Small Helo Down Lake Travis

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Montz816

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Small helo went down aprox 1-2 hrs ago 2 on board are safe w/o injuries. LCRA , TCSO , TXDPS , TPWD all on scene. Fuel in water aircraft is tied off to a pier per TCSO Lake Unit 10. More to follow when known.
Unk Cause
 

Montz816

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between mile marker 20-21 closer to Mile Marker 21 and angels cove
 

Montz816

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Sorry got tied up on a call , the event was on TCSO Adam and LCRA Disp 1 all med and fire response was on AFD B1.
 

rbarker

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Helo Down

My parents and I were eating lunch at The Pier in Pt Venture, and I saw him about 5 mins before he crashed. I even took a picture of it. That helicopter has flown over before. It has www.boatpix.com on the skids. It can land in the water. He was flying very low and taking pics of boats. He would pass over them and then do a quick turn around, which is why he might have crashed because the air was very hot and he probably could not get enough lift to make his turn. But it somehow ended upside down in the water. I saw the lake patrol boats from the shore; i dunno if they were able to tow it to the shore or what. I have no idea how much of a loss that was. The guy prob was flying too low, but that's what the do to get pics of boats hoping you will go to the website and buy a pic of your boat in the water.
boatpix.jpg
 
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Montz816

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Since there are no current FAA regs on helos and altitude this was bound to happen. The ony regalations on the books are pertaining to critical infrastructure and private property and even then the only thing it says is no airecraft may cause damage to persons or property (rutter wash) but all the same it was great no one was hurt.

And yes the helo was tied off to a TCSO vessel and towed near land for easy recovery. GPS notes were taken of original crash site and debries in the water. A minimal ammount of fuel was dumped into Lake Travis and a citation was issued for water safety act violation.
 

Montz816

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If it was me I would have tagged him on illegal dumping (This would have been for the mear fact of fuel in water) though it was a emergency landing it could have been avoided. If you look in the photo above it shows the helo aprox 50-75 ft above water and this in my eyes is unsafe opperation so I would have looked for whatever cite I could get on it and do it. I know one of my partners did tagg him but that info cant be disclosed at this time but keep in mind what I would have done and draw your own conclusion. :)
 

af5rn

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Dude, that's seriously chicken shyte. Wasn't it just a week ago you were trying to convince us that you don't need to go looking for things to hassle people over? I knew it was BS. Just remember that move next time you can't understand why people don't respect you.
 

dbestfirefighter

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Montz816 said:
Since there are no current FAA regs on helos and altitude this was bound to happen. The ony regalations on the books are pertaining to critical infrastructure and private property and even then the only thing it says is no airecraft may cause damage to persons or property (rutter wash) but all the same it was great no one was hurt.

And yes the helo was tied off to a TCSO vessel and towed near land for easy recovery. GPS notes were taken of original crash site and debries in the water. A minimal ammount of fuel was dumped into Lake Travis and a citation was issued for water safety act violation.

I could go on and on bout FAR 91 but first things first its "rotor wash". No damage or harm to person's or property include, but not limited to passengers, so in effect he "could" have been endangering his passenger. Anytime you operate a helicopter low and slow you are endangering youself, your crew, and anyone in close proximity to the operation. I dont know the specifics to how "boatpics operates" but in the real world "hopefully" you will see a helicopter that is engaged in a slow hover either 1: higher than 500 agl or 2: moving foward at speed greater than 30 knots.
 

letarotor

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Experts Abound

It never ceases to amaze me how people on this forum will come out of the woodwork and message ad-nausium about something that they in-fact have no real clue what the hell they are talking about; i.e.: "rutter wash" being a prime example.

In reading the messages I gather some of you had actually seen this helicopter in the past doing unsafe acts around Lake Travis. If you were such experts about helicopter safety and operations at low altitudes how come you failed to notify the authorities and get something done about it? Nice job folks.
 

jon_k

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letarotor said:
It never ceases to amaze me how people on this forum will come out of the woodwork and message ad-nausium about something that they in-fact have no real clue what the hell they are talking about; i.e.: "rutter wash" being a prime example.

In reading the messages I gather some of you had actually seen this helicopter in the past doing unsafe acts around Lake Travis. If you were such experts about helicopter safety and operations at low altitudes how come you failed to notify the authorities and get something done about it? Nice job folks.

This could have been avoided if he used a telephoto lens and kept the distance. It's sad to see the helicopter trashed, as I didn't think they designed that type anymore. They're also expensive, about $200,000 I believe.

The boatpix.com place looks like a small operation, hopefully they're not put out of business. I can't imagine they have hundreds of helicopters, probably just a few. Perhaps they just rent the helicopter itself, as paying off a helicopter out of photo sales seems impossible to do within any reasonable amount of time.
 
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af5rn

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jon_k said:
It's sad that the helicopter was trashed. I don't think they design that type of helicopter anymore. And they are expensive, I think about $200,000.
They are definitely still made. The R-22 isn't going away anytime soon. They're up to $230k base now, still very cheap in helicopter terms. But yeah, expensive in terms of my bank account!
 

texasemt13

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Enlighten us then expert...

"It never ceases to amaze me how people on this forum will come out of the woodwork and message ad-nausium about something that they in-fact have no real clue what the hell they are talking about; i.e.: "rutter wash" being a prime example.

In reading the messages I gather some of you had actually seen this helicopter in the past doing unsafe acts around Lake Travis. If you were such experts about helicopter safety and operations at low altitudes how come you failed to notify the authorities and get something done about it? Nice job folks."

So what would YOU have done then... expert?


P.S. before insulting other people's "rutter wash" examine "ad nausium."
 

letarotor

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Montz816

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letarotor said:
It never ceases to amaze me how people on this forum will come out of the woodwork and message ad-nausium about something that they in-fact have no real clue what the hell they are talking about; i.e.: "rutter wash" being a prime example.

In reading the messages I gather some of you had actually seen this helicopter in the past doing unsafe acts around Lake Travis. If you were such experts about helicopter safety and operations at low altitudes how come you failed to notify the authorities and get something done about it? Nice job folks.

Thank you for pointing out my wrong wording and you are a great man for it props to you. On the second hand we do contact FAA to get any additional info we can but as previously mentioned there is no regulation on this. And since I am a river cop and deal with critical infrastructure and law directly pertaining to water safety and homeland security I do not know in depth on air laws. Sorry I didn’t go very far into this subject.
 

jon_k

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I though Incidents and Breaking News was for just that...NOT a" Gab Fest"....Just my thoughts...


I think the forums are also aimed toward discussion. If this sub-forum was just meant for breaking events without discussion to me (personally) the forum would have little use (unless the event was within range of my scanner.)

It can benefit both hearing about events to tune in as they happen. I like to hear opinion and discussion about an event, and could also benefit from just knowing of the event.
 
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