Helicopters ??????????
 

Helicopter's....i have lost so many friend's in helo crashes.......my question is how safe it is flying over us........good,bad or other wise...tom gentry told me it really mess's up the air flow on his tunnel ................ 500 feet over trafic ! Let us have your opintion ............thx

Not sure but copters have been closer than 500 when shooting us before.

We race with several zing'in overhead all the time. I never really noticed any difference with how the boat runs. Actually i always liked it when they would run along with us at speed, pretty cool. For us racing we have been within fifty or a hundred feet easy, they buz the deck pretty good and also get some amazing shots. Right Sharkey? :D



Technically speaking, having an engineering degree, i understand all the principals and mechanics very well. And yet i still dont trust them for their complexity and reliance on every part in the system, mean 'ol mister is always waiting. :D Statistically though its probably safer then a lot of ways to get around


Would love to have a Hughes 500 or maybe an MD Explorer. Course my last name IS Sikorski so maybe i should look into a super phat 76C, or any chopper with retractable gear would be fine lol :cool:

Piston powered helos have about twice the fatality rate as piston powered single engine planes. On a per mile basis, they are about the same as a motorcycle.

Should you worry about them overhead? Not too much. Your time exposure to a crash would be very short. Mechanical failures are not unheard of, but are not common either.

Michael

Always been told not to go underneath them during a poker run. Not sure why but I believe it messes up their down force especially if the boat is moving faster than the helo.

What if String Fellow Hawk is the pilot?

That depends if he is in one of the Santini Air jet rangers or Airwolf. :lolhit:

Please be safe out there........we are all going into the season.

:lolhit::lolhit:


[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr_CJL1YQRc[/YOUTUBE]

Imagine running along and turn to see Bluethunder coming up on the stbd side.:waffen093:

Wow .............. Asome man !!!

Wow........ I WISH I COULD FLY ONE OF THESE

Flying copters is definitely a blast. Being able to fly and shoot weapon platforms, takes it to even a higher level. This was the only thing better than boating!!!:party-smiley-004:

When we flew over you guys on the Hudson, the pilot explained that it was incase some thing were to break off, as in a prop blade, that we could be instantly f'ed. Same reason we flew over instead of under bridges. Never know who's going to throw something.

You should have been in veit nam !

Brings back some memories... :)



http://sharkeyimages.zenfolio.com/im...92039009-4.jpg

http://sharkeyimages.zenfolio.com/im...88662813-4.jpg

http://sharkeyimages.zenfolio.com/im...22583071-4.jpg

http://sharkeyimages.zenfolio.com/im...60467090-4.jpg

http://sharkeyimages.zenfolio.com/im...34033628-4.jpg

http://sharkeyimages.zenfolio.com/im...53468306-4.jpg

http://sharkeyimages.zenfolio.com/im...98916006-4.jpg

The pilot should never really have to fly over a boat nor should a boat ever go under one.

I can't tell you how hard I prayed when we were hovering over an incident on the race course and I saw Talk'n Trash coming right for us. I couldn't thank Vinnie enough for the timing he had getting off the throttles and getting back on. I watched as they came under the chopper and the rooster tail dropped as he pulled out of the throttles. As they exited the other side (my side) I watched as he hammered down the throttles, the rooster tail came back up towards me like 2 fire hoses had just been turned on. Fortunately he was just far enough away that I only got some mist from the rooster tail.
It would have been a different story if he got on the sticks sooner. The chopper would have been knocked out of the sky and I wouldn't be here today to respond to this post.

I would think the pressures could change, but the real risk as my pilot had explained at the Poker Run, his concern was we could not see the boat if it is under us and the rooster could take us out....

Flying too low in rough sea conditions the pressure changes. If the trough is deep enough, you suddenly will loose your pressure from the blades to the water and the chopper could just drop.

My pilot I use is always conscious of his altitude. Should the engine loose power he always leaves himself room from other objects to try to glide the chopper away and have more of a chance to avoid a collision . If you ever noticed Tim, whenever we do the photos down the bow he is usually way ahead of the boat and in a climbing position. We cross the path of the boat without remaining in front of it.... ;)

The pilot I had in Florida a few years back had me so close to the boats I had a hard time getting the whole boat in the frame with a wide angle lens.

At one point he came right up the rooster tail of a cat and managed to get the water on my equipment.

The Video guy had the priority and control over the pilot.
Once I got wet I told him to back off.

I typically shoot with telephoto lenses any way so I don't need to be real close to the boats.

Sharkey............really a great explanation.........thx man

Word of advice, if you don't feel comfortable how close the chopper is, just turn away from it and give yourself some room.

If you're running a cat and the chopper's wash is blowing down into the entry of the tunnel, yes you can expect some unexpected results.

Just look at what happens when a few of the outboard tunnel hulls get too close to each other. The air pressure coming off the bow of the boats can make them both blow over simultaneously .

I think the term we could be looking for here is ground effect .... A rather long definition, but simply put it a disturbance of the wing tip vortex as the airfoil gets close to the ground, varies between aircraft types and surface vararations ..... I've never heard of it effecting boats like that but does make sense as it relates to pressure disturbances at speed, or in a hover ...... In those conditions I would think he's in and out of ground effect all the time ......

