Freebie HeliOps Calendar - That Time Again
Thanks for the offer Ned. Your photos are always top notch 
Most memorable moment - hmm. There are so many.
The mistakes - hitting a tree, going IMC with no IFR capability or telling the customer to F off.
The beauty - cascading glaciers and towering mountains, pingos in the arctic or the sunrises.
The jobs - longlining a $3 million robot submarine, herding reindeer or replacing insulators on 500 kv energized transmission lines.
The locations - the arctic, Kuwait and Iraq and then for something completely different, the mountains of BC.
The people - highly professional coworkers who mentored me, customers who educated me and most of all my wife who loved me ( she got airsick but still went flying with me on occasion - made me a much smoother pilot
).
Most memorable moment - hmm. There are so many.
The mistakes - hitting a tree, going IMC with no IFR capability or telling the customer to F off.
The beauty - cascading glaciers and towering mountains, pingos in the arctic or the sunrises.
The jobs - longlining a $3 million robot submarine, herding reindeer or replacing insulators on 500 kv energized transmission lines.
The locations - the arctic, Kuwait and Iraq and then for something completely different, the mountains of BC.
The people - highly professional coworkers who mentored me, customers who educated me and most of all my wife who loved me ( she got airsick but still went flying with me on occasion - made me a much smoother pilot
).
My first student passing wings checkride I still get a buzz when any of those I have taught pass their checkrides.
I still get a buzz when any of those I have taught pass their checkrides.
As a PAX with Air Mauritius for Heli Lunch(no not lunch in the helicopter!) heading back to the airport a few days later with same company, encounter cloud over the mountains and the pilot took 1 second to say we are turning around and avoiding this! Have had similar experiences with the great team at St Lucia helicopters avoiding cloud in the mountains.
Join Date: May 2002
Location: tomorrowland
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My most memorable day with helicopters was October 6th 1983. At that time I was a flight test engineer and that day I flew for the first time on a brand new prototype. The total time accumulated by the helicopter in the previous 3 flights was 1hr and 20 min. The flight with me on board was the 4th. It last 30 min and was mainly dedicated to track the MR (with the strobo light and the Chadwick vibrometer) and to expand the flight envelope up to 120 kts. All the minutes of that flight are stamped in my mind for ever.
My first helicopter flight way back in 1974 was in the first civilian Gazelle in the UK G-BAGJ from Battersea Heliport to Leavesden. Such a wonderful day and got me hooked on helis.
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Marlow UK
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Flying an R44 with an instructor to a distant airfield to meet an examiner for my annual re-validation when the warning lights started coming on and the gauges on the panel started going crazy. I thought the FI was pulling circuit breakers to test me, as my examiner on my initial test had done.
I asked him to stop messing with the breakers, and he said he wasn't doing anything.
A quick Oh Heck moment was followed by an immediate precautionary landing in a field next to a road to aid recovery.
After rapid shutdown we discovered the regulator completely burnt out. Being in the middle of nowhere with no mobile phone signal, we walked across the fields to the nearest farmhouse to call the maint org and await the engineers arrival by road.
The engineers came out and performed a temporary fix so we could fly it to the maintenance base, about half an hour away.
With a train ride home, I was glad I had dressed in my usual outdoors gear, and sensible shoes despite the summer heat, whereas my FI had shorts, vest and flipflops on, not good for walking across fields or travelling on public transport.
I asked him to stop messing with the breakers, and he said he wasn't doing anything.
A quick Oh Heck moment was followed by an immediate precautionary landing in a field next to a road to aid recovery.
After rapid shutdown we discovered the regulator completely burnt out. Being in the middle of nowhere with no mobile phone signal, we walked across the fields to the nearest farmhouse to call the maint org and await the engineers arrival by road.
The engineers came out and performed a temporary fix so we could fly it to the maintenance base, about half an hour away.
With a train ride home, I was glad I had dressed in my usual outdoors gear, and sensible shoes despite the summer heat, whereas my FI had shorts, vest and flipflops on, not good for walking across fields or travelling on public transport.
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: somerset
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Thanks for the offer again this year. One recent memorable moment, taking my neighbour - a Somerset farmer - for a ride. As he buckled in I asked him if he'd been in a helicopter before.
"Nope, never".
"But you enjoy flying?"
"Never tried it before."
"You've never been in an aeroplane?"
"Nope. I went on a train once though."
"Where to?"
"London. Too many people. Came home again."
He was a brilliant passenger and has enjoyed many local flights since.
"Nope, never".
"But you enjoy flying?"
"Never tried it before."
"You've never been in an aeroplane?"
"Nope. I went on a train once though."
"Where to?"
"London. Too many people. Came home again."
He was a brilliant passenger and has enjoyed many local flights since.
