Why helicopter pilots fly helicopters.........

Why helicopter pilots are different

New kid in school...............


That's how I feel on these fires mostly since I'm relatively new to firefighting over the past 4 years now considering the other fire pilots out here who have been doing it for as long as I have been flying. I'm new to dropping water with the big boys now. I feel like the new kid in class or the new kid on the block. Everyone is great out here. You just feel like the newbie, trying to get as good and skilled as the other pilots. Having said that I wanted to comment in reply to some of your comments about our job being dangerous. Anything is dangerous. Driving your car is dangerous. Yes, this isn't driving a car, it's my job and I choose to do it. Everything we do in life has risks. There are far more dangerous jobs out there than firefighting. I feel safer when I fly than when on the ground. There is more danger on our earth than in our skies. We are all out here to do a job and I love to try and describe it from time to time. I don't by any means try to scare anyone or make my job seem more dangerous. I don't want to die. I don't do anything unsafe. I find the environment I fly fire in so different from flying in the city that I want to try and describe it to everyone to get a visual. I'm glad it's working. hahaha. Flying over fire and in this rugged terrain puts you in the dead mans curve(the height velocity diagram some of you have mentioned before) every moment you are out there. This is how we fight fire, do construction, logging, and other various utility jobs. Helicopters are unique in that we can take off and land from anywhere without the use of long runways. Helicopters are in flight the second they are hovering. That is how I was hooked the first moment I flew in one. The hover! Wow! Well, I was hooked before, just by seeing one fly over at a young age. Pilots know from an early age what they want to fly when the grow up.


Now, having said all that......that is why helicopter pilots love flying helicopters. The things we see from the altitudes we fly at versus the high altitudes planes fly at is so amazing. It is so beautiful out here despite the fires burning. In an odd way the fires have their own beauty. It's mother nature doing her job. We are just here to manage her job and keep it from getting out of control since people have decided to live in these mountains. There's just too much to try to list about why we fly and do what we do. I find it so exciting and such a great feeling to be able to fly these helicopters from a dip sight a thousand or so feet down a steep and narrow smoke filled canyon to the fire and drop water then climb back up to get more water. These aircraft are truly indescribable in what they are able to do and the pilots who fly them.

The Pilot's Creed

The poem, High Flight, has over the years become a mantra to pilots.It is reproduced here as a tribute to, and in memory of pilots of all generations.

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirthOf sun-split clouds -

and done a hundred thingsYou have not dreamed of -

wheeled and soared and swung

High in the sunlit silence.

Hov'ring thereI've chased the shouting wind along,

and flungMy eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,

I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle flew -

And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod

The high untresspassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee

No 412 squadron, RCAF

Killed 11 December 1941

Authors who have copied Low Flight for Helicopter Pilots........

http://www.farm-boy-navy-pilot-airline-captain.com/lowflight.htm

Another funny poem I found.....

WHY I WANT TO BE A PILOT

When I grow up I want to be a pilot because it's a fun job and easy to do.

That's why there are so many pilots flying around these days.
Pilots don't need much school.

They just have to learn to read numbers so they can read their instruments.
I guess they should be able to read a road map, too.
Pilots should be brave to they won't get scared it it's foggy

and they can't see, or if a wing or motor falls off.
Pilots have to have good eyes to see through the clouds,

and they can't be afraid of thunder or lightning

because they are much closer to them than we are.
The salary pilots make is another thing I like.

They make more money than they know what to do with.

This is because most people think that flying a plane is dangerous,

except pilots don't because they know how easy it is.
I hope I don't get airsick because I get carsick and if I get airsick,

I couldn't be a pilot and then I would have to go to work.

— purported to have been written by a fifth grade student

at Jefferson School, Beaufort, SC.

It was first published in the South Carolina Aviation News.

Wiki link to the dead man's curve........

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height-velocity_diagram

Another great link to the dead man's curve for helicopter pilots.....

http://www.copters.com/pilot/hvcurve.html