I’ve been listening to Tammy Duckworth’s Every Day Is a Gift. Tammy was a helicopter pilot and I laughed when she included this Harry Reasoner quote.
The thing is, helicopters are different from planes. An airplane by its nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or by an incompetent pilot, it will fly. A helicopter does not want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls working in opposition to each other, and if there is any disturbance in this delicate balance the helicopter stops flying; immediately and disastrously. There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter.
This is why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why in generality, airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant extroverts and helicopter pilots are brooding introspective anticipators of trouble. They know if something bad has not happened it is about to.
—Harry Reasoner
Apparently Reasoner’s view wasn’t that unusual:
You can always tell a helicopter pilot in anything moving: a train, an airplane, a car or a boat. They never smile, they are always listening to the machine and they always hear something they think is not right. Helicopter pilots fly in a mode of intensity, actually more like “spring loaded” while waiting for pieces of their ship to fall off.
—Helicopter Pilots Are Different
It makes me appreciate those firefighting helicopters even more.
May 28, 2022
Interesting view of the difference in pilots for those aircraft.
They had fun writing it. 🙂 I’m glad I don’t have to fly one!
I posted this on Facebook with a special mention of a former colleague of mine who was a helicopter pilot in the t.v. news business.
I would love to know your friend’s thoughts on the matter.
you learn something every day – and I guess with the smallness and such like you have a keen ear on the noises, wanting them to sound normal … wherever you are in the machinery.
Helicopter pilots have to stay especially vigilant because helicopters are aeronautically unstable.
wow, now we know I should have been a helicopter pilot! this describes me when in any thing I am contained in that moves on land or sea or air. this is really interesting. God bless those firefighters in the air, both plane and helicopters.
I thought of you when I wrote this. 😀
While I’d never dream of becoming a pilot, that second description fits me to a tee whenever I have to fly. I’ve an old book somewhere that really helped me in that regard — educational and funny, too: White Knuckles by Layne Ridley.
I’ll have to look that up. 🙂
what a wonderful post!
I had never thought of that. it’s a fascinating thought. it makes me think of them in a whole new way. my husband could fly and was even a commercial pilot at one time for a wealthy (foolish) man. Bob was taught by the man who taught Wiley Post to fly. Burrell Tibbs. Burrell would test him by asking him where he would land if he just lost an engine… etc.
when a helicopter is in trouble… it’s a whole different story! just DOWN!
it makes me look at the ones that fly for our news reports with a whole new respect! I loved the quote from Reasoner. and thank you for the link to Helicopter Pilots are Different!
The advantage of helicopters are it’s easier to find a place to land. But they are aeronautically unstable and the controls are interconnected. The pilots have to know what they are doing.
An interesting read. I love Tammy Duckworth.
I do too. It’s a great book.
That is very interesting and intense. I definitely admire them for their skills.
Me too. 🙂
“There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter.” Yes, there is. It’s called auto rotation and it’s how you safely land when things go wonky. My Dave got the joy? of teaching student pilots to do that.
The authors were having a good time with those quotes. They exaggerated for the sake of effect. 😀
I’ve never flown in a helicopter but would love to experience that. Maybe not fighting fire but just a “joy ride”. I’ve been told that flying one takes a great amount of hand, foot, eye & brain coordination.
Interesting blog today
I’ve never wanted to ride in one because of the noise, but I didn’t know how much skill it took to fly one.
I am not sure how I would feel about riding in a helicopter…but thank goodness there are pilots that fly them. Roger was life-lined to bigger hospital in one. We have been told more than once by people at local hospital that God was with us because the helicopter was close by when he had his brain bleed.
I’m glad they got to him so quickly. Andy had a brain bleed which fortunately wasn’t fatal. They had trouble getting an ambulance and they had to drive him to Albuquerque, 100 miles away. He didn’t get there until about 10 that evening even though he had gone to the ER early in the afternoon. We were lucky the bleed had stopped by itself.