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: UK
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My most memorable moment was on a Los Angeles layover, flying an R44 with two of my mates in the back. We’d already done low level along the beach from Redondo to Santa Monica, over Beverly Hills, Universal studios, the Hollywood sign and downtown LA, and now we were transiting LAX international airport just as the BA283 was making its final approach to land. Why was it so memorable? All three of us did our integrated ATPL(A) course together as BA cadets, and now 15 years later, had flown a 747 into LAX the day before. It was perfect timing, purely by chance, at the end of an amazing sightseeing flight around LA.
Join Date: Aug 2011
Location: USA
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Most memorable
My most memorable moment was my first flight. Between the uncertainty and nerves my adrenaline was flowing. Unfortunately I haven’t done a lot of flying, but it’s something I will never forget.
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Australia
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Returning to the airport from a doors off scenic tour and suddenly, in the middle of my well rehearsed patter, the cabin is filled with plumes of white feathers. I prepare for the worst thinking I have just hit one or many birds but I felt no strike and have no indicators of a problem.....I look back in the cabin and see the female pax with quite a bemused look on her face and her once ample goose down jacket has been diminished substantially, and the contents thereof scattered over the beautiful island of Kauai.
Still pinch myself that I got paid to do that!
Still pinch myself that I got paid to do that!
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: UK
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Me as a Combined Cadet Force (RAF) Corporal attending an armed forces recruitment fair in 1979 and being granted a nap of the earth experience flight in a Aérospatiale Gazelle. Beyond jaw dropping. Never mind my most memorable of countless memorable moments in a helicopter; it's right up there with the most memorable experiences in my life.
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: 1000ft above you, giving you the bird!
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Lifting off from Shoreham in a B206 with John Cranfield as PIC in 1984 aged 14 and doing my first departure with him no-where near the controls... he was cool as cucumber but it was very vivid moment for me - im 47 next month and still flying 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Great White North
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Couple of ones for me: (pre-licence) taking off from a remote lodge as pax in the Rockies and hearing the pilot say "**** we've too much weight in the back, don't know if we can make it" and waiting puckered up as he coaxed her through translation with the trees just below us.
Highlight - taking my mum and dad flying in the R44 shortly after getting my CPL and her commenting, never ever thought I'd have a son who'd take me up in a helicopter and my dad just grinning!
Highlight - taking my mum and dad flying in the R44 shortly after getting my CPL and her commenting, never ever thought I'd have a son who'd take me up in a helicopter and my dad just grinning!
Getting airborne from an airfield somewhere in Norway in 10M vis before an engine failure just after TDP 
Oh wait, that was the sim...
Most memorable moment in an acutal helicopter - probably nearly getting speared by a pair of F-15s while flying a Jet Ranger up Glencoe...
There we were, bimbling along at 100 knots, soaking in the scenery. What a lovely day it was to be airborne over the glorious Scottish countryside instead of indulging in some mundane ground-bound pursuit.
Half a second later, two of Uncle Sam's finest death machines appear from nowhere - one flashes above, one below, followed by the aroma of jet exhaust wafting into the cockpit. There wasn't really time to do anything apart from hope there wasn't a third one lurking round the corner.
Fortunately I was wearing my bicycle clips that day
Honourable mentions to flying with friends and family, seeing an EC225 getting towed along by an offshore supply boat, watching the Northern lights and landing in places where you are the sole indicator of any human existence all the way to the horizon.
Got to love it.
Oh wait, that was the sim...Most memorable moment in an acutal helicopter - probably nearly getting speared by a pair of F-15s while flying a Jet Ranger up Glencoe...
There we were, bimbling along at 100 knots, soaking in the scenery. What a lovely day it was to be airborne over the glorious Scottish countryside instead of indulging in some mundane ground-bound pursuit.
Half a second later, two of Uncle Sam's finest death machines appear from nowhere - one flashes above, one below, followed by the aroma of jet exhaust wafting into the cockpit. There wasn't really time to do anything apart from hope there wasn't a third one lurking round the corner.
Fortunately I was wearing my bicycle clips that day
Honourable mentions to flying with friends and family, seeing an EC225 getting towed along by an offshore supply boat, watching the Northern lights and landing in places where you are the sole indicator of any human existence all the way to the horizon.
Got to love it.
Last edited by FC80; 27th Nov 2017 at 18:59.
Join Date: Mar 2016
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I've had so many memorable moments, mostly sharing the joy of flight with friends and family.. One moment that stands out was during training. My CFI and I took off on a hot summer day from a taxiway less than 1000' from airport perimeter. Golf course is adjacent to the airport. As we're sluggishly climbing out, I see a golf bar cruise by right in front of us, not 10' ahead and at our altitude. I'm certain we ruined someones fairway drive with our downwash and we made sure to gain more altitude before leaving airport property ever since.
First time I tried landing an AS350 on sloping ground after my crossover to helicopters. I remember thinking 'ooh this is a bit different'. Then working my nuts off for the next 6 months trying to crack sloping ground!
