Across Australia by Helicopter.

[MeMock]

I read a book about Rod Ansell once. Dope crop on his property? Doesn't surprise me in the least!

Some great pics you have there Nawty. It really deserves its own thread as you would get a lot more people looking at them then at the tail end of my thread. The croc one in the tojo is a classic!

Any more?

[MeMock]

Serves me right for bringing up the accident.

It has happened again.

Same company, rumour has it an R44. It would appear to be locals as one of the girls I knew so am assuming the rest are her friends. Still waiting to find out who was the pilot.



FOUR people are dead after a helicopter understood to belong to former ironman Grant Kenny crashed in the Bungle Bungle ranges in the Kimberley.

The 40-year-old pilot and three female tourists - one thought to be aged 19 and the other two 20 - were killed when the helicopter went down during a scenic flight to the Purnululu National Park yesterday afternoon.

The helicopter burst into flames when it crashed 10km from the Bellburn air strip in the national park, near the Argyle diamond mine.

Regular daily tours fly tourists to the World Heritage-listed area, which has spectacular limestone outcrops.

The helicopter company involved is believed to be Slingair Heliwork, purchased in May by Curry Kenny Aviation Group and based in Kununurra.

The names of the dead have not been released.

Police were still last night assessing the crash scene, which was cordoned off.

Slingair Heliwork was not available for comment.

The Curry Kenny Aviation group is a major player in the industry in Australia and Papua New Guinea, and the Queensland-based company is one of the country's largest private aviation operators.

The crash sparked a bushfire that built into a blaze with a 1km-long front.

Department of Environment and Conservation fire control manager Murray Carter said the blaze sparked by the crash was still burning late last night.

"At the moment, it's still running, as conditions are warm," he said.

"We still expect with cooler conditions tonight we can stop it ... It's removed from all the visitor sites.
"We'll just try to get the fire out as quickly as we can."

Police said the bushfire did not threaten campers.

Bellburn airstrip, where the helicopter went down, is a bush camp in the park about 55km by air from the township of Warnum, which is also known as Turkey Creek.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority was investigating the accident.

Slingair Heliwork, WA's biggest privately owned aviation company until its takeover, operated 36 aircraft out of bases in the East Kimberley.

The acquisition of the company took the Curry Kenny Aviation Group to about 60 rotary and fixed-wing aircraft and almost 200 staff.

Slingair, founded by West Australian identity Kerry Slingsby from a one-man helicopter mustering business, was a three-time winner of the Sir David Brand Award for Tourism.

The crash comes seven months after two people died when a light plane collided with a helicopter over Western Australia's Gascoyne region.

The collision occurred as the two aircraft were conducting a feral goat culling program in the Kennedy Range National Park, 170km east of Carnarvon.

[Nawty]

These things usually happen in 3's as they say.

And unfortunately, many times the pilots flying the tourist routes are the inexperienced ones, building hours and when the shit hits the fans, they lack the experience to pull it out of the shit. This may not be the case here, just saying it is often the way.

Sad that 3 young girls died in it and people you knew.

[jandajoy]

