Thread: East Kaweka Helicopters - CAA Licence expired.

So far the New Zealand Helicopter Association has come out in favour of maintaining the pilots ability to vacate a running machine.
Done properly (ground idle, frictions tight etc) and it's perfectly safe.

One job in PNG we were not allowed to vacate the machine while running. Local loadmasters were mucking around in the basket for ages and something didn't seem right. So I hopped out to look (risking a dreaded safety card against me) and I found they were tying a aluminum hoop antenna to the basket( which was shorter then the antenna) with bush twine! No way that would have safely made the 20mile journey and would have made my day a tad interesting.
A few kind words during lecture (*#*#*****#####***!!!!!!!) and they then put it in the net I was about to lift.
Much safer to get out and make sure all is secure.