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: hither & thither
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My company had a requirement to move an S61 from Aberdeen to Dhaka in Bangladesh for a new contract starting in the January. The ferry flight was due to depart on 1st December and the ferry crew would return to Aberdeen towards the end of January. It is probably for this reason, that I and a very good friend got the trip as all the senior pilots didn't want to be away over Christmas. I had only been a captain for 2 months at this point, so i was stunned to be offered this trip of a life time.
So, on 1st December 1997, we departed Aberdeen in S61 G-BBHM with $20,000 in cash, two ferry tanks and the instruction "be in Bangladesh by Christmas".
After leaving a very cold Aberdeen for Humberside and then Great Yarmouth to pick up our engineer we spent the night at Orleans just south of Paris. The next two weeks took us through Briare, St. Yan, Nice, Naples, Corfu, Heraklion, Alexandra, Cairo, Luxor, Medina, Riyadh, Dhahran and Dubai where we went u/s. We could have gone u/s in Dhahran but we all felt that Dubai would be somewhat more refreshing. We spent three nights in Dubai while an engineer from Redhill flew out with an engine front-frame assembly to cure our oil leak.
After a couple of ground runs, it was off to Pasni (that's another story), Karachi, Ahmadabad, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar and Calcutta where we spent a couple of nights waiting for final diplomatic clearance into Bangladesh.
On the 15th of December, G-BBHM finally touched down in Dhaka after 63h 20m flying time and the best part of 5,000 miles.
Apart from a few administrative issues on the ground from time to time, it was, without doubt, the best flying experience of my life. Even looking back at the administrative issues; they were the source of many a story to tell on our return.
A truly memorable experience and in a couple of days time it will be 20 years ago. Where did all that time go.............
So, on 1st December 1997, we departed Aberdeen in S61 G-BBHM with $20,000 in cash, two ferry tanks and the instruction "be in Bangladesh by Christmas".
After leaving a very cold Aberdeen for Humberside and then Great Yarmouth to pick up our engineer we spent the night at Orleans just south of Paris. The next two weeks took us through Briare, St. Yan, Nice, Naples, Corfu, Heraklion, Alexandra, Cairo, Luxor, Medina, Riyadh, Dhahran and Dubai where we went u/s. We could have gone u/s in Dhahran but we all felt that Dubai would be somewhat more refreshing. We spent three nights in Dubai while an engineer from Redhill flew out with an engine front-frame assembly to cure our oil leak.
After a couple of ground runs, it was off to Pasni (that's another story), Karachi, Ahmadabad, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar and Calcutta where we spent a couple of nights waiting for final diplomatic clearance into Bangladesh.
On the 15th of December, G-BBHM finally touched down in Dhaka after 63h 20m flying time and the best part of 5,000 miles.
Apart from a few administrative issues on the ground from time to time, it was, without doubt, the best flying experience of my life. Even looking back at the administrative issues; they were the source of many a story to tell on our return.
A truly memorable experience and in a couple of days time it will be 20 years ago. Where did all that time go.............
Join Date: Feb 2006
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What a fantastic story about a fantastic adventure, XA290! Thanks for sharing.
It's therefore a shame to have just read how G-BBHM ended her days back in the UK.
It's therefore a shame to have just read how G-BBHM ended her days back in the UK.
THanks for the offer....
Getting dragged in early hours one Bank Holiday Saturday for a Standby call-out.
HF fire across the Irish Sea, radio set now somewhere on seabed. Refuel at Valley SARTU where thoughtful land rovers formed a landing spot -but it would have been easier without the headlights as Goggles closed down.
Through Snowdonia to Heathrow from Aldergrove.
Moonlit evening then flashes of lightning again glaring the goggles out - it was the early 90s ;-)
Circling over Shrewsbury - which was just a glow through the low cloud cover below - whilst the ‘co’ changed the DECCA chain.......South toward Lyneham then direct to 09L mid-point to repatriate our ‘compassionate’ with his dying father. Lift direct to Odiuos for a well-earned cuppa and return via the Welsh coast on BH Monday pebble-dashing nude sunbathers - Happy Days
HF fire across the Irish Sea, radio set now somewhere on seabed. Refuel at Valley SARTU where thoughtful land rovers formed a landing spot -but it would have been easier without the headlights as Goggles closed down.
Through Snowdonia to Heathrow from Aldergrove.
Moonlit evening then flashes of lightning again glaring the goggles out - it was the early 90s ;-)
Circling over Shrewsbury - which was just a glow through the low cloud cover below - whilst the ‘co’ changed the DECCA chain.......South toward Lyneham then direct to 09L mid-point to repatriate our ‘compassionate’ with his dying father. Lift direct to Odiuos for a well-earned cuppa and return via the Welsh coast on BH Monday pebble-dashing nude sunbathers - Happy Days
