Why won’t you move?

If you’re in aviation for as long as I have I am sure you have done this one before as well. It’s pretty embarrassing, especially when you’re a student and you do it in front of a bunch of other students and instructors . . . . or so I have heard (*cough*)….no, really, a friend of mine did this once . . .
Of course that way you’ll remember for a long time! Just leave it to Chuck though to not catch on what’s going on there. Or is he just trying to cover his feathered behind in front of Julio?

Yesterday I was flying tours around LA and Nobu was flying the other helicopter. We took off at different times but ended up passing eachother at Ontario over the freeway. Of course we were on our own frequency besides the tower and talking to eachother but we passed at same altitudes not far from eachother. One of my passengers said “Wow, you don’t know how fast you’re going until you have another helicopter coming at you.” I agreed because it does seem pretty slow up there even though you’re flying at 120kts. Then he asked “So, the people in the other helicopter; Did they see us coming at them just as fast?”
I had to tell him “No, they had us coming at them a lot faster even because we had a tailwind”.

Happy Weekend Everybody!

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8 comments on “Why won’t you move?
  1. Peter says:

    Of course, you were both closing in at the same rate. Your ground speeds may have been different, but your speed relative to the other was the same.

  2. Rwill says:

    I’ve never forgot to remove the chocks…

    but we will not talk about the tail tie down rope.

  3. Hi Mike! First of all I just want to congratulate you guys on Chicken Wings. It’s absolutely great stuff. I am from Portugal, we used to have it an a regular newspaper here, called TakeOff. Last time I spoke with the new editor and mentioned people loved your stuff, she said they now had something she found much more comic. She is the biggest moron I know. Please keep making us laught with these short comic strip! Huge fan here.
    I am placing a comment because, I think you were not right about the perception of speed. I might be wrong but, when we are flying, if the only references are two moving objects in opposite directions to one another, I believe you are unable to identify which is moving faster. Take for instance the subway. Two moving trains on opposite directions, are impossible to tell which is going faster, unless you are going so slow that you add your motion sensation to your vision, and logic will tell you the other one was much faster. So technically you were moving faster because of the tailwind but in terms of perception, I guess unless they were flying at 60 kts or less, they would perceived the same way you did. Anyway, sorry to bother you with this. Looking forward for more work from you guys. We are having a hard time here. I am 35 hours away from my CPLH IR, and no idea where to get work. Take care! Ricardo.

  4. mike says:

    Uhm….yeah, Peter. That was the joke! 😉

  5. darren elliott says:

    this should be posted in alot of FBO’s so that they never forget to take the chocks out

  6. mike says:

    Hey Ricardo! TakeOff was always late in paying for strips and at some point quit paying us alltogether us, so we quit sending them comics after many calls, letters, and emails….
    It’s unfortunate but maybe the fans can bring us back over there in Portugal.
    As for the story I posted, it’s a joke. Of course I know the motion sensation.
    I didn’t think he was serious at first but when I found ot he was, I just had to mess with him. I actually never told him I was kidding so he may be telling everybody the tailwind theory now 😉
    @Darren: Good idea! It should go right there on the door to the ramp, huh !?!

  7. Charles says:

    Duing a raging dust storm in Kuwait, I was standing outside our C-17 for engine start and taxi clearance when the other Loadmaster came down the entrance ladder to ask me a question “off the intercom.” The dust storm was so thick that I couldn’t see the chocks were still in place on the mains and almost did a “Chuck.” Can you say Q-3?

  8. Glenn Burt says:

    No I did not run over the chock with the 172. And I absolutely did not run over the 8 inch high closed taxi way marker with my very nose high replica Sopwith Pup, either.
    ” I didn’t do it.”
    ” You didn’t see it.”
    “You can’t prove a thing!”

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