500 pilot here and I have had over 2000 houres in My cat and it has become just an extension of My body. For those of you who are scared of busting your machine, stop flying. As for hitting a limb from a tree the blade will cut up to a 6" limb like butter, My companty found this out before sending us out to the Congo. You can spped up your blades if you think you might hit a tree just to make sure you cut through it. Now as for rocks your blades can loos up to 8" and still fly if your lucky.
These blokes have all my respect. The took risks but so what this is amazing and imagine the adrenaline rush and the money. This would have been the high lights of their lives. NZ rules
I fly RC helicopters and they have a saying, "If you don't have grass stains on your blades, you're doing it wrong." Looks like this pilot is following a similar mantra. :)
If anyone read the book "chickenhawk " by Robert mason he on a few occasions had to use the blades of his Huey to chop small branches to extricate the (often overloaded with wounded and grunts) Huey from particularly hot zones and return to safety . Many called it foolhardy but for the most it was an understanding of design and limitations and exercising discretion so the calculated risks remained within tolerable ranges even if on the odd occasion he dented a blade or two and yes we are talking about considerably larger and more robust blades but it nevertheless still comes down to knowing your machine intimately and understanding how far the limits of each can be safely stretched
The difference being, Robert had no choice, people were going to die if he didn't get them out. He wouldn't have flown like that to get ice-cream for the fellas. And the slicks were a much larger machine, built a lot tougher than this little machine. No way in hell I'd use a machine as a lawn mower, especially if I was paying the bills.
I've never seen it, but read about UH-1 pilots in Vietnam having to "open up" landing zones where the gap wasn't quite large enough. Seems the Loach could have done a similar job!
Yup. "Heli holes".... The blade construction on thoes UH1As was strong enough to handle it. I don't know about the 500D though. If it has some kind of a composite construction, it seems like something could easily end up breaking. At the very least they are limiting the service life of those blades by doing that. I saw an r22 blade that struck a wire once. The inner honeycomb and skin looked like it exploded and the spar was bent badly.... A large tree branch would have a similar effect...
I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW THIS'S ABUSIN THE HUGHES C-500 HELICOPTER? I DON'T UNDERSTAND. I THINK IT'S SOME AWESOME DANG FLYIN FER WHAT THEY'RE DOIN. GREAT JOB!
Noooo! I got time in that machine and blades have to be well balance to fly for the best perform, you guys have a lot of luck doing that,be careful and skip the branches.
You have no idea what it was like back then, it wasnt no training course, or no stunt, Everything was pushed the the limits, its how you made your buck with the competition and to stay in the game. If you must know Steves still flying for Erickson Aircranes, still alive
A: How do you shoot your own skid? and B: With the rotors "trimming" those trees, only a matter of time before one trims to far... but at least you'll be close to the ground when you crash :)
Hughes 500 is a great helicopter. Anyone wondering how a rotor blade can chop small branches it is no different than a limp nylon line cutting heavy grass in a weedeater when at high rpm.
@ritualghost Sorry bro, it IS a Hughes... the MD500 has a slightly different profile to the front windscreen. Also, there are two different skid heights for the Hughes, so yes, they CAN sit tall, just as this one does. The Hughes 500 has the T tail as well. Dont try to argue this point with me, I'm around the Hughes 500's every day... the company I fly pipeline patrol for owns three of them, JUST like this one.
Dont start with me again on this man. there is no.... Take care of your gear and it will take Care of you. Like I said be for Go to New Zealand and try and fly around there yourself. Engine Cut out at 300 feet and the Machine is Brand new...... pilot error?
They were captured to populate the (then) new deer farms (farmers were breeding them for their velvet and their meat). At their peak in 1979, farmers were paying NZ$3,000 a head (($10,000 today with inflation). It wasn’t unusual for the crews to capture up to 30 a day, hence the odd risky bit of flying.
