The Ongoing Hellocopter Adventures

Marie Pacha

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Hellocopter update

I cannot find the original thread regarding the Hellocopter.

Sadly, this is the decision of the National transportation Safety Board regarding the crash of the Hellocopter a little over a year ago:

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20090724X05537&key=1

"The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident as follows:
The pilot’s improper decision to depart on a visual flight rules (VFR) flight at night in adverse weather conditions in close proximity to rising mountainous terrain in a helicopter that was only certified to be operated under VFR and his subsequent failure to maintain adequate clearance with wires."

More information here:

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief2.asp?ev_id=20090724X05537&ntsbno=ERA09FA417&akey=1
 

PVish

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From Sinthia Darkness's blog, there's info about a 2008 hellocopter ride as a raffle prize. News film included.

From the blog:
This is one of the goofiest take-offs ever and the two passengers, mother and son, are really lucky to have made it back alive. They are oblivious to the potential danger. I am not a pilot. However, military pilots have reviewed this video and have confirmed that Alice did not have control of this helicopter.
 

victoriastrauss

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I looked at the news video, and that takeoff does look scary. But from the stills at the end, it looks to me as if Alice Meiners was NOT the pilot. One of the stills shows her sitting in the back seat, behind one of the passengers. Another shows the passengers standing beside an unidentified guy who's wearing a white long-sleeved shirt under a dark polo shirt. In other stills this same guy is sitting in the front of the helicopter (you can clearly see those white sleeves), in what presumably is the pilot's seat.

I have to say, that blog is starting to feel a bit witch-hunty to me.

- Victoria
 
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thothguard51

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Like Victoria, I did not once see where Alice took the pilots seat. Yes it could have been cut out, but the credits list a Pilot Dan, though it never identifies that he was the pilot. This is what you get when amateurs put together stuff like that.

As a person who has flown in various Helicopters, from military to civilian, after seeing that video, there is no way I would let that pilot fly me anywhere, at that time...