8 ms·

In the few helicopters ive flown in, the flight crew meticulously accounts for the mass and location of every person and large item on board before taking off.

In the few helicopters ive flown in, the flight crew meticulously accounts for the mass and location of every person and large item on board before taking off. It seems like it would be really inconvenient to do that on the scale of an rv, especially if there are water and sewage tanks etc to think about.

wtracy 6y ago
Yeah, my first thought was that retaining someone qualified to fly one of these things is going to be significantly harder than affording the vehicle itself. There's such a thing as weekend airplane pilots, but no such thing as weekend helicopter pilots. Developing the skills to fly a helicopter takes a very serious time investment. (And that's before you have a family of vacationers shoving stuff willy-nilly into the helicopter!)
- dkdk8283 6y ago
  There absolutely are weekend helicopter pilots. I have my PPL and at my airfield there are quite a few hobbyists and interesting jobs that don’t demand many oncall or flight hours.
  - FabHK 6y ago
    Don't you think, at least, that flying heli is more like flying fixed wing IFR (really need to fly regularly) than flying fixed wing VFR (do a few hours and a checkout after 5 years and you're good to go)? So we're talking committed weekend pilots...
- jacquesm 6y ago
  There are definitely weekend helicopter pilots. There is a whole slew of them that will seat just the pilot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ultralight_helicopters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ultralight_helicopters Accident rates are nothing to be happy about though, flying a helicopter is a lot harder than flying a light plane and flying into an obstacle or having something fail resulting in a crash are all too common. Helicopters are quite delicate compared to planes as well and even though they can usually auto-rotate that's better described as a controlled crash than an emergency landing. Personally I'd never ever want to be in one of these but compared to a wingsuit they're probably safer.
arprocter 6y ago
Supposedly loading is less of a concern because the engine is in the front https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_H-19_Chickasaw#Design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_H-19_Chickasaw#Design
chiph 6y ago
My thought was: No need to find a dump station. Just get to 10,000 feet and open the black tank valve. Hopefully over wilderness...
- Apofis 6y ago
  That's how bunnies get dirty.
- duxup 6y ago
  > Hopefully over wilderness... RV that park at the Walmart a ways down the road from me can't even manage to find the right place to dump... I can imagine helicopter RVs being pretty terrible.
FabHK 6y ago
> flight crew meticulously accounts for the mass Exactly. I've toyed with the idea of living on a plane or a boat, and the boat is obviously practical and (relatively) cheap, while the plane (or heli, in this case) is enormously hobbled by the mass constraint. You can find an RV for the road to live in, you can find a boat to live on, but there's no solution at all really in the aviation space unless you go quite big and thus super expensive [1]. Quite some people live on a land or water vehicle, but I don't think anyone realistically lives on an aircraft for an extended time, do they? The 21st century just doesn't deliver... ;-) [1] The price of of boats and planes tends to grow super cubically with length (exponent of maybe 3.5 or so), so twice as long will be 10x expensive (very rough rule of thumb, obviously).
- grawprog 6y ago
  >but I don't think anyone realistically lives on an aircraft for an extended time, do they? I think one of the big differences between an aircraft and an RV or boat is that an RV and boat don't burn insane amounts of fuel every time you want to move around. I do remember seeing a few airplanes converted into stationary homes over the years in various videos and stuff though.
- muttled 6y ago
  I've always associated even small boats with great expense. Does living in them reduce the cost since you're not just storing it somewhere, paying for it to float empty in a harbor?
  - nicoburns 6y ago
    > Does living in them reduce the cost since you're not just storing it somewhere, paying for it to float empty in a harbor? It massively reduces total life costs, seeing as you're not paying rent. Living on boats is very popular in London for this reason.
    - satori99 6y ago
      I lived on a houseboat in Sydney for a few years. It was by far the cheapest lifestyle I have ever lived in this city, but it is not really lawful as I was on a swing mooring. My fees for the mooring was only a few hundred dollars a year, Live aboard tenants are generally only permitted in serviced marinas, and these get very expensive. I was able to live on my vessel as I was in a small bay off The Georges river which flows into Botany Bay, and not Sydney harbour, where the rules are strictly enforced by authorities. The water police on the river did not care about live aboards, and the local councils are only responsible for land until the high tide mark, so they didn't care either. I once got a letter from some sort of port authority stating that living aboard vessels is not permitted, but it was not an actual enforcement notice. The fact that you are (of course) permitted to visit or use your vessel at any time makes it either difficult, or costly, to prosecute I guess.
potta_coffee 6y ago
The larger the vehicle, the less sensitive it ought to be. I'm no aviator but I've been on plenty of military flights where people and gear were just tossed in at the LZ.
ceejayoz 6y ago
It's apparently not necessarily that sensitive. https://www.military.com/video/aircraft/helicopters/special-ops-in-zodiac-enter-chinook-at-high-speed/4034307706001 https://www.military.com/video/aircraft/helicopters/special-...
- tastyfreeze 6y ago
  That is an operation that I have never considered. Cool! Thank you for sharing.
- saul_goodman 6y ago
  Wow, that operation was sketchy as hell, lol. The bottom of the heli was below the water line and took on a few hundred gallons of water into the bay for a few moments. One wrong wave, a momentary loss of power, and they are all toast. I can't imagine doing that under fire.
  - ceejayoz 6y ago
    These sorts of helicopter pilots are... special people. Another fun example, a helicopter rescue from a 45 degree angled mountainside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce9PISHcq4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce9PISHcq4Y
    - davidjade 6y ago
      Called a toe-in. The helicopter is basically flying at all times and each weight/unweight has to be adjusted for by the pilot.

