What chance I got?
 

Meh- could be tomorrow. Heck, could be today! What, you want to live forever? Then choose another profession. Dying in a helicopter is something that we who do it for a living simply don't think about...because if you do think about it too much, you'd have to quit. At least, I would. It would drive me crazy. No, I prefer to concentrate on staying alive in a helicopter. That's a much more positive thing to focus on, I believe. And you know, a lot of it is simply out of our control.

If you've been doing this for as long as you say, you've undoubtedly had some very close calls. We all have. And we all go through periods of depression and (ahem) introspection, especially when we see a guy with so much more experience than us having a fatal. Sometimes it hits us pretty hard. And we get to wondering, "When is it going to be my turn?" But again, you have to shrug those feelings off and continue to punch the button. It'll happen...or not...whenever. And if it does? I'm cool with that. I knew the risks when I signed up.

You did too.

Cut out the booze and that should add a few years to your life expectancy.

Get one of those magic 8-balls and ask it before every flight, "Is this the one that gets me?"

Dying of old age, dementia, cancer....or just a sudden onset of severe gravity.....in the end we all are leaving here.

I am like a lot of folks....dying doesn't scare me a bit.....I just don't want to be there when it happens.

Well I have twice the hours and do I think about it, yes, but big deal, we all die sometime, just think of all the good times. Be fatalistic, if your time is up your time is up, dont worry about it. Wont stop me flying a longline in the mountains in a single engine, lots think I am mad but more likely to be killed on my mountain bike !

The majority are dying in their beds, so what now?

skadi

There are helicopters around, which were build before I was born....

And in most cases - its the pilot who screws up - so just don´t push yourself to far, NO ist always a possible answer.

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”

Hunter S.Thompson

helimutt

Too right

Unless you are doing fair rides, or flying in a Robinson, apparently.

To paraphrase Orwell, some risks are more "equal" than others.

I was asked if I wanted to be an organ donor. I agreed, but on the proviso that I wore out all the best bits myself.

This thread is a discussion of risk. This was merely pointing out that not all risks are appreciated in the same way in a manner familiar to many PPRuNe members. This seemed like a reasonably relevant contribution. You are welcome to disagree.

Don't worry, it's not so easy to kill yourself with a helicopter.
I managed 46 years and about 23k hours with only one crash and a few near misses and now the bloody cancer got me:(.
I really would have prefered to died in a nice crash, but that's life. You unfortunately can't chose.

You're looking at it the wrong way round - a statistician would calculate the chance you WON'T have a crash and reverse it from there - which looks a lot better