Stick skills v airmanship
 

If ever there was an example of the difference

https://citizen.co.za/news/news-eish...-in-a-chopper/

That reminds me a lot of the guys who tried to fly the 269/300C he had just bought and rolled it up in a little ball without his instructor on board....

Remember the new phrase from Dennis Mains... "well, this is stupid!!"... let it be your inner voice... :ok:

Personally, I think that the most heinous crime here is the use of vertical video.

Very skilled, but a show off!

Sorry I failed to see the skill part,
All I see is a red bull supercharged average pilot.
What a waste of air time to impress those bozos.

The words "instability" and "erratically" are clearly used improperly in that article, since neither condition ever applied.

If that had occurred at an air show everyone would be applauding. Not that it would have been any more or less risky. But context is everything, eh?

Morons like that are why we pay so much for insurance.

It's more likely the flurry of air tour accidents over the past couple of years. Two US underwriters ejected from the market after the NYC foot-selfie debacle. And the Hawaii incidents. And the Grand Canyon. Too many turbines crashing. A piston crashing doesn't cost them nearly as much. Soon there won't be anyone left to sell insurance at any price :{

No joke, I am seriously considering self-insuring the hull. Got to keep the liability, though. My insurance has gone up 30% in two years. I'm getting a very good rate, relatively speaking, but even so it's starting to be untenable.

Hmmmm? Using a helicopter to find the "shallow end of the gene pool". Original.

Tim Tucker, Pat Cox and Co would be pretty unimpressed with the operator.

There were a bunch of violations in that skit. As far as instability goes, not so much, for the control of the helicopter, but it was way outside of the H-V curve for a lot of the operation. The pick up into low-level yawed flight is stupid and reckless, and contact of the skid with rotation or translation would have caused a dynamic rollover. the low fly over the head of the witnesses/prospective victims was dangerous. The touchdown in the pond was reckless, risking a dynamic rollover. The torque turn was insipid, the pedal turn was modest. The first sideways flight other than being stupid was not risking LTE, but the next one was. Pirouettes in translating flight are fun to do, but doing them incurs a risk if the noise stops, and doing it over the head of potential victims is reckless.

That video will almost certainly end up at Torrance on the safety course, and I would hope that the pilot is grounded, and the insurer voids insurance of the hull and CSL/3rd party until the operator lifts his selection criteria to remove reckless pilots.

The loads on the helicopter are actually quite low, nothing that was done there imposed high torque link, bending or torsional loads, but the pedal turn at high speed can start to reduce teeter clearances on the TR.

Forrest Gump: "Stupid is as stupid does"


Re insurer: RHC offered their own insurance,?PATHFINDER? It is a long time since I looked at that. They would be less than pleased with reckless operations.

Come to Oz and you'll see similar gyrations, but at a lower level, during cattle mustering. As aa says,

the loads analysis was done due to concerns on the mustering issues and that was comforting, but cattle don't sue as much as the widow and orphans of people. being outside of H-V for a known risk is one thing, and as you say, context is everything.

The comment was "over a small damn"

It looked like the pilot didn't give a damn.

Wonder how many times he exceeded his MAP limit during that? Some of those manoeuvres need a lot of power. Wouldn't want to fly the aircraft after he has finished with it!

Or be a pax on that thing.

time and place seems to come to mind

So you rent something that got mistreated and stressed like that by some cowboy before?

My first thought, as it lifted off, was “Did his instructor know he was out by himself?”

It really doesn't look any different than any Dennis Kenyon air show routine. Less dangerous even. Indeed, Dennis's fascination with dragging and spinning his skids around on the ground always scared me to death. As an R44 pilot I doubt he was anywhere near busting MP or sideways speed limits. Inside the HV avoid area, though, certainly.

Disclaimer: yes, yes, air shows are best performed over less forbidding terrain and not over people. And no, I don't fly like that myself, although I do enjoy a good pirouette at IGE heights from time to time.

Let's not insult Dennis like that by comparing him to this gent.
A farmer flying his own Robinson to impress some of his boozed friends is a long way from a planned and rehearsed display.
Another sterling advertisement for Robinson owners.