pork chopper bill

[rotorwashed]

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-legislature/82nd-legislative-session/house-gives-pork-chopper-bill-early-ok/

 

anybody here work for the "professional companies that shoot the animals from the sky"?

[1badz32]

Dang, and i was getting excited about shooting carp from a boat.

[r22butters]

Another "interesting" low-time job? Someone should call Ted Nuggent?

[adam32]

They've been shooting hogs and yotes from helicopters for many many years in Texas...nothing new.

[ADRidge]

They've been shooting hogs and yotes from helicopters for many many years in Texas...nothing new.

 

Well, what would be new is allowing hunters to pay for the chance to shoot those pigs. I almost got a job doing that kind of stuff, and it's really not a low-time job. Most of the time, you're right in the middle of the shaded portion of the H/V, and a few folks get killed every year from running into powerlines or other "low and fast" scenarios.

 

A friend of mine shoots/flies with the outfit I almost got hired on with, and he says the shooting isn't fun. After shooting 200 pigs in a day it gets old, and you never make a meaningful dent in the population.

 

Personally I think it'd be awesome if they allowed another source of revenue for these companies. It might end up meaning more pilot jobs opening up.

[lelebebbel]

This is done all the time all over here in the northern parts of Australia. It is the exact opposite of a low-timer job. People just associate the R22 with beginner pilots, well not for this sort of work.

 

And the idea of doing this with an inexperienced pilot and amateur shooters is borderline suicidal.. expect to see a lot of R22 blades and skids with holes in them, and a lot more overpitching accidents.

Edited April 6, 2011 by lelebebbel

[lelebebbel]

 

A friend of mine shoots/flies with the outfit I almost got hired on with, and he says the shooting isn't fun. After shooting 200 pigs in a day it gets old, and you never make a meaningful dent in the population.

 

 

If its done right it seems to work ok over here, i guess it depends on what size area you are trying to control with how many shooters.

Shooting them only in one property that is surrounded by pig country is obviously not going to do much...

 

Usually you'd also go down and bait the carcasses after clearing an area.

[apiaguy]

I'm getting awful tired of the "it's not a low timer job.." and I do believe that line is a load of crap... If I can teach someone to teach someone else how to do a full down auto... I sure as hell can teach them to chase a pig or coyote and position the helicopter so their passenger can shoot it. Then the comment that you'll shoot holes in the aircraft....same as crashing the damn machine doing autos... we're flying helicopters people... what part of that is safe?

[rick1128]

I'm getting awful tired of the "it's not a low timer job.." and I do believe that line is a load of crap... If I can teach someone to teach someone else how to do a full down auto... I sure as hell can teach them to chase a pig or coyote and position the helicopter so their passenger can shoot it. Then the comment that you'll shoot holes in the aircraft....same as crashing the damn machine doing autos... we're flying helicopters people... what part of that is safe?

 

Having done it last winter, it is a lot more difficult that one realizes. Plus there is much more involved that just shooting a firearm out of the helicopter. First one needs to ensure that the shooter is experienced enough to safely use the firearm. Plus you will need to have an auxiliary harness for the shooter to make sure the shooter is not thrown out of the helicopter.

 

While it appears that shooting these hogs makes no difference, it actually dones, especially if the team primarily concentrates on the sows. The sows are the real key, as they can produce 3 litters of up to 7 piglets a year. Animals are not stupid. They leave areas where they are being hunted. Plus any amount of reduction you do to the numbers helps.

 

As for following these animals in a helicopter, the pilot needs to be careful and these animals are much faster than you would think and they change directs sharply and quite quickly. After that experience, I wounder how the kids in 4H ever catch the pigs in the greased pig contest.

 

It is a shame the state of Texas will not allow the hogs to be picked up. The ones we shoot, were picked up and given to various organizations to be used as food. The Food Banks, the county jail, the State Prison and other Charities. Leaving the bodies on the land to rot can put unwanted diseases into the soil.

Edited April 6, 2011 by rick1128

[kodoz]

I'm getting awful tired of the "it's not a low timer job.." ... what part of that is safe?

 

Train for the mission you are going to fly. What are Army guys with 200 hours doing?

