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The thing is, helicopters are different from planes. An airplane by it's nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or by a deliberately incompetent pilot, it will fly.

 

A helicopter does not want to fly.

 

It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls working in opposition to each other, and if there is any disturbance in this delicate balance the helicopter stops flying; immediately and disastrously.

 

There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter.

 

This is why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why in generality, airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant extroverts and helicopter pilots are brooding introspective anticipators of trouble.

 

They know if something bad has not happened it is about to.

 

 

— Harry Reasoner, 1971.

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"immediately and disastrously.......no such thing as a gliding helicopter."

 

This is why helicopter pilots also have an inherent mistrust of journalists that like to over-dramatize things.

 

They know if something bad has happened, a journalist will come sniffing around.

 

-- Over-Talk, 2011.

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