These blokes where earning good money back in these days yes there where dangers but they new they walked the line some did'nt make it and some did. Here you work it out 1200 dollars an hour to run the chopper (excluding the pilot and the shooters wages)A good stag would be worth between 5000 to 8000 dollars live catch and then there where hinds and these blokes back in the day would catch anything between 10 to 30 in a day so you do the math
and just to add to my Warth the pilot flying that 500 died of old age and walked away from ever crash. he was among the Best in NZ if not world wide. take a trip to NZ its not an eazy place to fly and these pilot's could fly blind folded. Shame on YOU,
@flybradfield85 IT'S STILL SOME AWESOME DANG GOOD FLYIN. WISH I HAD THE "GREENS" TO GO TO FLITE SCHOOL. I'VED LOVED "HELOS" EVER SINCE I WAS NO BIGGER THAN UH GRASSHOPPER. READ & STUDIED BOUT PLANES & HELICOPTERS ALL THRU JR. HIGH & HIGH SCHOOL. WAS AN AVIATION MECH IN THE MILITARY FER 4 YRS WAY BACK WHEN. GOT SCREWED OUTTUH MY G. I. BILL.
most kiwi's ive know flying in Canada are not only a total liability, but completely unprofessional and ignorant. a good pilot uses superior judgement to limit the times he must use superior skill. the only part of the machine that should touch anything other than air, are the skids. and throwing that machine around like that is not skill, its hot dogging. any 2-300 hr pilot could do that, now keep it out of the trees thats the hard part, as demonstrated by this video.
500c has the y tail dosent it and is part of the 500 series the d serriesand the e serries are the t tails the only 500 serries with out the t tail is the c model my dad flew in the c model 500c in vietnam
@agcatdriver Nah huges sit way lower to the ground and have different looking tails. The Macdonald Douglas is higher and has the T tail. They are different but nice try... not a huges.
@natvtxn01 If your a pilot and think that what we see here is great skill then I would never want to be in your or these guys helicopter. (Also a pilot)
@ritualghost WOW you want an award for fingering that out that MD stands for Macdonald Douglas... you might want to use Google cos last time i checked Huges made a MD ( which is the model name of the Huges MD 500 series) AA++ for acting you age ( 16 ). watch?v=-08j6aTGB2w&feature=related lets all point and Laugh at your Humiliation.
500 pilot here and I have had over 2000 houres in My cat and it has become just an extension of My body. For those of you who are scared of busting your machine, stop flying. As for hitting a limb from a tree the blade will cut up to a 6" limb like butter, My companty found this out before sending us out to the Congo. You can spped up your blades if you think you might hit a tree just to make sure you cut through it. Now as for rocks your blades can loos up to 8" and still fly if your lucky.
These blokes have all my respect. The took risks but so what this is amazing and imagine the adrenaline rush and the money. This would have been the high lights of their lives. NZ rules
holy cow man. these pilots have serious balls! trimming trees
It's a high performance aircraft, and the only abuse is to the occupants! Rock On MD 500
I wouldn't do it. But, if the blades are nearly out of time, they are going to get replaced anyway.
What's the maximum branch diameter you can wack before your rotors explode?
Looks like some amazing skills to me.
I fly RC helicopters and they have a saying, "If you don't have grass stains on your blades, you're doing it wrong." Looks like this pilot is following a similar mantra. :)
Brings new meaning to "chopper"
incredible flying
Steve Podjurski did not abuse that halicopter
Welp..One day one of those blades is going to catch a bigger twig and something bad is going to happen..
If anyone read the book "chickenhawk " by Robert mason he on a few occasions had to use the blades of his Huey to chop small branches to extricate the (often overloaded with wounded and grunts) Huey from particularly hot zones and return to safety . Many called it foolhardy but for the most it was an understanding of design and limitations and exercising discretion so the calculated risks remained within tolerable ranges even if on the odd occasion he dented a blade or two and yes we are talking about considerably larger and more robust blades but it nevertheless still comes down to knowing your machine intimately and understanding how far the limits of each can be safely stretched
The difference being, Robert had no choice, people were going to die if he didn't get them out. He wouldn't have flown like that to get ice-cream for the fellas. And the slicks were a much larger machine, built a lot tougher than this little machine. No way in hell I'd use a machine as a lawn mower, especially if I was paying the bills.
