Lake Travis, Austin, Texas - July 7, 2013

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Get the tail numbers and report them to the local FAA. They would and should be ground in a heart beat for those stunts. They could have taken out a lot of people.

On second look after going to the bottom and looking at the first few, The sheriffs dept was a part of that. But I would still turn it in. That was just stupid flying.

Where were you at on Travis? Last weekend I saw a helicopter take off and land on a trailer behind a truck that was parked at Paradise cove marina. End of the day they drove out with copter in tow.

What are they doing? Filming, searching, giving joy rides? The cops didn't appear to mind...

Good,End of the day they drove out with copter in tow

Was the chopper blue? I saw a blue one on a trailer turning onto 620 off of 71. Wondered why it was being towed instead of flying.

*edit*
just watched the video, that's the same chopper.

WOW that 2nd Video is crazy. NOT COOL

Looks like some kind of law enforcement. Was he actually breaking any laws? I dont see what the big deal is...life flights take off and land around people all the time. It does not look like he was show boating.

Unless the pilot had special permission to fly low, here are the altitude restrictions for General Aviation.

§ 91.119 Minimum safe altitudes: General.

Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, no person may operate an aircraft below the following altitudes:

(a) Anywhere. An altitude allowing, if a power unit fails, an emergency landing without undue hazard to persons or property on the surface.

(b) Over congested areas. Over any congested area of a city, town, or settlement, or over any open air assembly of persons, an altitude of 1,000 feet above the highest obstacle within a horizontal radius of 2,000 feet of the aircraft.

(c) Over other than congested areas. An altitude of 500 feet above the surface, except over open water or sparsely populated areas. In those cases, the aircraft may not be operated closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.

(d) Helicopters, powered parachutes, and weight-shift-control aircraft. If the operation is conducted without hazard to persons or property on the surface—

(1) A helicopter may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (b) or (c) of this section, provided each person operating the helicopter complies with any routes or altitudes specifically prescribed for helicopters by the FAA; and

(2) A powered parachute or weight-shift-control aircraft may be operated at less than the minimums prescribed in paragraph (c) of this section.

I took the video in Arkansas Bend on Lake Travis. I am not sure what permission he had but I heard the Sherriff made the helicopter leave. I have a bunch more videos of it but only posted the better ones of the helicopter. The plane buzzed the crowd also and there were guys flying around on water jets and probably the best jet ski driver I've seen doing multiple flips and tricks. It was quite a show. I'm not going to turn it into the FAA or anything. If someone else does that's up to them. We enjoyed the show and nobody got hurt. That is not to say it wasn't dangerous. He was extremely close to the cliffs, boats and people. The story I heard was this was a birthday party for an obviously rich guy, Jeff Soele, who just wanted to have a helicopter and plane at his party. Also heard he spent $50k on beer!
I keep my boat at Paradise Cove Marina. But I wasn't there last weekend. Soele's house boat is kept there also. Here is the guys website. It was listed all over the boat along with an anouncement about a wet t-shirt contest on July 7. The videos on his site are full of helicopters, a Skater, other boats, ranches, high dollar trucks, Lambos, girls, etc. etc. The video on his site is pretty impressive. The blue chopper in my video is shown a couple of times on his site as well:
http://www.texasbestranches.com/