Real or PS: croc vs AS350
 

This photo has been doing the rounds for the past week, I'd be interested to know whether it's for real...or a PhotoShop achievement?

http://www.eacott.com.au/gallery/d/4593-2/ATT00197.jpg

The croc is real, the helicopter is not.:hmm:

JD

John,

A few years ago in the mid of winter,I was doing the night shift change at a drill in a 350. On the way back to camp we saw a lone wolf trotting down a frozen river. The Geo onboard was a young cute girl from Toronto,who had never seen a wolf in the wild.I normally leave the wildlife well alone, but she wanted some photos, so I pulled it into a hover at about 10ft and 50 metres from said wolf. Well the old boy was having none of that and decided to see us off. He ran at us, jumped up and grabbed the skid, and wasn't going to let go....:Dafter about 2 minutes of trying to persaude him, we gently lowered him to the ground.He let go,looked at us in an amazing way, turned around and trotted off,not before a final turnaround stop and stare at us like he was in awe.....:ok:I always wonder the story he told Mrs Wolf and the kids when he got home. Amazing experience and the young girl got quite a few pics she hadn't bargained for. Will email her see if she can send me the pics to post. Anyways,cut a long story short, I suppose that could be a real pic if a wolf ain't too bothered, would think a croc might not care either..........:ok:

newfie,

They would be photos worth seeing!

Re the croc photo, the AS350 is registered to a Sydney based operator, but privately owned and known to 'get around a bit' so currently no one that I know is able to verify the picture.

But I do wonder how such a shot would just happen to be taken, with someone conveniently on the ground in just the right place, at just the right time? Me, I'd be taking it from high up the nearest tree :p

Personally I think the photo is a croc......:ok:

John, the aircraft is or was allegedly owned by the brother of an Ozzie Photographer Rod Thomas.

I saw questions posted to his website where he had photos of VH-BUK and talking about trips he was (or was going todo) in her.

Some folks posted on his site and asked if it was true though so far no response.

I was leaning towards photoshop when I first saw it, but then I noticed the drag marks in the sand behind the croc. Now I'm thinking setup. Is that tape I can see around the crocs snout?

Doesn't an AS350 normally hover right skid low? Especially with a croc hanging from it.

Not sure about reaction from rear seat passenger, he seems to be giving the croc a "V" for victory sign.


Mickjoebill

Could the machine handle that much lateral CG and still have any lateral cyclic remaining?
How much would a croc like that weigh?

I wonder what the photographer's intentions were if the croc let go at that point......

Looks like a setup to me - the croc is the photographer's pet and is given big toys to play with!

I'm really good at Photoshop and that photo looks real to me, it even shows the exahust blurriness on the trees behind it, and there is no halo around any of the images. I doubt it's a fake.

It's a croc....
 

I've flown over hundreds of crocs throughout northern Oz, and all of them have taken off at speed! The last thing any of them would want to do was get closer to a hovering chopper.

I beg to differ there, touring pilot - I was taking some national parks guys up to a pad which was a sandbar on the Daintree.

Problem was there was a bloody great croc sunning himself on the middle of it, and he wouldn't move for us - a Jetbox hovering a few feet away.

We had to go and find another pad, he wasn't going anywhere.

Yeah well, didn't one grab hold of an R22 and throw it on the mud flat up in the north not long back?

I also remember several very cranky female crocs, one in particular used reside not far from the old Lizzie Downs Homestead site. This site happend to be a favourite for barra. Come nesting season it was very wise to take a big berth of her territory.

It's real - I am the croc in the picture and was hoping to having some of that large Shiela sitting in the back with a splattering of Avtur.
I was minding my own business when this photographer guy (a 'snapper'?) came up to me for some close-ups of my afternoon nap - I left his shoes (visible in pic) as I can't abide the taste of rubber, just so false and hurts the jaw...........

Lots of people thought these pics were fake.


H.

Never seen them pics before Heliport. Amazing!

Shawn Coyle. Yes it probably can handle the lateral c. of g., because around 1970 in a former life on the dark continent I did something vaguely similar, only deliberately pre-planned by my crewman. We ended up lifting a dead 16 ft Nile crocodile tied to the aircraft step on the crewman's side.

I was an incredibly naíf and stupid 20 year old who got talked into it by the old hand crewman in his forties. He wanted to skin the beast, but the game reserve officials got wind of it and we nearly ended up on a criminal charge because they thought we'd shot the animal.

When I pulled up into the hover with the croc hanging below, the cyclic was almost to the RH lateral limit. During the half hour flight back to base at around 40 knots, the croc started to swing and take the aircraft beyond control authority. I twice entered a banked left turn to stop the swinging and regain authority.

On arriving back at base I realised that the confined LZ between trees would never allow an OGE vertical landing without overtorqueing. The crewman got annoyed with me and used his knife to cut the rope around the step from which the croc was swinging.

The stink of the dead croc and the stink from my boss were things you'd never want to experience. I won't give any more specific details, to protect the innocent and preserve my embarrasment.