wtracy 6y ago

Yeah, my first thought was that retaining someone qualified to fly one of these things is going to be significantly harder than affording the vehicle itself. There's such a thing as weekend airplane pilots, but no such thing as weekend helicopter pilots. Developing the skills to fly a helicopter takes a very serious time investment. (And that's before you have a family of vacationers shoving stuff willy-nilly into the helicopter!)

dkdk8283 6y ago
There absolutely are weekend helicopter pilots. I have my PPL and at my airfield there are quite a few hobbyists and interesting jobs that don’t demand many oncall or flight hours.
- FabHK 6y ago
  Don't you think, at least, that flying heli is more like flying fixed wing IFR (really need to fly regularly) than flying fixed wing VFR (do a few hours and a checkout after 5 years and you're good to go)? So we're talking committed weekend pilots...
jacquesm 6y ago
There are definitely weekend helicopter pilots. There is a whole slew of them that will seat just the pilot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ultralight_helicopters https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ultralight_helicopters Accident rates are nothing to be happy about though, flying a helicopter is a lot harder than flying a light plane and flying into an obstacle or having something fail resulting in a crash are all too common. Helicopters are quite delicate compared to planes as well and even though they can usually auto-rotate that's better described as a controlled crash than an emergency landing. Personally I'd never ever want to be in one of these but compared to a wingsuit they're probably safer.

arprocter 6y ago

Supposedly loading is less of a concern because the engine is in the front https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_H-19_Chickasaw#Design https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_H-19_Chickasaw#Design

chiph 6y ago

My thought was: No need to find a dump station. Just get to 10,000 feet and open the black tank valve. Hopefully over wilderness...

Apofis 6y ago
That's how bunnies get dirty.
duxup 6y ago
> Hopefully over wilderness... RV that park at the Walmart a ways down the road from me can't even manage to find the right place to dump... I can imagine helicopter RVs being pretty terrible.

FabHK 6y ago

> flight crew meticulously accounts for the mass Exactly. I've toyed with the idea of living on a plane or a boat, and the boat is obviously practical and (relatively) cheap, while the plane (or heli, in this case) is enormously hobbled by the mass constraint. You can find an RV for the road to live in, you can find a boat to live on, but there's no solution at all really in the aviation space unless you go quite big and thus super expensive [1]. Quite some people live on a land or water vehicle, but I don't think anyone realistically lives on an aircraft for an extended time, do they? The 21st century just doesn't deliver... ;-) [1] The price of of boats and planes tends to grow super cubically with length (exponent of maybe 3.5 or so), so twice as long will be 10x expensive (very rough rule of thumb, obviously).

grawprog 6y ago
>but I don't think anyone realistically lives on an aircraft for an extended time, do they? I think one of the big differences between an aircraft and an RV or boat is that an RV and boat don't burn insane amounts of fuel every time you want to move around. I do remember seeing a few airplanes converted into stationary homes over the years in various videos and stuff though.
muttled 6y ago
I've always associated even small boats with great expense. Does living in them reduce the cost since you're not just storing it somewhere, paying for it to float empty in a harbor?
- nicoburns 6y ago
  > Does living in them reduce the cost since you're not just storing it somewhere, paying for it to float empty in a harbor? It massively reduces total life costs, seeing as you're not paying rent. Living on boats is very popular in London for this reason.
  - satori99 6y ago
    I lived on a houseboat in Sydney for a few years. It was by far the cheapest lifestyle I have ever lived in this city, but it is not really lawful as I was on a swing mooring. My fees for the mooring was only a few hundred dollars a year, Live aboard tenants are generally only permitted in serviced marinas, and these get very expensive. I was able to live on my vessel as I was in a small bay off The Georges river which flows into Botany Bay, and not Sydney harbour, where the rules are strictly enforced by authorities. The water police on the river did not care about live aboards, and the local councils are only responsible for land until the high tide mark, so they didn't care either. I once got a letter from some sort of port authority stating that living aboard vessels is not permitted, but it was not an actual enforcement notice. The fact that you are (of course) permitted to visit or use your vessel at any time makes it either difficult, or costly, to prosecute I guess.

potta_coffee 6y ago

The larger the vehicle, the less sensitive it ought to be. I'm no aviator but I've been on plenty of military flights where people and gear were just tossed in at the LZ.

ceejayoz 6y ago

It's apparently not necessarily that sensitive. https://www.military.com/video/aircraft/helicopters/special-ops-in-zodiac-enter-chinook-at-high-speed/4034307706001 https://www.military.com/video/aircraft/helicopters/special-...

tastyfreeze 6y ago
That is an operation that I have never considered. Cool! Thank you for sharing.
saul_goodman 6y ago
Wow, that operation was sketchy as hell, lol. The bottom of the heli was below the water line and took on a few hundred gallons of water into the bay for a few moments. One wrong wave, a momentary loss of power, and they are all toast. I can't imagine doing that under fire.
- ceejayoz 6y ago
  These sorts of helicopter pilots are... special people. Another fun example, a helicopter rescue from a 45 degree angled mountainside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce9PISHcq4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce9PISHcq4Y
  - davidjade 6y ago
    Called a toe-in. The helicopter is basically flying at all times and each weight/unweight has to be adjusted for by the pilot.