Kiwi Pilot in Court over Mountain Crash
 

Crash pilot did not check helicopter weight, court told - 09 Dec 2008 - NZ Herald: New Zealand National news

Jeez, how many mistakes did Bruce make?

For sure he made one mistake....he should have been more specific as to which bloke he wished to make the jump.....rather than just making a blanket request and thus causing the delayed decision by each as they waited for the other to make the decision. Now if he would have simply pointed a primary digit in the direction of the guy by the door....and said...."Right! That's it for you....out!"....perhaps things would have turned out for the good.

Why does this bring back memories of Alaska Bush Flying days?:uhoh:

Well he was obviously too polite in asking someone to jump out :rolleyes:

SAS. The crater is a little below the 9,100 ft peak of the mountain. I remember someone doing some rough calcs at the time and estimating that, given the conditions and estimated weight, he had hover IGE somewhere around 5,000 ft. Maybe, he needed to order a passenger out each back door.

Mind you, The weight of the seats can't be counted as he had left those behind. :hmm:

Given that the crater contains a lake of hot water I expect the temperature and humidity would be higher than ambient.

Hot, high, humid and heavy. Hmmm. All we need is windless.

I wonder if he even knew about hover performance or had checked any perf charts at all in the recent past.
Civilian performance charts are a joke - and I'm not surprised that they are ignored.