Hilarious article concerning the BSG finale from the Onion:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/obama_depressed_distant_since?utm_source=a-section

"I'm a little concerned," first lady Michelle Obama was overheard saying at a fundraising event Tuesday. "When Firefly was canceled, he walked around like a zombie for a week, and Serenity was the only thing that snapped him out of it. Last night he said he felt like he had just discovered David Axelrod was one of the Final Five, whatever that means."

"When we spoke last month, he said season three was his least favorite because some of the episodes with Helo and the Sagittarons—and pretty much anything that involved Cally—were boring and didn't advance the plot," Afghan president Hamid Karzai said. "But I told him that when you watch it all on DVD, and you don't have to wait a whole week for a new show, those peripheral episodes actually add new color to the already established world."

That same episode, Helo landed in Las Vegas on a Raptor. Well not really, but the actor who plays him was also in this episode.

(^ Battlestar Galactica reference.)

Tags for this video have been changed from 'chopper, helo, transport, mi12, french' to 'chopper, helo, transport, mi12, french, russian, helicopter' - edited by kulpims

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Sounds like an exciting job. I used to live in Alaska. I went back about a year ago for my 20th high school reunion.
http://www.videosift.com/talk/Dag-Cow-Sift-Up

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That picture is of me circa ~85 and yes Alaska (for about 5 years), I was up there in Sitka flying on USCG HH-3Fs Helos. Fixer/Flyer (Avionics), in the air I navigated, worked our long range comms and assisted our Flightmechs with hoisting and inflight refueling operations. Primarily search and rescue up there with some fisheries thrown in (this is before it was all fished out...). My Helmet said inappropriately even back then 'Alaska is for Lovers', heh. The kids can't get away with that these days, nope. I really loved my time up there, dunno if I'd enjoy it these days being olde and frail...that reminds me, where's my walker dag nabit!!!

In reply to this comment by dag:
Not a problem. Are you from Alaska? (your helmet)

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Thank you Dag most sincerely.
I was fumbling about trying to
resurrect it.

That picture is of me circa ~85 and yes Alaska (for about 5 years), I was up there in Sitka flying on USCG HH-3Fs Helos. Fixer/Flyer (Avionics), in the air I navigated, worked our long range comms and assisted our Flightmechs with hoisting and inflight refueling operations. Primarily search and rescue up there with some fisheries thrown in (this is before it was all fished out...). My Helmet said inappropriately even back then 'Alaska is for Lovers', heh. The kids can't get away with that these days, nope. I really loved my time up there, dunno if I'd enjoy it these days being olde and frail...that reminds me, where's my walker dag nabit!!!

In reply to this comment by dag:
Not a problem. Are you from Alaska? (your helmet)

In reply to this comment by sorted:
Thank you Dag most sincerely.
I was fumbling about trying to
resurrect it.

>> ^Chaucer:
If a human was driving it, the helicopter wouldnt have stood a chance. Those corvettes were extremely fast. Top speed in the 170 mph range. That little helo wouldnt be able to keep up with that.


Actually, it could. But just barely.

Cite: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughes_500

If a human was driving it, the helicopter wouldnt have stood a chance. Those corvettes were extremely fast. Top speed in the 170 mph range. That little helo wouldnt be able to keep up with that.

you dont see the escort attack choppers cause they're patrolling the perimeter of the formation out of sight of the camera. You put that many helo's in the air without attack escort would be retarded.

>> ^supersparky:
...Oh, wait, they're dead now because of being involved with THE craziest low pass ever by a helicopter.

Actually, the helo wasn't passing in that case, it was hovering overhead and was more-or-less "shot down" by pyrotechnics. Nothing to do with crazy, it was an accident. An accident made possible by a maverick director, but an accident none the less.

I asked the aeronautical phd in the next office, and he says this is a fine toy, but doesn't have much redundancy, and thus isn't very safe. He sent me a link to a similarly small helo, but crafted from 4 single-stroke engines, and thus much safer: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Jfx7TduKwWw. I'm tempted to sift it, but there isn't much content so maybe I will just leave it here. Should I put it in the comments?

I asked the helo pilots I knew in the navy if they could do a backflip. They said the ability to do it was considered once, but no one could demonstrate any tactical advantage at all for the maneuver. Sure looks cool though.

wtf is he moving around for... just finish the piss and get back on the helo.

they were very lucky. unfortunate that the helo was parked so close to the hangar and the pilot didn't taxi out aways before attempting to get airborne.

I recall seeing this before somewhere and the comments suggested that he was having engine trouble which is what kept dropping him in the drink (certainly the first time he goes in, it really looks like the helo is falling rather than being flown down). The pilot's trying to power out of there towards the end, trying to use forward momentum as well as lift, when the rotor hits and goodnight Irene.

The helo's also supposed to be amphibious, so they say (it's an Mi-14), but I still can't imagine that it's made to bob around on the ocean for very long.

@ant: These are just tests, I'm sure of it -- not just because of the title, but also because they're clearly in a proving ground (nothing around but desert) and the cable off the back of the helo would then be for remote piloting. So these are routine crash tests and the bird is being flown from the ground with nobody aboard.