Helicopter Capture Compilation

[theat]

sfgagas

 

[Stifler]

Mmmhmm yes... tell us more about your old job. Living the life it looks like

 

[MNElkNut]

Fascinating. The ability and talent of the pilots is unbelievable. Thanks a lot for sharing!

 

[seeth07]

Might be the coolest thing ever posted on HT?

 

[jryoung]

I feel like Fortunate Son or Flight of the Valkyries really needs to be a part of the soundtrack. Awesome footage as always @theat

 

[Big Fin]

Doing that on a daily basis elevates the lever of courage and coolness to the nth degree, for all involved.

 

[Frequently Banned Troll]

That is some bad ass work.

 

[Mtnhunter1]

Awesome....simply Awesome!

 

[buckbull]

it looks like some of those cow elk hit the ground pretty hard when netted. What technique results in a safer outcome, net or tranquillizer?

 

[MThuntr]

As jealous as I am of you for doing something so badass, I know jumping out of that helicopter and tackling animals is brutal on your body.

 

[TheTone]

Cool stuff! I can’t imagine untangling those net gunned bucks was all that fun

 

[Frequently Banned Troll]

@theat I suggest a user name change to BallsofSTEEL

 

[DFS]

The chopper going around trees in the old burn is scary. That pilot is a badass.

 

[Bambistew]

That's some wild west shit. Thanks for sharing! I recognized a few of those locations.

 

[MThuntr]

Some of the most intense experiences of my life involved chasing, being chased by, and eventually taking down large bull elk wearing multiple nets like a superman cape.

These are the videos I want to see and completely understand why you aren't doing that job anymore

 

[Corn king 60]

Might be the best 19 minute movie I ever seen.
Great skill all around.thanks for sharing

 

[TheTone]

I've worked with helicopters quite a bit and flown with at lease two dozen different pilots. These capture pilots are on a completely different level. Not many guys can handle the constant stress of that kind of aggressive flying all day, everyday for months. The company I worked for hired a couple former 160th Special Operations pilots. One only lasted half a day and the other a week before quitting.

There is so much going on and so many life and death decisions being made constantly. They have to watch the terrain, watch for trees and power lines etc, and know what the wind is doing. While paying attention to all that, they use the helicopter to push the target animal to a spot where he can get close enough for the gunner to get a good shot that will also be relatively safe for the animal and the guys getting out.

There were many times where we had to push something out of the timber and into a small opening. The pilot then had to time it right so that for a split second the animal and the gunner were both lined up before pulling up and missing the trees on the other side of the clearing. Had a few times while I was onboard where tree tops scraped some paint off the skids and belly.

I did helicopter surveys one time and called it good. Nothing weird or bad happened on that flight but shortly after it I moved to an area with vastly different habitat, terrain and with more history of bad helicopter experiences. People that fly a lot and for capture work are doing stuff I want nothing to do with

 

[tjones]

Very cool, thanks for sharing.

 

[Bigjay73]

Does it make regular hunting less interesting? That is insanely awesome!

 

[MTTW]

@theat, you post the most interesting videos that I ever see. Good stuff.