Passenger Briefing - One More thing to Mention

Not just passengers. I knew a helicopter pilot who was
hired to fly a newly wed couple from the church/reception to
a honeymoon hide a way. Just as he lifted off to a hover in
the dark parking lot, the wedding photographers snapped a
picture from 50 feet in front of the Bell 47. Those
professional strobes are very bright. Luckily he was able
to close an eye and keep fairly steady until he was able to
fly away.


"Bob Noel" wrote in
message
...
| In article ,
| "RST Engineering" wrote:
|
| You haven't lived until you've been hopping charity
rides all day during the
| summer and on the last flight of a LOOOONG day you hear
a yell from the back
| seat, "Hey, Jim" and turn around to get a camera flash
right in the face.
|
|
| I've been trying to remember who posted a story about
their passenger
| taking a picture while flying in and out of the soup near
embedded
| thunderstorms. One problem with that was they used their
flash.
|
| --
| Bob Noel
| Looking for a sig the
| lawyers will hate
|

Jim Macklin wrote:

Not just passengers. I knew a helicopter pilot who was
hired to fly a newly wed couple from the church/reception to
a honeymoon hide a way. Just as he lifted off to a hover in
the dark parking lot, the wedding photographers snapped a
picture from 50 feet in front of the Bell 47. Those
professional strobes are very bright. Luckily he was able
to close an eye and keep fairly steady until he was able to
fly away.

That's hilarious. He saw the flash coming and was able to close his eye
before it got there? Priceless. I'd love to have reflexes like that

Matt

On Wed, 04 Oct 2006 22:28:18 GMT, Matt Whiting
wrote:

Jim Macklin wrote:

Not just passengers. I knew a helicopter pilot who was
hired to fly a newly wed couple from the church/reception to
a honeymoon hide a way. Just as he lifted off to a hover in
the dark parking lot, the wedding photographers snapped a
picture from 50 feet in front of the Bell 47. Those
professional strobes are very bright. Luckily he was able
to close an eye and keep fairly steady until he was able to
fly away.

That's hilarious. He saw the flash coming and was able to close his eye
before it got there? Priceless. I'd love to have reflexes like that

Always close your eyes when you see one of those big reflectors
pointed at you.

My cat seems to be able to detect them. I do not have one flash shot
of him with his eyes open. Well I do have a few from an angle but none
head on Yet without the flash they are *usually* open unless he's
pretending to be a cat... that's asleep with hopes I'll just go away.

My old digital camera used one of those cheap sensing flashes where
it flashes, sets the camera and then takes the photo. The flashes are
so close I've never met any one who could see both but you can
actually hear it.



Matt
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

"Matt Whiting" wrote

That's hilarious. He saw the flash coming and was able to close his eye
before it got there? Priceless. I'd love to have reflexes like that

Shoot, my family is famous for closing their eyes while a picture is being
taken! :-)
--
Jim in NC

Bob Noel wrote:
In article ,
"RST Engineering" wrote:


You haven't lived until you've been hopping charity rides all day during the
summer and on the last flight of a LOOOONG day you hear a yell from the back
seat, "Hey, Jim" and turn around to get a camera flash right in the face.



I've been trying to remember who posted a story about their passenger
taking a picture while flying in and out of the soup near embedded
thunderstorms. One problem with that was they used their flash.

We weren't in the soup, but had just spent a number of LONG hours in
front of the radar at MGW to see if we could get through. Another plane
decide to FOLLOW us. The damned kid (mine) decided it would be cool to
get a picture of the glory we were about to fly through. FLASH!! If
looks could kill, I'd have one less kid.

Margy

"RST Engineering" wrote in message
...
You haven't lived until you've been hopping charity rides all day during
the
summer and on the last flight of a LOOOONG day you hear a yell from the
back
seat, "Hey, Jim" and turn around to get a camera flash right in the face.

