Fun Stuff With Helicopters

Was flying Bell 206 in Johannesburg, early 1970's. At the time there
were only five civil helicopters registered in all of South Africa. I
forget the exact reason for this event, but it included a lot of the
local politicians at the Britstown Tower in downtown Johannesburg. The
tower is similar to the space needle in Seattle with a revolving
restaurant on top. I landed the 206 near the base of the tower and
stepped out of the way while the boss and the politicos got their pics
taken with the helicopter. Then the boss told me to circle the tower
while they took pics from the top inside to show the helicopter with
the city in the background..
So, I took off and began circling the tower while the people inside
walked around taking photos of me. I don't know what got into me, but
I began slowing down to a near stop, and then began backing up very
slowly. I still laugh at the puzzled looks on peoples faces when they
thought the tower was malfunctioning and going too fast! Then someone
noticed it was me. My boss didn't think it was all that funny but he
forgave me about 20 years later.
Another time I had landed on what is called a kopje, a gigantic
granite outcropping that was at least 1000' tall with sloping sides.
As I settled the weight on the skids, they spread slightly and the
right skid slipped into a crack in the granite and got jammed. Well,
there I was by myself and trying to figure out how to get unstuck. It
took some lip chewing and biting as I concentrated on VERY careful
control manipulations to get out of that crack without breaking the
skid or worse. It turned out OK but I certainly will be more aware of
that potential danger landing on such a surface.
Got a lot more stories if anyone is interested. I think most of them
have a lesson to be learned. At least I learned from them and survived
the mistakes and dumb things I did,
Cheers
Rocky