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

How about delivering Father Christmas or even Pizza!!
I was asked by the tower to unfurl their windsock the other day after it got entangled..didn't work unfortunatley :sad:

Whoever persuades UK racecourse owners that hovering helicopters over their waterlogged track will help to dry them out obviously has the gift of the gab.

Or persuading an airfield owner to pay for 2 hrs hovering about the field at dusk to 'prevent fog forming in the morning..'

:O

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.

We used a couple of Allouettes to clear cut grass from a football pitch just in time for our lunchtime game.

It didn't work as well as you might imagine.

Only in the military..

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:eek:

Does this count for an unusual application?
(Some TV chick that decided to get herself an original pics for her portfolio at my hangar, 2003 I think!)

http://homepage.mac.com/helipilot/PPRuNe/BB1.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/helipilot/PPRuNe/BB2.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/helipilot/PPRuNe/BB3.jpg

http://homepage.mac.com/helipilot/PPRuNe/BB4.jpg

No seatbelt, No harness, No door, No clothes..... It's all fun and games till someone looses an eye !!!!

Overpitched!

Im Sure that G String has some sort of approved lanyard on it :}

And i also note that the cargo mirror has not been repositioned for a better wide angle shot :{

Would that be a Cof G string then ???;) ;)

Isn't the "step" supposed to be installed on the outside of the landing gear?

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 :-)

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.:E

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!!

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 :oh: :oh: :oh:

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:ooh: :ooh:

Couldn't believe it.

Shaking water off Cherry Trees can be good sport too.

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 ? )

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
:ok:

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.