Jim

Was this planned to be the last ride of the day, or did you decide that
during the flight?

I think I would have practiced some stalls after that.

Kyle Boatright wrote:
I'm sure most of us have been surprised by a passenger's action at one time
or another, but my wife (Kelly) startled the heck out of me this weekend.

We made a trip to Texas to visit her school (Texas A&M) to see a football
game and to visit with family and friends while we were in the area. At a

Heck of a game, sorry about the outcome though
--
Cheers,
John Clonts
Temple, Texas
N7NZ

Kyle Boatright wrote:
I'm sure most of us have been surprised by a passenger's action at one time
or another, but my wife (Kelly) startled the heck out of me this weekend.

snip

The landing was surprisingly good. On the post landing debrief, I mentioned
to Kelly that she probably shouldn't distract her pilot in the landing phase
of flight by waving maniacally right in his face during the flare.

My girlfriend once rolled up a newspaper and swatted a fly that had
landed on my shoulder, as I was turning base-to-final. We had a
similar post-landing discussion.

-R

On one flight with my wife and my dog, Zena, I was kidding around and
"briefing" Zena to "tell daddy if you see any other planes". She'll
occasionally notice when a sea gull flys by. Anyway, I was on downwind,
and Zena suddenly jumped up, looked to the right and started barking.
She apparently saw another plane that was on long final. It scared the
hell out of me for a second.

--- Jay

Kyle Boatright wrote:
over the threshold, Kelly started waving like a maniac at our nephew. The
RV-6 has side by side seating, so her hand was very close to my face and
filled most of my peripereral vision on that side. It was extremely
startling, and I put a pretty good crease in my seat in the moment before I
realized what was happening (and that I wasn't being landed on by another
airplane, or hitting a giant bird, or whatever).


--

Jay Masino "Home is where My critters are"
http://www.JayMasino.com
http://www.OceanCityAirport.com
http://www.oc-Adolfos.com

On Tue, 3 Oct 2006 21:03:24 -0400, "Kyle Boatright"
wrote:

I'm sure most of us have been surprised by a passenger's action at one time
or another, but my wife (Kelly) startled the heck out of me this weekend.

We made a trip to Texas to visit her school (Texas A&M) to see a football
game and to visit with family and friends while we were in the area. At a
stop near San Antonio, Kelly's brother and our 3 year old nephew were
meeting us at the airport. When we landed, it was fairly windy (10+ knots),
and there was a decent crosswind component which added to the unfamiliar
field, relatively narrow runway, and not a lot of set-back between the
runway and various immovable obstacles to make it a higher concentration
than normal landing.

On final, we could see Kelly's brother and our nephew standing on a taxiway,
about 50' off of the runway centerline, right alongside the numbers at the
approach end. I didn't think twice about this, instead concentrating on
making a good landing. So, as I began the flare about 5' or 10' high, right
over the threshold, Kelly started waving like a maniac at our nephew. The
RV-6 has side by side seating, so her hand was very close to my face and
filled most of my peripereral vision on that side. It was extremely
startling, and I put a pretty good crease in my seat in the moment before I
realized what was happening (and that I wasn't being landed on by another
airplane, or hitting a giant bird, or whatever).

The landing was surprisingly good. On the post landing debrief, I mentioned
to Kelly that she probably shouldn't distract her pilot in the landing phase
of flight by waving maniacally right in his face during the flare.

One more thing to add to my passenger brief.

Many years ago, I was driving on one of those "single track" roads over in
Scotland, with a teenage (female) cousin in the pasenger seat. Suddenly,
one of the ubiquitous sheep that seem to line these roads decided to cross
right in front of me. The cousin shrieked, turned her head to the side, and
wrapped her arms around my head -- just as I was taking evasive action.

I hate to think what might have happened if this had taken place over the
threshold with a deer, fox, goose, or some other animal crossing the runway.

There are distractions, and then there are DISTRACTIONS!!! :-)