In Flight Malfunctions and Emergencies

After reading the Hiller & the big farmer story, I thought I'd
relate something funny that happened to me.

Last week I was doing a sightseeing tour over the reef. The pax
in the left seat was a tiny little gal who was maybe 100 lbs wet.
We'd been in the air for about 30 minutes and she seemed to be
enjoying herself a lot, taking pictures and commenting on all the
sea life. Well then it happened... we were about 100 ft off the
water over the reef when she announces that she's going to throw up.
I asked one of the pax in the back to hand a bag of some kind to her.
They handed her the small gym bag I carry spare life vests and
headsets in. I pulled her mic boom away from her face, and she
went for it.

On the first convulsion, she pushed the collective down. I'm
used to that by now, because no matter how many times I tell
people to stay away from it, they always seem to sit on it.
Then she did something no one's ever done. With each convulsion
forward she'd lean into the cyclic. She did it with such force
that it surprised the hell out of me. You would of thought I was
playing tug of war with a 220lb guy for how much force it took
to hold the stick steady. The convulsions were so loud that she
was breaking the squelch on MY mic. After about a minute of this
she announced that she felt much better, and we all had a pretty
good laugh.

This might not sound all that scary, but I was pretty nervous about
having an unpredictable spastic critter in the copilots seat
(no matter how pretty).

Bart

Rocky wrote:
Seems this area hasn't been touched in awhile and the group is getting
stale. Well, let me stir the pot and see who is still aboard.