• MeatsOfRage@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Is that dangerous? I was under the impression helicopters were designed with specific balance in mind

    • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Only if you are pushing boundaries of the performance of the helicopter. Yes, they are designed with a specific balance in mind, but that balance is an envelope not a single number. They need to have capability to add people as well as have those people move around in flight. Some are designed to carry payloads/cargo, too, which can be variable in weight and shape. Have you ever seen a rescue helicopter flying with a gurney dangling by a line, swinging in the wind with a patient strapped to it? Same thing.

      • teft@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        flying with a gurney

        Military helicopters can fly with all sorts of stuff slung under them. It’s how we got our radar around sometimes when I was in the army.

      • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I used to fly on the company helicopter pretty regularly. It would go around to the different sites in the broader area, picking up and dropping off. One time, we stopped at a site and a very, very large man got in and sat in back on one side. He was about as heavy as you can imagine a person being and still walking around on his own power. The pilot went straight up from the pad a couple hundred feet, played with settings on the stick, dropped maybe twenty feet, played some more, up and down a couple more times, then flew away like normal. I’d never seen them do that before or after. I assume he must have been getting the settings right for the unusually unbalanced load.

          • AFK BRB Chocolate@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            My coworker who was on that flight was really anxious about it. I was pretty confident that it was just a matter of balancing the load.

            In those days I was getting to take the helicopter for a meeting with every other week, and it was always the highlight of the week. Those things are just so damned fun. They can clearly haul a lot more weight than a cab full of people.