Nap-of-the-Earth Helicopter Video

[mountain monster]

Wow! Beautiful

 

[brownbear932008]

Best job EVER I still say!!!

 

[elkduds]

I've been going through a bunch of old footage I have taken over the years and started to put together some videos. Figured if I didn't do something with it, they would just sit on an old hard drive and fade into obscurity in my cluttered mind.

In this first part of a video from my 2015 field season, we got to fly with an incredible pilot. He was part of a team that trained special forces helicopter pilots from many different nations in the intricacies of low level mountain flying. I talked him into doing some pretty aggressive low level ridgeline flying. The video doesn't do it justice. This footage is from Southern BC in the Cascades and Alberta in the Waterton Lakes area.

On top of the incredible visuals, the opening music selection is adamantly approved.

 

[theat]

Very cool footage. Are there any Mule deer in the mountains in that country?

I'm sure that they are there, but I didn't see very many of them or other big game along the 49th. Saw more bears than anything. I did see tons of moose, caribou, dall and stone sheep, as well as both species of bears along the Alaska/Yukon border. We usually tried to avoid flying close to wildlife, but there were a bunch of places we were working up there where it was impossible to avoid them.

















Flew right by these rams everyday for a month. They would run off almost every time, and be right back in the same spot the next morning.

 

[theat]

On top of the incredible visuals, the opening music selection is adamantly approved.

Ha! I grew up overseas and had limited exposure to good classic rock. I had heard and liked several of The Who's tunes, but had never heard Eminence Front until the pilot in this video played it on the intercom one day while we were flying. It has since made its way to the top of my "get me fired up" playlist.