Fun ride if you know what your doing !!!!!!!! Lol .....

Can't help but chime in. After flying the World Championships in Key West for 30, yes 30, years, I agree the piston machines, simply because of the amount of moving parts in the engine, has more likelihood of an incident. A turbine chopper is 100% more reliable when flying in the shaded area of completing a safe autorotation in the event of a mechanical failure. The only danger of waves is the boat jumping up and hitting the helicopter. Any prudent pilot will not get in that position. The size or height of the waves has absolutely no affect on the airborne machine, however you cannot fly through a roostertail without unusual results. I've flown the helicopter and I've driven the boat in every aspect in close proximity and have never experienced any effect of wind on either as to affect the operation of either. Admittedly if chopper is flying low and ahead of a light cat it could add air to the tunnel, but as was said, with a slight turn the boat is out of it. I've seen some awesome things and a few tragic things over the years, but the helicopters if anything were there to assist instantly rather than having any part of the cause.

There is no better way to view a race or a poker run than from the comfort and vantage point of a helicopter. Safety is utmost and 99% of helicopter incidents read, "the machine was running just fine when the pilot hit the ............". same as pencils don't misspell words. Look forward to seeing everyone out there and helping our fine photographers get those shots one can only get from the air, albeit sometimes from only 10 feet in the air. Enjoy and come join me at Lake Lanier July 19-22 for the Pirates of Lanier Poker Run(formerly Castaways Poker Run) [URL="http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn-5z973XmE"]

No better person in the industry than you to answer that question John. Great info. from someone who's been on both sides many times of the helicopter and the boat.

I can't help but post this pic. of the late Tom Newby hanging out of a copter snapping pics.

Faa rules....500 feet over traffice............
However, i agree with what you are saying..
I have 2000 hours in these things, flew with tom newby........just be safe and no hot dogging it !!!!!!!!

Hotdogging
 

My hotdogging days were over in 1979 after I had no incidents even after flying those treetops as a new 40 hour indestructible pilot. These days i enjoy altitude and an attitude that has kept me and mine safe for the last 6250 hours in the air. Thy rotor RPM is thy staff of life. I want us all to be old pilots:) regards.

John how bout take me up sometime??? I've always wanted ride in !!!! I'm over here on lake murray s.c. Gus.

Was waiting on John to chime in, no other expert needed! Most experienced turbine helicopter pilot I know, as a helicopter pilot myself, I have watched and admired Johns flying skills!

I had to chime in on this... grew up around aviation, my father flew huey's and oh-58 in the army (maint. test pilot) I too have had some stick time and I agree the rotory wing aircraft is a very complex machine, the turbin birds are much more reliable. As far as filming boat racing, i see the potential problem to be this, if there is a problem with the helo, a successuful auto looks grim due to lack of altitude and forward air speed. I could see where the rotor wash could pose an issue for the boat, I didn't realize the choppes got that close while filming. For rotory wing safety, they are much more complex than a fixed wing aircraft, thus much more areas to go wrong, such as engine failure, transmission, driveline and rotor system, normually when something does go wrong, if a successful auto can't be done, the results are usually pretty bad (alot of moving parts). Now, thats not to say, if I won the lottery I wouldn't be a proud new owner of a nice robinsin r44...they are piston powered but alot of redundancy goes into those birds and the power plant, but still a very nice aircraft. On our last ride in the r44, my buddy the pilot was showing my dad some "performance" like max climb rates on the robinson and my dad just laughed...he's used to max climb rates on the uh1's and the robsin will not even compare to that...still had a great time on the flight. I got to say...was a little nervous when i saw the needles break, I didn't think it would have that much "droop" but recovered ok with a little down collective

:cool:

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a2...T42cockpit.jpg

:helmet:

Gus, i'd be glad to if you and the helicopter are in the same place at the same time. This year I do not plan on bringing the chopper to Murray for the poker run.

Some of my favorite Helicopter friends: Jonathan Guibas of http://www.hrheli.com/ & photos taken by Randy Nuzzo, http://powerboatphotos.com/ .

is that first shot while banking away and hanging out the door? :eek: way cool

And some great memories from the Chicago Poker Run a few years ago, but I wish I knew who is responsible for these:


(I will ALWAYS treasure these as my Father was with me; and this day/run was some of the roughest water I have ever run in.)

Yep, that's how hard they banked around for the next boat. Randy was WAY out the door, and said it nearly catapulted him out, UP! He was strapped in tight, AND he's afraid of heights! :D

Just a lake
 

That explains why you and the other ~50-60 registered boats turned around or did not start the 1st run to MI CITY :lolhit:

I was fine; the boat was fine.
It was my 66 year old Father I was concerned about.

There was some big water that day, many broken boats as I recall. :daz:

I feel you all have very good points..........what tom was saying to me is when the helo gets in front of the tunnel to low and disturbs the air flow under and over the front of the cat do to rotter wash...........a number of things will happen