Intolerant1

I was just watching Speedvision coverage of one of the APBA races (believe it was Florida). They showed one of the boats drench the helicopter camera overhead. Then they commented on the skill of the pilot???
Am I the only one who thinks that a race boat and a helicopter flying within spray distance is a little irresponsible ? They showed the veiw from another copter and it was very close. Looked close enough that if the boat shot skyward off a wave you might have a collision.

Shorty

Aronow hit a low flying one once. They're supposed to keep to a minimum height, not sure what it is though.

Advantage_Rob

There's always a risk with the unlimited hydro turbines stalling when water is injested into the turbine, thet would be a bad senario for a chopper over water. It would auto-gyrate down but not with much control, and then it would be role reversal, the boaters rescuing the chopper guys... pretty freaky, I dont think skilled would be the word I would have used.

[ 01-16-2002: Message edited by: advantage_ROB ]

BAD HTM SR 24

When we were in Key West for the Worlds Tommy Bahama came within 10 ft of hitting the bottom of one of the helicopters coming down the front stretch at about 140 mph.I agree that those two machines should never get that close while running those kind of speeds.

ssherman

As advantaged rob stated the proper term to use can be found in the movie Drop Zone with wesley Snipes when he initially goes to the skydiving school.

IDRPSTF

In my younger, Less than perfect days I did a photo shoot for a few members of this board who probably dont remember me as the pilot in question. I flew a cessna 150 with a photographer hanging out the window taking pictures of a run to Catalina. To say I got Too low and Too close is an understatement. At one point I crossed from one boat to another. As I was turned the boat in front of me launched and when he landed soaked my plane an photographer. I never said a word about it to the driver of the boat for fear he would be mad I was that close. Lets just say the boat had flames painted on it. Oops. Now older and wiser I would Never...Never get That close in a fixed wing again. Helo's fall under a different set of rules with how high they have to fly. The FAA allows certain people with special endorsments to break some rules...Like Cropdusters.

Ted Zoli

We really almost hit a chopper that was photographing a boat in front of us. The skeg almost touched our deck at about 110 mph. We, i'm sorry to say, were so stunned that we just kept our line and speed and it gradually lifted away from us. I don't think there was more than a 10 mph difference in our speeds, and i don't think it was more than 10 feet off of the deck. The rotor wash actually blew the nose down and slowed us!

BTW the choppers are all operating BELOW their auto-rotate curve (dead man's curve) when close to the boats. If they lose power they hit the water hard! They don't have options at that altitude.
Ted