For several years, LifeStar has landed at the festival and allowed festival-goers to see the helicopter up close (without the injuries required for most people to do so). Doesn't seem like a helicopter full of ping pong balls would be any more likely to crash than one full of medical equipment...
Forget the decaf; somebody needs a chill pill.
Many commercial aircraft operators have prohibitions against dropping things from their aircraft; our company recently instituted one.
Having said that, it's not really because those things could (or would) be sucked into the engines -- particularly helicopter engines.
Helicopters' rotor systems generate hurricane-force winds downward or diagonally downward, depending on whether they're hovering or in lateral flight.
In addition, every helicopter I've ever seen or flown has had engine intakes with screens, particle separators or filters that wouldn't permit particulates the size (and potential inertia) of a pingpong ball to enter.
My observation is that company-imposed prohibitions against dropping things are due more to kneejerk reactions to aircraft mishaps and potential liability -- however infinitesimally small the exposure might actually be -- that someone on the ground might sue the company.
A final point -- and one that both the University of Tennissee Medical Center and its supporters go out of their way to obfuscate -- is that there is no such thing as a Lifestar pilot any more. The aircraft and pilots belong to a for-profit company, named Med-Trans, that recently acquired the University of Tennessee's aircraft and Federal Aviation Administration Part 135 operating certificate.
Operational control and ownership of "Lifestar" are strictly Med-Trans. Only the medical personnel remain UT employees.
Netmom and BS:
Forget the chill pill a humor or laugh pill might be in order. BS I personally thought that was pretty funny.
So, RG, a real helicopter pilot, not someone who played one on T.V. or one that stayed at a Holiday Inn Express © like AW does says that ping pong balls will not go into an engine. Interesting. AW was wrong. WOW!
HEH HEH HEH Someone has a sense of humor.
So, RG, a real helicopter pilot, not someone who played one on T.V. or one that stayed at a Holiday Inn Express © like AW does says that ping pong balls will not go into an engine. Interesting. AW was wrong. WOW!
Jacket - thanks for the laugh man...I'm RLFLMAO!!!
I just KNEW that if I suggested something to do with helicopters you would come 'round!! Thanks for noting FACTS.
However, I'd like to "ask why" "askwhy" never "asks why" but "tells why" when he/she doesn't in fact "know why" on any subject to begin with!!
Wow, you know Regular Guy is a military and medical helicopter pilot, don't you? I guess you know more than him and CTAS and the DA and the Police Chief.
But the bottom line is you don't think dropping stuff from a copter is gonna fly?
I dunno. But you might want to ask these guys:
http://cms.firehouse.com/content/article...ectionId=4
They plan to put out a fire by dropping "ping pong balls" from a H-E-L-I-C-O-P-T-E-R (keep reading the article - especially the part where they say "Officials said they use the ping-pong balls frequently during the year but never on a fire this large.")
Oh, maybe this one:
http://starshollowpodcast.blogspot.com/2...-drop.html
I didn't see any follow up news articles about anyone suing anyone because their balls got sucked into the H-E-L-I-C-O-P-T-E-R engine and causing mass destruction!
And if you hurry, you will be a hero when you tell the people of the Village of Sussex of the crash to occur on July 12th!!:
http://community.livinglakecountry.com/b...fault.aspx
WOW. You'd better be careful out there. Here's a tip... Don't look up!!
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ahhhhh-ha-ha-ha!!! 