Wow, that’s a pilot that has a really good idea of how long those blades are.
Impressive!
Ice cold rock solid…and not talking about the conditions / environment here either. Whoa.
Wow. Not just the pilot. But the complete faith and trust those crew and SAR people have in their teamwork. I mean…insanely professional and working together with such precision.
What these people do would be considered recless, unless lives were at stake.
But, pushing oneself to the limits, on a regular basis, leads to exceptional skills. Which, of course, means that it isn’t as recless as it might seem…
In Norway we have the Airforce 330 Squadron. They still fly the old Seaking, but are upgrading to the AW101.
There was a TV show, some years ago, about the 330, that displays the whole faith concept, that @BeachAV8R is talking about. I remember one episode where they got a call about a basejumper, stuck on a mountain shelf, most likely dead. Getting him down would put the helo at extreme risk. They landed at the foot of the mountain and took a breather, discussing the situation. The skipper wanted to hear everybodys opinion. They went up, got they guy down. Turned out he was alive.
Putting a helicopter and crew at risk, to save one recreational basejumper, is borderline madness in my book. But these guys know their limits. They have visited that limit, on several occasions. I have not.
Then there’s the civilian ambulance helos.
Not enough space on the road?
I’ll just put her down on the barrier…
When I started reading this thread exactly that video you just posted came to mind.
The is what I mediately thought of…and sometimes, things go wrong…no fatalities so should be OK to post.