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heliskiguide

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heliskiguide last won the day on February 5 2019

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About heliskiguide

  • Birthday 06/02/1967

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    BC

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  1. I recently returned home to BC after 2 years flying in Nepal. Early in my career I did the 20 hour mountain course at Chinook with KO as my instructor. Much of my flying has been in the mountains, but I was pleased to discover that the Canadian mountain flying techniques work just as well up to 23000’ as they do below 10000’. Thanks KO, R.I.P. Glad I got to call him from Nepal and say thanks for the mountain training before he passed. The good thing about training is you don’t have to learn just by trial and error. I’ve tried that method with bad results, and prefer to learn from others mistakes. So in my opinion if you’re flying in the mountains take the course.
  2. The one thing I strongly object to is the new 12 hours alcohol free reg. If truly followed this makes a beer or glass of wine prohibited with dinner. This is simply mean spirited. 10 hours bottle to throttle would have been a safety upgrade without making it almost impossible to legally have one drink with dinner. No one wants to fly hung over, however a beer after a long day at work is one of life’s little pleasures. I agree 8 hours bottle to throttle has been abused by some but 10 hours is safe and reasonable. I’ve worked for some companies with a 10 hour SOP in Ops Manual and this doesn’t make you illegal to have a beer with dinner. TC you are like the Grinch, and this rule will be broken by many I predict.
  3. I had the Lightspeed Zulu installed in my old Gentex helmet and absolutely love it. Flighthelmets.com did the install 18 months ago it was about $1100. they provided the Lighspeed. I’ve had zero problems and almost 1000 hours of quiet, music, and phone enabled use since then. I actually hear the machine better with the ANR. Subtle sounds come through but it cancels the loud drone. And radio comms are almost a joy. Full convert would never go back. I have radio, Zulu, and ICS volumes about 25%. Clear and quiet makes for a happy cockpit.
  4. Contact http://freeride-entertainment.com/services/
  5. I use the Otterbox case for my IPad, and it comes with a clip in holder. I screwed a ram ball mount onto the back of the case holder and voila it mounts onto the dash mounted GPS ram ball with a medium size arm.
  6. I wasn't sure if the IPad foreflight combo was the way to go so I bought a used IPad 3 with Retina display and the data/internal gps for $300. Subscribed to foreflight a year ago and now I'm a convert. Initially bought a 6500 milliamp back up battery but now I have a cannon plug set up with 24v dual USB adapter. Can charge the phone too. I found a free app TopoCanada where you can download the 1:50k and 1:250k topo maps. It's orders of magnetitude better than a 296 with mapsource topo. I also sometimes load the area I'm working with gogglearth and you can zoom in and watch yourself move through the terrain. I'm using an ottercase which came with a clip in mount. Easy to screw a Ram arm into and I have a suction cup. Got a Ram three way ball and extra arms so I usually attach to whatever GPS mount is in the machine but sometimes go suction cup. The whole set up is way better than a Garmin 796 and fraction of the cost. I did eventually buy the bad elf external gps but rarely use it cause the IPad gives me 5m accuracy and I don't need WAAS precision, not flying in clouds. The newest version of foreflight allows downloads of customer gps files but I was doing that to the 296 and haven't taken the time to figure that out yet. So for $450 bucks I pretty much have an EFIS on the dash. The next step would be the ADSB receiver for $800. and it adds attitude display, traffic, real time wx etc...
  7. I agree with HV on this one, and have changed my briefing to say only approach/depart from the side. I had a close call last summer, landed at the toe of a glacier with rough broken boulders to unload a bunch of gear. There was only one place level enough to land and it was close to a moraine sloping up under the front of the disc. The plan was for me to stay running and the crew unload the gear which was in both squirrel cheeks and the rear cargo. I briefed the crew right then before I let them out not to go uphill under any circumstance and to stay immediately in front going from one side to the other. They all understood and acknowledged. I actually said you will get killed if you walk uphill into the rotor and pointed it out... couldn't be more clear. Luckily it was level enough I was able to go to idle, lock the frictions, and I opened my door and undid my seat belt so I could lean out and watch buddy with the right cheek. When he was done he proceeded to walk straight up the moraine with me screaming. No use, I had to jump out and tackle him just as his head came within inches. If he had kept going it would have been over. It was pure luck the ship was at idle, my door was open and belt was off or else he'd be a goner. We both were shaking for quite awhile. It's hard because we have to trust people, but even intelligent well briefed people can do fatal things.
  8. Much of my flying here in Alaska is coastal so 70% of the time have pop outs. I would take water over trees any time because I can float. Keep the Sat phone handy in a dry bag so I can call for a ride if the ship rolls upside down and we are left clinging. With out floats it makes me wonder. Just going for a swim here could be your last (remote) let alone struggling out of a sinking wreck.
  9. Oh goodness, please lets not start that debate here. How about them Canucks.
  10. Strength to Dave's family coworkers and friends. This is a terrible loss and not someone I would ever have thought to go down. Flew with Dave in the Whistler area and remember humorous times at the gym there. He was one of the pilots that inspired me to make the transition from guiding to flying. No words to describe...
  11. Oh Darn did my AS350 PCC today. Could have used your new book last week in my studying. Will definitely order one. Thanks for all your work Phil.
  12. Wow I'm a lot more experienced than I thought. Have logged "air time" all along except for some time instructing where the "industry norm" was oil pressure hobbs. My first 100 hours training was "first lift off to last landing" at a bigger school in BC. So this season if I had logged per ICAO I would have repeatedly broke flight time limits. Many days were close to 8 hours air time which was often way over 10 rotors turning. I didn't do much sitting idling like some jobs, just a lot of landings per "flight". Industry has a lot at stake here as do all our customers and last (perhaps least?) the workers. I suspect TC is not unaware of this and guess that's the reason why the letter of interpretation was retracted. Personally I would rather keep air time as the norm or I couldn't do many of the jobs that happen in the long daylight hours up north. I suggest everyone log air time and PIC. No one can argue: YOU ARE PIC from rotor start to stop. It's just the darn airplane terminology that's confusing. If every pilot does one of these CAIRS that would be a force to be reckoned with!
  13. I agree LB. We should log PIC from rotor start to stop, and air time skids up. That is the clean and simple way that reflects what helicopters do. Flight time limits would likely be based on air time though let TC and HAC hammer that out.
  14. Thanks for all your effort Chad. It will be interesting to see what comes back from TC. As others have pointed out the "industry norm" seems to be, log air time plus a .1 for the start/stop cycle. Previously this would often underlog, now this would overlog. Seems like there is a problem with fixed wing terminology as applied to helicopters. No one can argue you are Pilot In Command from rotor start to stop. Technically we should all log two things: PIC and Air Time (skids up). I will still log Air Time anytime I have the collective up since I'm flying even if the skids are touching. Unless you toe in or land on slopes bad snow etc all the time this will not make that much difference in the long run. I've been flying mostly in the US the past few years. There is no argument helicopter flight time is skids up as far as the FAA is concerned. In the end it is an honour system about what you write in your log. I went to TC once to get my FAA private fixed wing converted to a TC. After much reading and discussion of the conversion regs it was determined I was short 3 hours of dual. I was verbally told I probably forgot to log some time and why don't I go back to my car and come back with those hours logged. I was not impressed and decided not to forge an instructors signature for the sake of expediency. Come on TC get it together it's not that complicated. In the end as long as everyone does the same thing it's a level playing field. I'm sure you will keep us posted Chad.
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