Landing in fields with animals
Thank you for basically repeating what I said
Once landed in an empty pasture and after shutting down, our Blackhawk was closely encircled by cows. It seems we landed adjacent their feed station just before feeding time. We couldn't re-started until the farmer arrived with the feed wagon.
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Sheep only have one ambition in life and that is to escape! No way will a sheep, lamb or ewe challenge Man.
Cattle are just nosey, the only guy you cannot trust is a lonely bull.
Bulls are never to be trusted and the worst of the Bulls is a Jersey bull. He is always Angry!
Ex cattle farmer and Heavy jet pilot,
Cattle are just nosey, the only guy you cannot trust is a lonely bull.
Bulls are never to be trusted and the worst of the Bulls is a Jersey bull. He is always Angry!
Ex cattle farmer and Heavy jet pilot,
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I know of one case where a family dog jumped up and took a playful nip at the tail rotor.
Killed the dog of course but it also cost the operator a lot of money .... new TR blades , gearbox , and driveshaft.
Killed the dog of course but it also cost the operator a lot of money .... new TR blades , gearbox , and driveshaft.
For some reason the TR on Hughes 500s seemed to anger dogs. Probably the noise signature.
On another note cows are really funny. I was doing an inertial nav mapping survey which calls for a landing every 3-4 minutes. We often landed at the same spot 4 times during the day. First landing cows lumber away, Second landing cows stand around looking at the machine, Third landing cows lumber towards the helicopter. Forth landing cows start stampeding towards you. One of our pilots had the happy experience of a young bull goring the machine..left a hole in the skin of the machine.
Caribou are very curious and sometimes wander up to the helicopter after you shut down to wait for the geologist to commune with the local rocks. For fun, put down your book, turn on battery and hit the starter..Caribou does a vertical departure with a pedal turn and departs over the horizon.
Musk oxen will sometimes come for a look but don’t approach too closely.
A barren lands grizzly bear can and has reduced a helicopter to its component parts in a minute. Do not annoy them. A young pilot and a rock doctor spent 15 minutes chasing one once and headed back to camp. Mr bear takes a bearing and sets off across country. That night there was a loud noise from the heliport where 3 identically painted machines were parked. The bear beat up the machine that had buzzed him and departed over the hill. He did not enter the camp area nor touch the other machines..apparently the beasts can read registrations.
On another note cows are really funny. I was doing an inertial nav mapping survey which calls for a landing every 3-4 minutes. We often landed at the same spot 4 times during the day. First landing cows lumber away, Second landing cows stand around looking at the machine, Third landing cows lumber towards the helicopter. Forth landing cows start stampeding towards you. One of our pilots had the happy experience of a young bull goring the machine..left a hole in the skin of the machine.
Caribou are very curious and sometimes wander up to the helicopter after you shut down to wait for the geologist to commune with the local rocks. For fun, put down your book, turn on battery and hit the starter..Caribou does a vertical departure with a pedal turn and departs over the horizon.
Musk oxen will sometimes come for a look but don’t approach too closely.
A barren lands grizzly bear can and has reduced a helicopter to its component parts in a minute. Do not annoy them. A young pilot and a rock doctor spent 15 minutes chasing one once and headed back to camp. Mr bear takes a bearing and sets off across country. That night there was a loud noise from the heliport where 3 identically painted machines were parked. The bear beat up the machine that had buzzed him and departed over the hill. He did not enter the camp area nor touch the other machines..apparently the beasts can read registrations.
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I had a strange encounter one time, in a 109, doing a recce in a field just outside Liverpool. I had a timed arrival there in a couple of days and wanted to be sure I had my sums right and foolishly made the approach without a thorough recce. I approached into the field and whilst in the hover, I was aware that there were a couple of sheep out in my 3 o"clock, running around. I didn't want to hang around so I did a lockout turn before I departed and to my surprise/horror/amazement, there were no sheep, it was actually two Rhinos and they were now charging. Luckily I was just on the other side of a safari park fence and the Rhinos stopped short. That would have been a difficult explanation to the subsequent BOI.