I thought you might be interested in this Nawty. In todays NT News



Four escape injury as helicopter crash lands
BEN LANGFORD
September 22nd, 2008




FOUR people escaped injury as a helicopter crashed after a scenic flight in the Territory yesterday morning.
The three female Dutch tourists and the male pilot walked away from the crash.
It is the third tourist flight to crash in the NT this month.
The first accident took place on August 24 when a pilot was killed and his passenger injured after his helicopter ploughed into powerlines and slammed into the ground.
The second incident occurred September 7 when a light plane made an emergency landing on Whitewood Road, Howard Springs . Amazingly, the pilot and passengers escaped with only a few minor injuries.
PHOTO GALLERY: View images of a plane that crash landed on Whitewood Road, Howard Springs on September 7.
The aircraft crashed at Kings Creek Station, about 35km from Kings Canyon in Central Australia.
Police said the pilot was about 6m from the ground as he was landing when a gust of wind lifted the craft from underneath and blew it off course.
The pilot was able to steer the stricken chopper away from fuel drums near the helipad but the rotors hit a wind sock and the aircraft crashed to the ground.
Tour operator Reg Ramsden was last night hailed as a hero for rushing to the downed chopper to pull out the passengers.
"I just did what I had to do," he said.
"One minute he's just about to land and the next minute it's thrown back up in the air.
"He hit the windsock (then) he dropped it into a sand dune which brought everything under control."
After the helicopter hit the ground, and while the rotor was still thrashing around, Mr Ramsden rushed over to help the passengers out.
"There was all bits of debris flying around," he said.
"I ran over with a fire extinguisher and started ripping doors off."
Police said the three female tourists on board were from Holland and the group had been on a scenic tourist flight.
The 41-year-old male pilot and three female passengers were not injured but were treated for shock.
The helicopter was extensively damaged and will be written off.
The Air Transport Safety Bureau will receive reports from the pilot and the helicopter company.
Police said the tourists were cleared to return to the coach tour to Alice Springs and then to Darwin.

[Nawty]

Well, thats the 3rd....so safe to go flying now.

We were going to go to NT next month, decided not to now and wait till next year. If we had, we would have gone to Katherine gorge and done the flight. It was worrying me even before leaving the country, tourist flights and inexperienced pilots and me on board with my kids and wife.

Thanks for posting it.

[Bobcock]

Now you know how people felt when they flew with you.

Actually I can safely say that some people feel like that just spending time with you.

[jandajoy]

That Gorge flight is pretty bloody good though. Especially when the river's up.

[Nawty]

Cock....I have only ever had 3 people chunder when I fly.

As for the gorge, I have flown down the guts of it, below wall height...2 helicopters playing dog fights on the way home from jobs to relieve the boredom.

As for flooded and full of water, I was dropped off at the 13th gorge with friends of mine with one of the biggest rafting companies from Cairns in the middle of the wet season. We were to attempt the first white water raft of the gorge. My friend is an olympic kayaker.

We attempted, we failed big time....there were casualties.

In fact MM I am still waiting to hear back from the guy at Katherine Times, no reply as yet.

[Smeg]

Was an awesome trip for sure. With some spectacular scenary and some really REALLY boring parts as well.

It's not a trip I'd want to do. I can't imagine anything more boring than sitting in the back of a chopper for a week (or whatever it was) looking out of the window. I'd rather see the views on a DVD an hour or so at a time from the comfort of my sofa before doing the real trip on a Yamaha R6.

[jandajoy]

before doing the real trip on a Yamaha R6.

Across Aus on a bike ?? Hmmm maybe but I think you'd be bored shitless.

[jandajoy]

In fact MM I am still waiting to hear back from the guy at Katherine Times, no reply as yet.

Tubby bloke with glasses and greasy black hair?

[MeMock]

overweight yes, greasy hair - well considering he is italian yes, glasses - not sure but sounds like Vince to me! I have only met him once but used to talk on the phone about once a month for 10 years.

Thats a shame he hasn't replied to you yet - try one more time and if no luck let me know and I will give him a call.

[jandajoy]

Vince, that's the bloke. Odd sort of chap. Never particularly reliable.

[MeMock]

In fact MM I am still waiting to hear back from the guy at Katherine Times, no reply as yet.

Vince, that's the bloke. Odd sort of chap. Never particularly reliable.

looks like he hasn't changed

[jandajoy]

We used to try and get him to do stuff on some of the remoter areas out of Katherine. He could never be assed to leave K. Mataranka was a bout as far as he'd go. So we'd do stories and photos for him but he never really cooperated. Never mind. All water under the bridge now.

[Nawty]

I will send again and hopefully get a reply one day...would love to get the article again for old times sake.

I can understand Smeg not wanting to do it by helicopter...some people are scared of things like that and just to lazy to get out of their comfy lounge chair and thats a good thing, if everyone could/would/did do it, it would be boring and no real fun for the people that have a bit of 'ooomph' about them.

