Category Archives: Helicopter Pilot

A Helicopter made worse….conclusion

Posted on August 2, 2008 by Heligypsy

I never told this to the CASB . The Canadian Air Safety Board. If I had of told the investigators the whole story it would have explained a lot. It would have, if not exonerated me, at least, placed blame … Continue reading →

Posted in Flying Stories, helicopter firefighting, Helicopter Pilot | Tagged | Leave a comment

How hard could it be?

Posted on July 28, 2008 by Heligypsy

My father had told me,” An expert makes the job look easier than it is”. I watched him bend the tubing into the right radius and offset. It fit perfectly. My previous attempt lay on the floor of the machine … Continue reading →

Posted in Helicopter Pilot | Tagged | 1 Comment

A Helicopter Made Worse

Posted on July 1, 2008 by Heligypsy

Spring time in Northern Saskatchewan. Unless you are a fly-in-fishing sort of person you most likely know very little about this Canadian Province. It is known as one of the prairie provinces based on the 30% that is actually prairie. … Continue reading →

Posted in Contract helicopter pilot, Flying Stories, helicopter firefighting, Helicopter Pilot | Tagged | 4 Comments

The Travelers View

Posted on June 26, 2008 by Heligypsy

The first stings had me jumping clear and quickly scraping the little tormentors away from my bare legs. Smiling, my friend chuckled and pointed down to the slightly larger mound I had landed on, “fire ants, they’re all around here”. … Continue reading →

Posted in Helicopter Pilot, RV Travel, World Travel | Tagged | Leave a comment

Plan “B”

Posted on June 21, 2008 by Heligypsy

I had left my comfort zone several miles back in the dark. What had began as a mission with acceptable risks had rapidly changed into something worse.The original flight plan was to fly the shore line route along Lake Ponchartrain … Continue reading →

Posted in Flying Stories, Helicopter Pilot, Helicopters on Katrina | Tagged | Leave a comment

Training- Recurrent,real and simulated

Posted on June 16, 2008 by Heligypsy

I crossed over a few miles back. The man in the Canadian Customs uniform was about the same age as my second oldest son ,maybe 28 or 29. So,he asked, are you training or being trained? Perhaps my obvious age … Continue reading →

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Landing on boats

Posted on April 14, 2008 by Heligypsy

I have written previously of some of the stupid student tricks we pulled while self training at Skyrotors, where I some how managed to become a commercial helicopter pilot. Landing on moving trains and transport trucks was pretty dumb, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Contract helicopter pilot, Flying Stories, Helicopter Pilot | Tagged | 2 Comments

Career Paths

Posted on April 7, 2008 by Heligypsy

What makes a person jump from a perfectly good airplane? If you skydive you know the answer. The question is of course, an attempt at humor on the part of a person who would never likely understand your reasons to … Continue reading →

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Leonards Chores

Posted on March 18, 2008 by Heligypsy

We followed the blood spatter trail from the clinic entrance to the dirt road that lead down the main street into town. The doctor and I had made the mistake of leaving our patient on his own for a couple … Continue reading →

Posted in Contract helicopter pilot, Flying Stories, Helicopter Pilot, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

A tough way to start a career

Posted on March 11, 2008 by Heligypsy

I was talking to my current boss the other day about our early days flying helicopters. We were comparing notes on our first commercial flying jobs. We are about the same age and started our careers in similar aircraft like … Continue reading →

Posted in Flying Stories, Helicopter Pilot | 3 Comments