Community Chat

[On It]

This helicopter is being used for swift water rescues. The area that the National Guard pilot is working is a narrow canyon. Notice the tree cover rising up the canyon walls. I do not know how that pilot can maneuver into those tall pines, down those winding canyon walls to drop a rescue line to people below. 

[We rescue cats]

Such skill!

Memories of Jan Michael Vincent and Air Wolfe! 

[Boomernichols]

@On It  Cudos to these Nat'l Guard heroes for serving their community with valor!     Hope that you and yours are safe and secure from all harm.    Thanks for your informative posts!

[Sooner]

And compare what one gets paid for playing-like, and one gets paid for being the real deal.  

[Kachina624]

@Sooner.  What do you mean "playing-like"?  This is dead serious business.  The Guard is down there rescuing flood victims.  They arent playing.

@On It. That appears to be a rather small copter, not like the big ones they used in combat.   Perhaps designed for rescues?

[Estellee]

@On It Thankfully these pilots are skilled for extreme situations.

[BlueFinch]

@Kachina624 I think Sooner was comparing the earnings of a professional chopper pilot and one on TV playing like a pilot. Jan Michael Vincent was paid 200k per episode. I'm pretty sure that's not what the rescue crews make, per trip. 

Choppers are very dangerous. I can remember when one of our hospital teams went down, killing the crew. They are particularly challenging flights because they often have to navigate tricky locations, like @On It 's photo, or worse. 

Several of staff were given the opportunity to go out on a rescue flight. A coworker went and said it was a wild adventure. He was awed by the skills of the team. No way would I go. Crash stats for choppers are bad. 

[Icegoddess]

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@BlueFinch wrote:

@Kachina624 I think Sooner was comparing the earnings of a professional chopper pilot and one on TV playing like a pilot. Jan Michael Vincent was paid 200k per episode. I'm pretty sure that's not what the rescue crews make, per trip. 

Choppers are very dangerous. I can remember when one of our hospital teams went down, killing the crew. They are particularly challenging flights because they often have to navigate tricky locations, like @On It 's photo, or worse. 

Several of staff were given the opportunity to go out on a rescue flight. A coworker went and said it was a wild adventure. He was awed by the skills of the team. No way would I go. Crash stats for choppers are bad. 

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I agree.  There's a much higher failure rate for choppers than airplanes. My husband, former military, refers to them as 10,000 parts flying in close formation around an oil leak.  My son-in-law works on them. 

I live in a military town and I love hearing them though. Some of them remind me of grasshoppers, so I call them hopper choppers. They used to do exercises nearby and often came over, but they changed it due to people complaining.  Hey, the base was there first.  For me, hearing them gives me a sense of security.  

We also have med-evac choppers so I always look up to see which it is when I hear one.

[Sooner]

@Kachina624 MOVIE STARS PLAYING LIKE.  

[Sooner]

@BlueFinch Thanks for reading my post correctly. 

I had a friend who was a fighter pilot and was scared of choppers, didn't like riding in them.  He said in his "nice safe" jet if the engine failed there was some glide path, but in a chopper it's like, as he put "dropping your car keys."