you can also rule out sabotage because that would never happen...

Reckon this will get "him"

https://twitter.com/PatDoneyNBC5/status/774007599326822400

i'm too slow

I hate to fly period but will fly in a helicopter to do a game survey. I have not done it in a few years though. I was told years ago by a well know wildlife biologist that most crashes or problems when flying in a helicopter occur from the lack of regular maintenance. He had had 14 mishaps with helicopters over his carrier and most were on take off. Last one was when the helicopter was lifting off the trailer on take off when it stalled at about 30' off the trailer. It crashed back on top of the trailer and he has had back problems every since.He said the only pilots he used after that had to let him see the maintenance schedule and he would verify it was done. Had a friend crash doing a MD survey in West Texas a few years ago and he is lucky to be alive. Never heard what caused that one though. He is very lucky to be alive after hearing about how rugged the terrain was and how far from any road they were. Most game surveys are done at lower speeds and at tree top level though.

I love the chopper, I spent my year in Vietnam in the First Cav when it was called Airmobile, I made more than enough combat air assaults to earn a Combat Air Medal. I have landed on LZs with green tracers and RPG's welcoming us. The chopper pilots of the Vietnam Era had balls of steel. Our own THF hero Billy Bob was a chopper pilot, he and I reminisced about them several years ago at a TET Reunion. One day we will meet again on Fiddlers Green. Garry Owens

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The highest I've ever been off the ground is the San jacinto monument.....I hate elevators

Flew in some civilian contractor choppers in Afghanistan that felt like they were gonna fall apart. Shaking rattling I just accepted I would die in one but luckily never did. Not a fan of them.

The last helicopter ride I took was flat on my back headed to the hospital over 100 miles.

Out on a chopper. Small single engine I am getting better with every trip.

That is a great narrative of how it was to ride in the back.

I have had the pleasure of talking to the guys who flew and manned helicopters and fixed wing aircraft in several conflicts.

All I can say is all who served lived in their segments of Hell.

God's Speed to all those who serve and who have served.

did some one say helicopters?

Hard pass for me. It doesn’t help that I worked on them as a structural analyst for a few years. I know the S-76 platform very well.

I have full faith in their design (at least the variants I worked on). With that said, I don’t trust most commercial pilots, and poor maintenance can cause all sorts of problems.

Every registered aircraft has a maintenance logbook assigned to the aircraft, detailing everything that has been done and everything that is coming due based on time & cycles. Most helicopter crashes are pilot/weather/terrain. The Robinson recip-engine helicopters (oddly tall mast) are common on cheap flight ops, I would never ride in one. I will fly in anything with a turbine.

One night on a maintenance test flight, we flew in a S-76A to a local airport to meet a Domino's delivery guy. Took me a while to convince them we were really going to meet them at the airport in a helicopter at night to pick up.

Charlie

Charlie, regular maintenance and logbooks are great assuming directions and procedures are followed properly. I’ve seen otherwise firsthand on enough occasions that I’ll still pass.

MG has an excellent point.

Nice siggy MG

dog----- in April of 71.... I was in the Mekong...…..

I was young, a beautiful...……….

They better stay away from Copperhead road.

The 405 traffic in socal can be a 4 hour beat down on any day of the week.....this is why he chose to travel the way he did. Plus, he could afford it.

I can do a helicopter, but my wife thinks I am crazy. Knocked over the bedside lamp once doing it and left a mark and hurt.

Flew in them regularly as a member of a Neonatal Transport team. I always enjoyed flying in them.

These are some of the chopper rides I remember, first one in I Corp July 1968, this area was semi cleared by a bomb drop. Second on about Feb 1969, rounds were flying in both directions, we were pulled out without a loss. Dropped into another crapper and the WIA and KIA rate accelerated quickly.

You're missing the signature "Shane" at the bottom of that zinger, I LOL'd.