Category: Helicopters and Humans

Of Helicopters and Humans- A Mental Midget Part 3: Moggy on Parade If you remember, when we were bratty kids, like, last week or so, we at some stage discovered a funny drawing. Every healthy kid does it at some stage. Kind of a rite of passage. If you never drew something like this, you…

The Mind of a Midget Part 2: Moggy, the Comforter I have tried hard in my little life to understand things. People, Belief Systems, the Meaning of Life. You know, trivial stuff like that. I’ve discovered long ago that I’m not real good at it. At all. I am often and intensely non-plussed by what…

  I gaze in rapture At a thin gaseous layer With which our home Fragile and small Is blessed by Forces slightly understood And by a Great Cosmic Kindness Whom we, noisy and unseeing Barely acknowledge. from: “The Blade of Damocles “ Of Helicopters and Humans (28): Beauty and the Wind (Seeking Beauty, a hint…

Caution – Moggy in the Forum Part 1: Self Promotion People who know me, will tell you. Sympathetically. They will probably roll their eyes as well. It’s true. I have spent many an hour contentedly blogging away on my battered, steam driven lap top. Tap-tap-tappety-tap. Tap. (sneaking up on an oxymoron) TAP! That’s me. Annoying…

Of Helicopters and Humans (Part 27) “Serious as a Heart Attack” So there we were, moseying along. Six on board. Quiet flight deck. We had been chatting earlier, but now we had fallen silent. Just in the cruise, calm flight, grey overcast, good visibility, mild sea state. Peace. All is good. The steady beat of…

Politically Incorrect – but did it get your attention? Of Helicopters and Humans (26B) Helo Underwater Escape – Part 2 Some Thoughts on Monty Python, and the Drill Sergeant. And getting the passengers engaged. After my first Helicopter Dunking Experience, and my rather in-glorious Red-Hat Numpty performance, the years rolled on by. We tiny ants…

Helo Underwater Escape Part 1: Playing Submarine It’s a touchy, sensitive subject. It happens a lot. Too often. People surviving the unscheduled helicopter arrival on a surface of water, perfectly well. Not a scratch. Not a bump. Then, the choppy rolls over, or sinks. And some of the poor guys drown. Some get out. How…

Of Helicopters and Humans Part 25: Benjy the Groundsman (a true story) Many moons ago, and many complete elliptical orbits around our medium class Sun, I was instructing hairplanes and heli-whoppers in a faraway country. It tended to be wet there, and the grass grew often and tall. We had a good old boy there,…

Of Helicopters and Humans Part 24: Of Vomit and Mischief   I have worked as a flying instructor (fixed wing and heli-whoppers) in widely different parts of this funky blue dot. It’s been rather interesting. What sticks in my tiny mind are a great many different things, one of which is the wide variety of…

Of Helicopters and Humans Part 23: Those Dang Dangerous Helicopters I always ask the ground staff to let me know if I’ve got a “First Time Flyer”. A virgin chopper-rider. After all, if they have half a brain, they should be nervous. Maybe a touch of ‘terrified’ even. “What, leaving the ground? In that thing?…