External Loads-what Have You Dropped?

[Guest bag swinnger]

Now this is some of the best reading I have had the pleasure of in a long time. :up:

I havent laughed this hard since I read about the guy that got the bucket hung up in the tree on the Kelowna fires. :up: good stories guys.

[otooley]

I got this story from the pilot involved in this sling job

 

He was to move a drill camp to another set up...all went well until they wanted the portable sheet-house moved.They hooked on a lanyard to the lifting ring on the roof...but they forgot to empty the contents first...Pilot comes in and is hooked up and away he goes..as the speed gets up the house starts spinning faster and faster.He finally gets it on site and plunks it down...The drill forman opens the door..staggers back,and says "Holy Sheeeeet"...that's all she wrote for this Sheet House".....with all the spinning it acted like a centrafuge...every inch of the interior was covered.....The forman told the pilot to pick it up again and go and 'pickle it off way back in the bush'

 

I can just picture some old Prospector years from now finding this gem miles from nowhere....yelling "Eurika....I've found the Mother Lode..

[4961]

Now this is some of the best reading I have had the pleasure of in a long time. :up:

I havent laughed this hard since I read about the guy that got the bucket hung up in the tree on the Kelowna fires. :up: good stories guys.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

[Harmonic_Vibe]

Well.... I just realized I screwed up.... my favourite is actually a different incident than I related... but I suspect it's because I was a witness rather than a participant that I made this tragic error... 'cause this one is waaaaaaay better...

 

I was supporting a diamond drill crew that had an engine failure on their air-cooled diesel. I pulled it out of their shack and took it to town for overhaul (a distance of about 60 miles). About the time it was ready I was doing odd jobs in the air and I had a chip light... which turned out to be most of a bearing on the plug. So they needed another helicopter to bring the motor back to the drill... and here's where the fun began...

 

I beg forgiveness of the pilot if he's on this site and realizes it's him I'm talking about (and it might not be... this shite happens lots!), but this stuff is too good to keep to ourselves.

 

So... I'm standing by my machine as the guy lands... he informs the owner of the drilling company that he thinks there may be low ceilings in between where we are and the drill... so he wants to shortline it out there and then transfer it to the long line onsite... sounds reasonable I thought...

 

The owner of the company (a very fit 70-something) is standing in his brand spanking new ford pickup with a lanyard in his hand as the guy comes in for the pick... he settles in a hover over the truck and comes down the last ten feet or so... unfortunately he has his blind side skid over the roof of the truck's cab and it is making contact well before his hook is in range of the fellow with the lanyard...

 

Are you wondering what happened next? God I wish I had video...

 

So... the helicopter starts to lean to one side and the pilot realizes there's something wrong... so he yards the collective... simultaneously, the back window of the truck explodes and the drilling guy manages to get the lanyard that's attached to the engine's pear ring on the hook... the helicopter launches straight up and comes to an abrupt finish... but not before yanking the engine out of the bed of the truck and knocking the drilling guy out of the box (he fell just like a tree... that is, straight as a board, over backwards and landed on his head).

 

The helicopter wobbled around with this engine hanging from it for about 5 seconds and then duuuuh!! (that's my attempt at an onomatopoeia for the sound a punched load makes). The engine drops and caves in the side of the drilling dude's brand new truck on its way to the ground where it flattens its own oilpan and sits there looking forlorn...

 

I don't have any time to react to these events and suddenly the owner of the drilling company (who's funeral I assumed I would be attending) is on his feet, in my face and demanding to know what just occurred... and he still has his cigarette in his mouth!! Although it's broken and hanging at 90 degrees to the axis of inhalation... Man, I could not help myself.... I burst out laughing knowing that this guy wasn't even aware that his truck had a caved in roof, a smashed back window, a screwed up side and that his drill engine was toast yet...

 

The pilot of the other machine was a real hero to me (I'm being serious... not facetious).... he walked up to the guy with a flight ticket and a pen... and that's where I made my exit... to the bar!!!!

 

HV

 

P.S. Onomatopoeia is this week's word!!!

[RDM]

Thanks for the laugh HV..........good, very good.

 

"Normal" people would believe this kind of stuff is made up.

 

i am still laughing.....

[407 Driver]

Great story H-V, :up:

 

on·o·mat·o·poe·ia n.

 

The formation or use of words such as buzz or murmur that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.

[Guest bag swinnger]

[DGP]

Hv anther beauty...cbc should get this stuff and make some descent made in canada movies...would have us all rolling on the floor :blur: as for the word for the week my son told me not to comment to loud on that one as he learned the meaning to that one in grade 6

[Blackmac]

One load disconnected that came in contact with a tree while towing a bird doing contour flying on a survey, is the only item I lost, that was attached to a helicopter.

 

I suppose I lied, but this was not cargo slinging per say, the stupid "Bird" should have had enough sence to stay out of the tree's.

 

There is another guy and myself who had about 7000 hours on Hughes 500's, more than JS himself, he sold them, we worked them.

 

We went to Jimmies Lagoon in the early seventies with a couple 500's and had a ball. He eventually started Heli-Max, I remained with Viking.

 

Slinging story: Slinging a canoe and under PDM and good risk management, having set the slinging gear myself ( I didn't need an engineer as I just put my hat on backwards or sideways and used my own licence) for both helicopters as we were carrying the same type of canoe's.

 

We proceeded to take off and were flying side by each when Wolfe informed me that my canoe was getting very close to my tail rotor, I reduced speed, but it only seemed to agrivate the situation, so I told Wolfe to follow me to the ground in a minor dive (nose over), flew within feet of the musgeg and released the canoe, went around, landed and reset the tie-up and moved on. There was no damage to the canoe.

 

This might sound very "hero" like and superior piloting skills, BS. The only thing that saved my bacon was the fact that I had somebody else flying beside me and told me were the canoe was going.

 

Pierre Looten (with all due respect) almost killed himself and write off an S61 out of Tuk slinging mud in a wooden crate. He exceeded the normal cruise speed and the box disintegrated in the air and went into the tail section. This was at night.

 

Slinging is real fun, eh.

 

Sometimes you have to know when not to take off and only you and not the contractor or even your own company should over rule that principal.

 

I have said it before and here goes again::::::

 

Accident's are caused by PILOTS exceeding their own capabilities or that of the aircraft they are assigned too.

 

All in adays work.

[treetopflyer]

HV

 

You should have put a warning before that story about the fuel drums. I nearly died choking on my dinner i was laughing so hard!!

 

ttf