wanted me to hover at 10 000 feet for over an hour.
To simulate a real windy day for a television program. Hover over the actors for 3 minutes. Job done.
Batchler Party. At 8000 feet they stapped a fake parachute on his back and blindfolded the poor guy. We pretended to be climbing to 20 000 feet but in realety i gently descended to a friends house were there were a swimmingpool. Once there they gave him the handle for the backpack and told him to pull it as soon as he was outside of the aircraft. (Wish i could have seen his face). So at about 5 feet above the pool the kicked him out. Bastards :-)
Last edited by voodoo2; 5th October 2005 at 06:54.
Joined: May 2002
Aviation Qualifications: ATP+Mil
Posts: 18,633
Likes: 1,072
From: Downeast
Slinging Dunny's up to nearly the top of a snow covered peak in Washington State and backloading the hiker's deposits. One can claim having hauled all sorts of crap by helicopter after that escapade.
Also hauling dead Salmon to the alpine creeks and streams in Oregon. Sea Gulls followed the support truck carrying the bucket back to the hangar and swarmed it evertime it stopped for a traffic light.
Also hauling dead Salmon to the alpine creeks and streams in Oregon. Sea Gulls followed the support truck carrying the bucket back to the hangar and swarmed it evertime it stopped for a traffic light.
Gentleman Aviator
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,722
Likes: 91
From: Teetering Towers - somewhere in the Shires
We used to have a task on the Wessex in NI to erect telegraph/power cable poles.
Workmen would position pole alongside hole, heli would lift other end of pole to put it in hole - only a specialised usl I spose, but it didn't really go anywhere or even leave the ground...
... all went well until someone attached the lanyard about a third of the way down the pole rather than the end ..... geometry unavoidably put pole into rotor disk!!
Workmen would position pole alongside hole, heli would lift other end of pole to put it in hole - only a specialised usl I spose, but it didn't really go anywhere or even leave the ground...
... all went well until someone attached the lanyard about a third of the way down the pole rather than the end ..... geometry unavoidably put pole into rotor disk!!
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,670
Likes: 1
From: UK
Shytorque you mentioned the orange groves in florida. A colleague of mine used to:
Fly over gigantic orange groves in Florida between 15 and 30 feet above the trees. 45 gallon Diesel drums were set alight and the heat was spread over the crops to keep the frost away. They had to fly between 15 and 30 feet. Too low and they hit the trees, too high and they were flying IMC in the layer of diesel smoke.
All this was done alongside 20-30 other helos doing the same thing at the same time
Another job he did was to pick up half a dozen mexicans in the morning and hover over the croc swamps in Florida allowing them to jump into the swamps and herd the crocs away from public access points! His job as the pilot was to be at the ready to collect any of these 'volunteers' who were being chased by a rampant croc
Couldn't believe it.
Fly over gigantic orange groves in Florida between 15 and 30 feet above the trees. 45 gallon Diesel drums were set alight and the heat was spread over the crops to keep the frost away. They had to fly between 15 and 30 feet. Too low and they hit the trees, too high and they were flying IMC in the layer of diesel smoke.
All this was done alongside 20-30 other helos doing the same thing at the same time
Another job he did was to pick up half a dozen mexicans in the morning and hover over the croc swamps in Florida allowing them to jump into the swamps and herd the crocs away from public access points! His job as the pilot was to be at the ready to collect any of these 'volunteers' who were being chased by a rampant croc
Couldn't believe it.
Guest
Posts: n/a
Another...
I was just watching a program on mining in Indonesia on Discovery. The research helis needed somewhere to land in the dense thick jungle, so they winched down some poor sod with a chainsaw, who under extreme care of the winchman, then proceeded to clear the upper branches and leaves first, so eventually he could get to the terra-firma so he could fell the trees. So here's another one, using a chopper to create a helipad ! ( " some of the chainsaw men got killed " said the narrator....really ? )
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 44
Likes: 0
From: Australia
That's not Cricket
If I remeber rightly, a TV Helicopter was used in the 80's when One Day International Cricket was in it's infancy, to dry the Cricket pitch of the Sydney Cricket Ground so play could commence.
Regards
Loachy
Regards
Loachy
Bugsmasherdriverandjediknite
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 2,848
Likes: 0
From: Bai, mi go long hap na kisim sampla samting.
Saw a pic of a choppa hovering inside a large shed to dry the concrete floor once. also watched a turbine B47 belting about with a large clothes line type arrangment slung underneath. was doing some magnetic survey work.