I have a friend that is the operations manager of a helicopter charter and flight school in DFW, been several times with him and it is really thrilling. Been in the helicopter for a practice auto rotation and it is better than any amusement park ride by far.

they are pretty cool machines and if you have a good pilot in good conditions, they are pretty safe.

I was a helicopter pilot and flight instructor, in Vietnam, active duty and in the Army Reserve. A helicopter is definitely not as stable as an airplane and requires constant attention while flying. Lots of looking, feeling, listening and even smelling. Lots of moving parts to fail or come loose. If an engine fails, you don't have much time to find a small spot to land. If an airplane engine quits, you have more time, but need a much longer, flatter area.

"There are lots of old pilots and lots of bold pilots, but not many old bold pilots."

Nope....nope and nope!

Flew in many helocopters in the Corps. The 46's swung on their twin rotors and would make a sea captain sea sick. I had a helo pilot tell me, as alluded to above, not so subtly, and I'm paraprasing, that was 30 years ago, "An airplane is a structurally sound machine hell-bent on taking air. You'd be hard pressed to stop a sound airplane at the right speed from flying. They inherently want to fly. A helicopter is a structurally unsound machine, not wanting to fly and inherently hell-bent on beating itself to death and driving us all into the ground."

THANK YOU GUYS THAT HAVE FOUGHT FOR US. THANK YOU!!!

dogcatcher is this you narrating?

[quote=Buzzsaw}
dogcatcher is this you narrating?[/quote]
No, it is a video that floats around our unit Facebook page.

Very eloquent pilot.

Probably an English major.....