Amazing helicopter rescue

[DoctorX]

Anybody seen this? Incredibly skilled or mad?

https://globalnews.ca/news/4827863/pilot-mountains...

[Steve_D]

Bit of both but those pilots who take skiers to mountain tops are doing this all the time so it becomes second nature.

Steve

[nathj12]

Most, if not all rescue pilots are ex forces so this is second nature to them. You're also taught how to land on sloping ground when getting your private pilots licence

[ApOrbital]

Good skills.

[Geneve]

Don't think that's in the PPL syllabus

Takes some skill because he's stabilising the helicopter by pressing the skids and nose against the snow slope whilst pushing the cyclic forward. The judgement is to make sure the blade tips, which are the fastest moving part of the blade and nearly invisible, don't touch the snow, which is at risk of being blown around by the blade tip vortex.

Nice example, though, of the amazing capabilities of the helicopter - no other flying machine is so clever.

[andy97]

Seems unneccessarily risky when they could have used a winch. And it was fitted with one.

Edited by andy97 on Thursday 10th January 19:19

[twister]

Some other news coverage of this suggested that they were concerned about changing weather/visibility conditions reducing the time they'd have for the rescue, hence the more direct approach.

[Geneve]

How about this EC135 landing on an Armco guardrail
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fll3eURV9zY

[DoctorX]

Geneve said:

How about this EC135 landing on an Armco guardrail
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fll3eURV9zY

Impressive. As someone who clearly knows their stuff on this topic, is that as skillfull as the faceplant in the snow?

[Geneve]

Hard to say.
It's for the commander and crew to make a risk assessment prior to any such manoeuvre.
Planting the nose in the snow or sitting the skids on an Armco or rock helps the pilot to stabilise the hover whilst personnel get in or out.
No professional should ever let ego influence any decision - if you fly a helicopter there's nearly always a smart phone there to record the consequences.

[DoctorX]

[Streetrod]

I have a home in Whistler Canada and the first time we went heli boarding our pilot did exactly the same thing. The slope we had picked out did not have a flat top so he nosed the glass front of the heli into the slope and then told us we all had to jump out. At first we thought he was joking, but no. It was scary but very cool at the same time and one of my best memories of what at the time was the best day on a Board I had ever had.