They shorter the main rotor blades quite a bit......it makes the craft handle
fast inputs better.
I've never seen it, but read about UH-1 pilots in Vietnam having to "open up" landing zones where the gap wasn't quite large enough. Seems the Loach could have done a similar job!
Yup. "Heli holes".... The blade construction on thoes UH1As was strong enough to handle it. I don't know about the 500D though. If it has some kind of a composite construction, it seems like something could easily end up breaking. At the very least they are limiting the service life of those blades by doing that.
I saw an r22 blade that struck a wire once. The inner honeycomb and skin looked like it exploded and the spar was bent badly.... A large tree branch would have a similar effect...
I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW THIS'S ABUSIN THE HUGHES C-500 HELICOPTER? I DON'T UNDERSTAND. I THINK IT'S SOME AWESOME DANG FLYIN FER WHAT THEY'RE DOIN. GREAT JOB!
this is how you fly your neighbors helicopter
lets see, why is it that new zealand helicopters always crash?
Noooo! I got time in that machine and blades have to be well balance to fly for the best perform, you guys have a lot of luck doing that,be careful and skip the branches.
You have no idea what it was like back then, it wasnt no training course, or no stunt, Everything was pushed the the limits, its how you made your buck with the competition and to stay in the game. If you must know Steves still flying for Erickson Aircranes, still alive
steve can fly a 500 beta backwards then sum pilots foward from wot iv ben told
hes hedging at 1.20
A: How do you shoot your own skid? and B: With the rotors "trimming" those trees, only a matter of time before one trims to far... but at least you'll be close to the ground when you crash :)
there are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are never any old bold pilots
ahh thats nothing. we fly into the trees in canada
the pilot is drunk. awful flying
Incredible flying, a real master
Now that is precision flying! YOu have got to have some serious gonads to get that close to certain death!
Bit of of B/S there mate, maybe 5 to 10 live deer off one machine per day would be good going, and they were worth around $3000 at their peak.
thats nothing short of awesome great work guy's
The 500D is an amazing machine. A Bell can't even compare. Why were you needing a helicopter to hunt deer though?
Must have been so cheap to fly a turbine helo back in the 90's when Jet-A aviation gas prices were lower than $3.00 a gallon.
Name calling? Nice work fellow American.....
Hughes 500 is a great helicopter. Anyone wondering how a rotor blade can chop small branches it is no different than a limp nylon line cutting heavy grass in a weedeater when at high rpm.
WOW, all that just for deer. Pretty awesome stuff right there!
@ritualghost Sorry bro, it IS a Hughes... the MD500 has a slightly different profile to the front windscreen. Also, there are two different skid heights for the Hughes, so yes, they CAN sit tall, just as this one does. The Hughes 500 has the T tail as well. Dont try to argue this point with me, I'm around the Hughes 500's every day... the company I fly pipeline patrol for owns three of them, JUST like this one.
Can't come at me with anything so pick on the spelling thumbs up man you're a winner.
Legendary.
this is what a helicopter was made for! i'd love to do this job, no questions asked!
I've been looking for tree trimmer, are you bonded?
@natvtxn01 Abuse is on the bird, not the deer lol
back then the deer were worth about a grand each, you'd get people often getting 150 plus per day... it was a way to make money.
amazing :D
holy shit that is wild and loose
actually mcdonald douglas made the 500. Huges just bought it.
you are obliviously not a pilot.
pretty impressive, but i'd hate to be in that heli if it lost power in one of those manuevers, very slim chance for a succesful auto....
That's on crazy MO-FO! ;-)
1:05 But will it blend?
(left of the rotor)
HUZ is still with same owner
lol'ing @ "macdonald" douglas down below... it's mcdonnell. wise ass.
those were the days when men were men. I can only dream of it
1:12 and 1:16
There's no way that could be good for the blades. That's gotta chew the leading edge right up.
