Helicopter Close Call in Stunt Flying Near Crash in Bell Jet Ranger at Airshow in Ohlsdorf Austria

Helicopter Close Call in Stunt Flying Near Crash in Bell Jet Ranger at an Airshow in Ohlsdorf Austria in 2004. There have been a number of comments about this video -- many of which are critical of the pilot in what looks like an unintentional and potentially dangerous stunt. The Professional Pilots Rumour Network PPRuNe Forums have a number of contributions including this one from Nick Lappos (USA) -- "The touchdown was surely unintentional, the result of his lack of understanding of how to do that kind of maneuver. The impact was gentle, as measured by the skid deflection, which was small (a few inches) and not permanent. The tail cone oscillation is big, but actually at the high end of normal (try it on the ground, and see how it bounces when you shove on it.). One lucky guy, who really did nothing to earn that luck, judging by his first pass, which was so low it was actionable all by itself. In any descent maneuver like that "torque turn" the pilot should never still be in a true maneuver state as he approaches the ground. Display pilots know that you just exit the upper maneuver and stabilize the descent, then smoothly fly down to the desired pass altitude with virtually no G on the aircraft. This guy was still in his pullout trying to avoid the ground when he touched. Very bad technique, not likely to turn into a habit!"