Helicopter rescue in Alps

[jonc]

Impressive landing skills from the helicopter pilot.

https://globalnews.ca/news/4827863/pilot-mountainside-rescue-french-skier/

 

[Plai]

Wow! Just, Wow!

Gotta wonder how do they train for that without breaking a lot of helicopters and humans. They made it look so easy.

 

[Tricia]

Wow! Just, Wow!

Gotta wonder how do they train for that without breaking a lot of helicopters and humans. They made it look so easy.

X2

 

[James]

That is amazing. Maybe it was better to do that in that spot than hover? They pick the other guys up with a winch.

 

[Dwight]

Wow! Just, Wow!

Gotta wonder how do they train for that without breaking a lot of helicopters and humans. They made it look so easy.

Military.

 

[Bad Bob]

Bold!

Pilot does not need new glasses.

 

[Cheizz]

Gendarmerie (Police), actually

 

[Tricia]

I mean....at this moment when the guy climbs into the heli....That's trust.

 

[graham418]

Those Frenchies!! Doesnt matter if it is skiing , mountaineering, sailing , cycling, or helicopter flying, it is always to the extreme!!

 

[James]

I saw a show once on a Vietnam helicopter rescue during the war where the pilot used the rotors to chop a zone through bamboo trees. Before being an army pilot he had worked at the factory where they made the rotors so he had some confidence they could take it. There wasn't much choice other than leave leave the unit there.

 

[Tom K.]

WOW!

 

[Primoz]

Those Frenchies!! Doesnt matter if it is skiing , mountaineering, sailing , cycling, or helicopter flying, it is always to the extreme!!

No offense guys for this what I will write, even if it might hit someone hard Thing is, US media is full of "We are the best in everything", so people who get bombarded with such, and only such, info all their life, really think it's true. In reality things are different, and also elsewhere, people know what they are doing. For me it's pretty funny to watch on TV those documentary movies explaining how US has by far best trained special forces, or how their pilots fly helicopters to enable rescue mission, while showing footage of those heroic rescue mission looking like first training flight of future SAR pilot over here, or seeing first hand how those super trained special forces guys cry because "things are too tough", while normal army of some little country is having fun out on their common drills (I actually really saw that when some Seal guys who were here on training, were not capable of withstanding "long" walk during training... not with our special forces, but with, at that time normal army (around 20 years old kids who were listed to army for 6months)
While I still agree this flying is damn impressive and I don't get how this pilot's balls even fit in heli, there's whole bunch of amazing flying going on every day in Alps when police, army or other SAR services fly their daily rescue missions in walls of mountains we have. Not just in France, but Switzeland, Italy, Austria, and also Slovenia.

 

[tch]

I don't get how this pilot's balls even fit in heli,

 

[James]

A couple years ago on Verbier the lift broke down. Major one with chairs and gondolas on it, and it makea basically a right turn and goes down/up to another base area. So, essentially two lifts on one line.
They had to do an evac. I read later 60 people, which is lucky because it could jave been many times that. On one side they used a chopper at first but had to stop because of high winds. The other side I watched them for a little bit. There were maybe at tops, 6 patrol for the operation. If that happened here they'd have the parking attendants on snow. There's be 100 people out there. Everyone would be out. It was the most nonchalant evac you could imagine.
Pretty sure this was it. I think they used 2 choppers because I saw an orange one.

 

[Primoz]

Rescue from hovering heli when they lower rescuer on winch and rescuer just attaches "client" to harness while still attached to cable and in 30sec heli with rescuer and "client" is gone is pretty much most common way of rescue in Alps. In steep walls there's no place to land, and everything else would take too much time and energy, so if there's slightest chance (read: if there's not too dense fog or really hurricane grade wind), they will just fly heli into the wall (or over lift in this case), hover it there lower one mountain rescue guy down, and once rescued person is in harness just fly them off the mountain, in half cases even without lifting them all the way into heli. Things are less complicated here, also because you can't go and sue everyone for your own stupid mistakes. So if you catch cold while hanging under heli that's your problem, not mountain rescue service problem, and you can't sue them for that, so maybe that's reason for "a bit more slack/nonchalant approach"

 

[James]

Chair evac method here, at least in the east, is to use pole to throw rope over cable. Like a fishing pole. You have to do that for each chair! It's stupid. It seemed like method in Switz was attach unit to cable and slide down.

 

[Doug Briggs]

The way the pilot maintained his attitude and elevation as about 800 - 1000 lbs. climbed in was the most impressive part for me. In heli terms, that's a lot of weight change to deal with and compensate for.

 

[SkiNurse]

I have been watching documentary on Netflix called "The Horn" Highly recommend if you are looking for something to watch.

"Following the perilous work of Air Zermatt, an alpine search and rescue team that operates on the peaks of Switzerland's Matterhorn mountain."

 

[scott43]

Things are less complicated here, also because you can't go and sue everyone for your own stupid mistakes. So if you catch cold while hanging under heli that's your problem, not mountain rescue service problem, and you can't sue them for that, so maybe that's reason for "a bit more slack/nonchalant approach"

Kaprun disaster..

 

[Tom K.]

No offense guys for this what I will write, even if it might hit someone hard Thing is, US media is full of "We are the best in everything", so people who get bombarded with such, and only such, info all their life, really think it's true. In reality things are different, and also elsewhere, people know what they are doing. For me it's pretty funny to watch on TV those documentary movies explaining how US has by far best trained special forces, or how their pilots fly helicopters to enable rescue mission, while showing footage of those heroic rescue mission looking like first training flight of future SAR pilot over here, or seeing first hand how those super trained special forces guys cry because "things are too tough", while normal army of some little country is having fun out on their common drills (I actually really saw that when some Seal guys who were here on training, were not capable of withstanding "long" walk during training... not with our special forces, but with, at that time normal army (around 20 years old kids who were listed to army for 6months)
While I still agree this flying is damn impressive and I don't get how this pilot's balls even fit in heli, there's whole bunch of amazing flying going on every day in Alps when police, army or other SAR services fly their daily rescue missions in walls of mountains we have. Not just in France, but Switzeland, Italy, Austria, and also Slovenia.

Wow, I thought we were all just appreciating some amazing piloting skill.

I must have missed the part of the thread about the US, etc.?!