Dont start with me again on this man. there is no.... Take care of your gear and it will take Care of you. Like I said be for Go to New Zealand and try and fly around there yourself. Engine Cut out at 300 feet and the Machine is Brand new...... pilot error?
Poor Rambo.
I know the Gunner that's for sure it P. Wright but I though that was D. Sangster flaying. ( my spelling might be wrong)
What made the deer so valuable?
back in the 70's people were getting thousands per deer
They were captured to populate the (then) new deer farms (farmers were breeding them for their velvet and their meat). At their peak in 1979, farmers were paying NZ$3,000 a head (($10,000 today with inflation). It wasn’t unusual for the crews to capture up to 30 a day, hence the odd risky bit of flying.
Where can I buy helicopter?
It's Hughes, not Huges.
kiwi pilots are the best in the world,
@bionictrucker1 they are hitting Trees with the Main Rotor, But This is how real men fly
Meanwhile, on DayZ
These guys hunting?
These blokes where earning good money back in these days yes there where dangers but they new they walked the line some did'nt make it and some did. Here you work it out 1200 dollars an hour to run the chopper (excluding the pilot and the shooters wages)A good stag would be worth between 5000 to 8000 dollars live catch and then there where hinds and these blokes back in the day would catch anything between 10 to 30 in a day so you do the math
deer hunting?
O____o
and just to add to my Warth the pilot flying that 500 died of old age and walked away from ever crash. he was among the Best in NZ if not world wide. take a trip to NZ its not an eazy place to fly and these pilot's could fly blind folded.
Shame on YOU,
I wonder if this guy is still alive.
No! Dennis died in a fixed wing aircraft on his way to Nelson
deers.
elvisisthatu I still do it.
@flybradfield85 IT'S STILL SOME AWESOME DANG GOOD FLYIN. WISH I HAD THE "GREENS" TO GO TO FLITE SCHOOL. I'VED LOVED "HELOS" EVER SINCE I WAS NO BIGGER THAN UH GRASSHOPPER. READ & STUDIED BOUT PLANES & HELICOPTERS ALL THRU JR. HIGH & HIGH SCHOOL. WAS AN AVIATION MECH IN THE MILITARY FER 4 YRS WAY BACK WHEN. GOT SCREWED OUTTUH MY G. I. BILL.
most kiwi's ive know flying in Canada are not only a total liability, but completely unprofessional and ignorant. a good pilot uses superior judgement to limit the times he must use superior skill. the only part of the machine that should touch anything other than air, are the skids. and throwing that machine around like that is not skill, its hot dogging. any 2-300 hr pilot could do that, now keep it out of the trees thats the hard part, as demonstrated by this video.
Really!!! so you saying MD worked for Huges disguised the 500 and Huges made it?.... dam it did i just say Huges "made it".... sorry.
500c has the y tail dosent it and is part of the 500 series the d serriesand the e serries are the t tails the only 500 serries with out the t tail is the c model my dad flew in the c model 500c in vietnam
or is it stupid?
thats in new zealand dollars which is tuppents to the aussie let aolone the american dollar
@agcatdriver Nah huges sit way lower to the ground and have different looking tails. The Macdonald Douglas is higher and has the T tail. They are different but nice try... not a huges.
that is just ignorant
@CropDusterMan Or none at all ;)
Its worth it!
@serhgut ...lighten up yank its just a bit of fun.
@natvtxn01 If your a pilot and think that what we see here is great skill then I would never want to be in your or these guys helicopter. (Also a pilot)
Anyone who thinks this is ok is obviously not a pilot... So go ahead and fly your arm chairs into the bushes all you want to.
Dart the dear and it falls off the cliff?
Blade strikes on purpose?
Sigh, stupid humans.
@ritualghost WOW you want an award for fingering that out that MD stands for Macdonald Douglas... you might want to use Google cos last time i checked Huges made a MD ( which is the model name of the Huges MD 500 series) AA++ for acting you age ( 16 ).
watch?v=-08j6aTGB2w&feature=related
lets all point and Laugh at your Humiliation.