[MeMock]

We used to try and get him to do stuff on some of the remoter areas out of Katherine. He could never be assed to leave K. Mataranka was a bout as far as he'd go. So we'd do stories and photos for him but he never really cooperated. Never mind. All water under the bridge now.

Jandajoy, please refresh my memory with what you were doing again in the NT.

You didn't send any articles to The Kimberley Echo did you?

[jandajoy]

You didn't send any articles to The Kimberley Echo did
you?

Don't think so. We always went towards Kath. and DWN.

[MeMock]

Well, thats the 3rd....so safe to go flying now.

Dunno about that.

I forgot to post this last week when it happened.


Seven survive ocean chopper crash

September 25, 2008 06:46pm

SEVEN people have survived a terrifying helicopter crash while on a scenic flight near Derby, in the far north of Western Australia.

The Bell 407 helicopter crashed into the ocean at Talbot Bay minutes after taking off from the holiday vessel True North.

It had six passengers and a pilot on board and police say it is believed to have had engine failure.

The helicopter had left the True North just after 8am for a scenic flight around the Horizontal Falls area.

All those aboard were rescued within minutes of the crash but the pilot was not able to activate the aircraft's flotation device and it sunk in 30m of water.

One of the passengers swallowed water, needed CPR, and was flown to Broome hospital by float plane.

She was in a stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery.




And then this yesterday:




Chopper crashes in Outback
NIGEL ADLAM

October 2nd, 2008

A FORMER professional bull rider was seriously ill in hospital last night after a helicopter crash in the Outback.

Robby Cook, 27, suffered severe spinal injuries - but the chopper pilot walked away from the wreck unscathed. The rodeo champion's parents were heading to Adelaide last night to be at their son's bedside.

Mr Cook was badly hurt when the chopper crashed on Suplejack Downs Station, near Lajamanu, 350km west of Tennant Creek, on Tuesday.

Another helicopter flew to the crash site and ferried him to an airstrip 90km away.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service then whisked him to Alice Springs Hospital, which immediately medivacced him to the specialist spinal injuries clinic in Adelaide.

Police said last night the crash had not been reported to them.

Investigators are expected to arrive at the station today.

Mr Cook's sister Lilly, 31, said her brother was in intensive care last night.

Parents Bill and Letty Cook, who run the 3823sq km station, and two-year-old grandson Braxton were driving to Adelaide last night.

Mr Cook's wife Sarah, 26, and six-month-old baby Lawson are in Adelaide.



I have never known so many choppers to go down around the top end so close together time wise.

[Nawty]

Me to....but these other 2 are just the start of the next 3 in a row.

Usually there is sometime between the 3somes, but with global warming....who knows.

Scary the True North accident, that was one trip I wanted to do in the kimberleys one day. The waters they travel in and probably where they went down in, are infested with crocodiles.

The waterfall that the boat goes into and pokes its nose under, is the same spot where a tourist got chomped years ago....prince regent, king regent,.. something like that falls/gorge....I should google it but lazy.

[Bobcock]

lazy

Boasting about your talents again.

When we gonna see the first of your pics from your 450D?

[Nawty]

When we gonna see the first of your pics from your 450D?

you know I cannot post those pics....twas only used indoors.

[Bobcock]

Nope, I don't get the relevance.....

[MeMock]

Me to....but these other 2 are just the start of the next 3 in a row.

Usually there is sometime between the 3somes, but with global warming....who knows.

Scary the True North accident, that was one trip I wanted to do in the kimberleys one day. The waters they travel in and probably where they went down in, are infested with crocodiles.

The waterfall that the boat goes into and pokes its nose under, is the same spot where a tourist got chomped years ago....prince regent, king regent,.. something like that falls/gorge....I should google it but lazy.

The true North boat is truely a magnificent vessel.

The girl who got chomped, do you mean the yank, Ginger someone?

[MeMock]

here we go

One was on the unfortunate American model Ginger Meadows who was killed swimming at the base of Kings Cascade in North Western Australia. Horrific tales of the determination shown by the crocodile to hold on to its prey became the stuff of legend.

taken from here: Whitsundays Crocodile Tours