Of course, you could always irritate anything by shooting it with a dart!
https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/Re...Final&IType=LA
On March 3, 2007, about 1610 Alaska standard time, a Hughes 369D helicopter, N5134V, sustained substantial damage while hovering in ground-effect, when its tail rotor was struck by a moose during a game management operation, about 1 mile southwest of the Gustavus Airport, Gustavus, Alaska. The helicopter was being operated by Temsco Helicopters Inc., Ketchikan, Alaska, as a visual flight rules (VFR) on-demand passenger flight under Title 14, CFR Part 135, when the accident occurred. The commercial certificated pilot and sole passenger were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and company flight following procedures were in effect. During a telephone conversation with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge (IIC) on March 5, the chief pilot for the operator said the helicopter was involved in a moose tagging operation for the Alaska State Department of Fish and Game. He said the moose was shot with a tranquilizer dart from the helicopter, and that the helicopter is used to block the moose's path to prevent them from running into water and drowning, or running into an area where the tranquilized animals cannot be handled safely. He said the helicopter was hovering, waiting for the animal to "go down." The chief pilot said that the pilot of an airplane was orbiting above, and saw the moose charge the helicopter. According to the chief pilot, the airplane pilot stated that as the helicopter attempted to evade the moose, the moose reared, or jumped, contacting the helicopter's tail rotor. The airplane pilot said that the helicopter made three complete 360 degree rotations before it landed. The helicopter pilot reported that he was not aware that the moose contacted the tail rotor. He indicated he had a loss of directional control, and said that he made a hovering autorotation to the ground. According to the chief pilot, the flex coupling between the drive shaft and the tail rotor gearbox failed. He said the spinning drive shaft cut through the tail boom adjacent to the gearbox, and separated the tail from the rest of the airframe. On April 2, the chief pilot told the IIC that their past practice had been for the helicopter to hover/maneuver about 10 feet above the ground, and no closer to the darted animal than 10 feet horizontally. He said this past practice had served them well, and the pilot and scientist aboard the helicopter felt the distances were appropriate. He said this was the first incidence of extreme, erratic, behavior on the part of a darted animal. In a written statement to the NTSB dated March 14, the chief pilot reported that due to this incident, the company had revised its procedure, and now requires the pilot to maintain 30 feet of altitude above the ground, and 30 feet horizontally from a darted animal.
https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/Re...Final&IType=LA
On March 3, 2007, about 1610 Alaska standard time, a Hughes 369D helicopter, N5134V, sustained substantial damage while hovering in ground-effect, when its tail rotor was struck by a moose during a game management operation, about 1 mile southwest of the Gustavus Airport, Gustavus, Alaska. The helicopter was being operated by Temsco Helicopters Inc., Ketchikan, Alaska, as a visual flight rules (VFR) on-demand passenger flight under Title 14, CFR Part 135, when the accident occurred. The commercial certificated pilot and sole passenger were not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and company flight following procedures were in effect. During a telephone conversation with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge (IIC) on March 5, the chief pilot for the operator said the helicopter was involved in a moose tagging operation for the Alaska State Department of Fish and Game. He said the moose was shot with a tranquilizer dart from the helicopter, and that the helicopter is used to block the moose's path to prevent them from running into water and drowning, or running into an area where the tranquilized animals cannot be handled safely. He said the helicopter was hovering, waiting for the animal to "go down." The chief pilot said that the pilot of an airplane was orbiting above, and saw the moose charge the helicopter. According to the chief pilot, the airplane pilot stated that as the helicopter attempted to evade the moose, the moose reared, or jumped, contacting the helicopter's tail rotor. The airplane pilot said that the helicopter made three complete 360 degree rotations before it landed. The helicopter pilot reported that he was not aware that the moose contacted the tail rotor. He indicated he had a loss of directional control, and said that he made a hovering autorotation to the ground. According to the chief pilot, the flex coupling between the drive shaft and the tail rotor gearbox failed. He said the spinning drive shaft cut through the tail boom adjacent to the gearbox, and separated the tail from the rest of the airframe. On April 2, the chief pilot told the IIC that their past practice had been for the helicopter to hover/maneuver about 10 feet above the ground, and no closer to the darted animal than 10 feet horizontally. He said this past practice had served them well, and the pilot and scientist aboard the helicopter felt the distances were appropriate. He said this was the first incidence of extreme, erratic, behavior on the part of a darted animal. In a written statement to the NTSB dated March 14, the chief pilot reported that due to this incident, the company had revised its procedure, and now requires the pilot to maintain 30 feet of altitude above the ground, and 30 feet horizontally from a darted animal.
