This here's my (flooded) county!

[Hair Warrior]

Prior to a TFR, what was stopping the helo pilot from simply finding another place to land in the area?

 

[OscarMyers]

I get the sentiment and it isn’t off. There are quite a few videos about this now. The pilot has law enforcement and volunteer fire experience and was apparently trying to set up frequencies and LZ procedures with the on scene FD when the chief showed up.

Then maybe he should have walked-in in uniform instead to offer his volunteer fire LZ establishing services.

Looks like he just wanted to flex his new ticket and be a hero in a situation that was way over his head.


How does credentialing even work in a situation like this? Can any Ex-(insert job here). Show up. Claim they know what's up and start executing in the same AOR as an established entity?

No doubt this story reeks of “govt bad” rage bait. And it’s doing a good job keeping up with the twitter disinfo bots…

 

[Random8145]

How does credentialing even work in a situation like this? Can any Ex-(insert job here). Show up. Claim they know what's up and start executing in the same AOR as an established entity?

Can there be a balance? Like say it's been days and no authorities in any real capacity have shown up. So a private pilot with a small helicopter figures, "Well, can't help to go looking and see if anyone needs help," so they start flying around (I would assume they'd make sure the airspace is clear) and find stranded people. It isn't difficult for them to land and pick the people up and fly them to the town so they do so. Then an Army division shows up with a whole fleet of helicopters. At that point, the pilot realizes the Big Boys are here and he should fly away and land so as not to get in the way. That to me seems different than just deciding to start participating with said military/professional pilots.

 

[exNavyOffRec]

As someone with a little FEMA/ Emergency Management stink on me, I will say that having some rando show up on scene like this would be a nightmare for the on-scene commander, so while the Fire Chief's reaction may have been overblown, it comes from a legitimate place of concern. However well intentioned, the added risk that this helo guy inserts into the big picture effort is just not worth the small amount of help his efforts would produce. At a very minimum, he should have consulted with officials. That he didn't, or didn't know that would be a good idea, tells me he had no business being there and could have caused a lot more harm than help.

One of the articles I read was that he consulted with some officials that were on scene, they however were not from that specific county and did not tell him "no", while indicating his help was appreciated. There was another article that the larger "military" style helicopters could not get in to the areas there was a need, I just don't know how accurate that info is. There are also reports of other civilians using their private helicopters to get supplies into hard to reach areas.

Overall to me it seems as the coordination all around could be better and who knows how accurate the stories being told are.

 

[croakerfish]

I think the amount of social media content these guys are generating on themselves says a lot. Seeing tons of this “look at me I’m helping” type shit makes me wonder what really happened when they turn up with their indignant stories about some mean old govie.

 

[OscarMyers]

I think the amount of social media content these guys are generating on themselves says a lot. Seeing tons of this “look at me I’m helping” type shit makes me wonder what really happened when they turn up with their indignant stories about some mean old govie.

Either they show up and are allowed to help and they're like, " the govt is doing such a bad job that they needed our help!" or they show up and are redirected or told to stand fast until the scene is safe and are like, "cant believe the government is turning away perfectly good citizens patriot rescue forces!"

These are the same people that got PHD's in epidemiology in 2020.

Smash that subscribe button!

 

[Swanee]

One of the articles I read was that he consulted with some officials that were on scene, they however were not from that specific county and did not tell him "no", while indicating his help was appreciated. There was another article that the larger "military" style helicopters could not get in to the areas there was a need, I just don't know how accurate that info is. There are also reports of other civilians using their private helicopters to get supplies into hard to reach areas.

Overall to me it seems as the coordination all around could be better and who knows how accurate the stories being told are.

I'm not a helo guy, and the only thing my 1.5 in the Huey sim taught me was, "holy fuck, helos fly different" as I kept getting a master caution for over-torquing the rotorhead.

But I'm declaring shenanigans that our dudes on the mil side in an H-60 with a winch and a hoist can't do what a PPLH in a Robinson thinks he can do.


What he did was cool and all. But he's still an amateur.

Just because you hit one ball from Randy Johnson's arm doesn't make you a major league batter.

 

[Brett327]

Who are all these civilians with their own helos anyway? On average, a bunch of rich douche nozzles that think they’re better than everyone else. A generalization, but probably accurate.