Mountaineer Memories

On a fire in Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico in 1977 there was a mix of Forest Service, Indian, State and pick up crews. As a Forest Service Line Scout I worked independently to verify the quality of line construction from the night before across the fire perimeter. To get to my starting point for the day I would simply hitch a ride on a crew helicopter. The main camp helipad was on the edge of a large canyon.

One morning, right after breakfast, I hopped on an old Huey with a very green young crew of college age firefighters. The pilot was, obviously, a Vietnam Veteran with that 60's sense of humor. He was thin, had a scraggley beard and wore an old leather flying hat.

As we all got positioned it was obvious that many of the passengers had never been on a chopper before. The pilot sensed this nervousness and calmly turned to the cabin and said "a yup..a yup...a yup....to make these things fly you have to build up speed first". He then jumped the chopper off the cliff and dove into the canyon. A couple of folks lost their breakfast, and others simply turned white. Somehow I doubt he got away with doing that too many times.

 

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