 

Last summer I did a bunch of low-level photo work. Wasn't comfortable doing it for the first 10 hours, but after 60 hours with some experienced guys showing, teaching, critiquing, and testing me, it was something I could definitely do. Was it on the high side of the risk curve? Yes. Did I know everything I needed to know to do it? Ha, hell no. Is the situation any different for any other type of job a low-time pilot ends up doing?

 

ps for Simpsons fans: I read "pork chopper bill" and thought, "mmmm, pork chopper."

[ADRidge]

If its done right it seems to work ok over here, i guess it depends on what size area you are trying to control with how many shooters.

Shooting them only in one property that is surrounded by pig country is obviously not going to do much...

 

Usually you'd also go down and bait the carcasses after clearing an area.

 

Very true. The problem is that you may have a well-off landowner who can easily afford to have two or three pilot/shooter teams come out and clean his 10,000 acres in a day or two. But what about the ten people around him who maybe only have 100 acres and can barely afford to put gas in their car, let alone pay for a helicopter to come in and clean house? The pigs figure that out, and set up shop in those areas. Six months later, there are just as many, if not more pigs on the large landowner's property.

[r22butters]

I'm getting awful tired of the "it's not a low timer job.." and I do believe that line is a load of crap...

 

 

I'm with ya on that one!

 

I've positioned an R22 Mariner around a moving boat from 100' down to 5', photo flying.

 

I've orbited an R44 around (sometimes so tightly that it felt as if we were spinning around the head of a pin)for LE, smoothly enough for the observer to look through binoculars.

 

Don't tell me I can't do this!

 

"Quickly Ned, thin out their numbers"!

Edited April 7, 2011 by r22butters

[lelebebbel]

I'm getting awful tired of the "it's not a low timer job.." and I do believe that line is a load of crap... If I can teach someone to teach someone else how to do a full down auto... I sure as hell can teach them to chase a pig or coyote and position the helicopter so their passenger can shoot it. Then the comment that you'll shoot holes in the aircraft....same as crashing the damn machine doing autos... we're flying helicopters people... what part of that is safe?

 

 

Well I've also done it, and as rick said: it is hard, and it _IS NOT_ a low timer job. Teaching full down autos is also not a low timer job, but even that happens under controlled circumstances in flight training.

Pigs don't care where the wind is coming from and they'll happily run underneath any powerline without thinking too much about it. If done in an R22, consider its 2 people, a rifle with a bunch of ammo, flying low, slow, in and out of wind, hovering OGE a lot.

The HV curve doesn't have much to do with it actually, engine failures are unlikely enough, and usually there won't be a flat hard surface to land on anyhow.

 

A camera does not spit out hot shells, and a moving boat doesn't zig-zag at 20mph between trees, or suddenly stop and turn around. Low level photo work does not compare to this, unless it's low level photos of pigs.

Edited April 8, 2011 by lelebebbel

[r22butters]

Well I've also done it, and as rick said: it is hard, and it _IS NOT_ a low timer job...

 

 

Like many here, I am a licensed Commercial Pilot. We are all capable of learning ANY job, and doing it safely, regardless of how fat our logbooks are!

 

I assure you that I, as well as many other "low-timers", could do this job efficiently, without killing ourselves!

 

There are plenty of high-time pilots getting into "pilot error" accidents. Hours don't mean jack!

[lelebebbel]

Like many here, I am a licensed Commercial Pilot. We are all capable of learning ANY job, and doing it safely, regardless of how fat our logbooks are!

 

I assure you that I, as well as many other "low-timers", could do this job efficiently, without killing ourselves!

 

There are plenty of high-time pilots getting into "pilot error" accidents. Hours don't mean jack!

 

Ok sure, never mind then....

My last comment on this subject is going to be this old saying, which I'm sure you've heard before:

 

After we get our license, we all think we're pretty good.

A few hundred hours later, we all KNOW we're really good.

A few thousand hours later, we realize that we don't know sh#t yet

[r22butters]

Ok sure, never mind then....

My last comment on this subject is going to be this old saying, which I'm sure you've heard before:

 

After we get our license, we all think we're pretty good.

A few hundred hours later, we all KNOW we're really good.

A few thousand hours later, we realize that we don't know sh#t yet

 

There's a difference between knowing that I can learn any job, and having an inflated ego,...but I don't have a cliche for that.

[kodoz]

There's a difference between knowing that I can learn any job, and having an inflated ego,...but I don't have a cliche for that.

 

And knowing when you can't/shouldn't do a job. Thank you.