helipcopters are death traps........
Yup, fully agree. They are lethal fcuking things, especially when maintenance is skimped.
I live under a regular flight path where one of their fleet crashed, killing about 9 or so oil workers a while back. The bastards repeatedly fly well below 1000 feet, over villiages, yet I like in a very rural county. Many, many years ago, one of my best mates was a helicopter engineering technician, and he always commented that they had faulty, damaged or poorly maintained rotor blades (he could tell by the "sound" they made), and a few years later, the one that crashed was proven to have faulty and incompetently maintained rotor blades.
The big problem with all rotary wing aircraft (helicopters), is when a problem occurs which affects the big fan, it will drop out of the sky like a lead baloon with absolutly no control at all. If there are houses/schools, etc directly below, they are impossible to avoid. On the other hand, if a fixed wing areoplane has engine troubles, the flight control surfaces are still operable, enabling successful emergency glide control, thus allowing a (relatively) safe landing away from buildings etc.
I really think helo licences should only be held by full time pilots - and this would stop the propensity of rich footballers/rally drivers, etc, from piloting their own helis (or hired rent-a-copters) from flying them on infrequent basis, where they are unable to build up the necessary skills.
Rant mode over!
