Why heli pilots don't mind landing on an AK knife edge.

[Poop~Ghost]

[brice618]

They don't make shocks big enough for me to have tried that shit.

[strawjack]

that is cool shit! wow!

[plugboots]

Good find.

[garyfromterrace]

Neato. Shit, that takes some balls.

[OverTurn]

holy crap. he must just be powering that thing into the deck to get it to stay down there. Also...why're the rotor blades turning that slow? how does he get any lift/power out of those?

[Crampedon]

holy crap. he must just be powering that thing into the deck to get it to stay down there. Also...why're the rotor blades turning that slow? how does he get any lift/power out of those?

Shown in slow-motion.

[gpcharles]

stuff like this makes me realize most people on this earth don't do anything cool at all.

[Garydog]

camera is 30fps.

[MontuckyFried]

They don't make shocks big enough for me to have tried that shit.

More like they don't make diapers big enough for ME to have tried that! Dang good piloting!

[tetzen]

Also...why're the rotor blades turning that slow? how does he get any lift/power out of those?

Ground effect from the down drafts creates buoyancy in the air.

[Tippster]

stuff like this makes me realize most people on this earth don't do anything cool at all.

That wouldn't slow down the rotors. Slo-mo and high shutter speed (~1/200) I would think.

[basinbeater]

I asked a pilot in AK how difficult the knife edge landings were, and he said, "They're pretty easy. Nobody is shooting at you."

[OverTurn]

Shown in slow-motion.

Ground effect from the down drafts creates buoyancy in the air.

well? my first thought was slow motion but looking at the end of the landing and motions of the deck operators I don't think so. ground effect is that strong even from a small deck like that?

[iceman]

That guy must have some fast damn hands if that's just slo-mo.

[jfost]

I think the 30fps just misses some of the rotor movement - Yahoo answers says generally between 120 and 400 rpm. Assuming 2 - 6.67 rps it is possible that the camera speed and the rotor speed are in some kind of sync that make the blades appear slow. Maybe the same principle that makes a computer screen look funny when shown on tv?

edit: watching it again, I guess that looks like you're getting the whole picture? WTF, I dunno? (as per usual)

edit2: watching it a 3rd time, it looks slo-mo... watch the flagman when he first signals, then the later movement of the flag in the wind. Boat movement is hard to tell, it can be pretty slow depending on the sea I'd think...

[Lurch]

It my be slowed down a little but not so slow that the blades are near stopped. It has to be the shutter on the camera "stopping" the blades in each frame rather then catching the blur that we see.

[Ted Striker]

Those who are saying the shutter speed is capturing the rotor at various points in time are right.

As for the rotor rpm, it's pretty much a constant speed while airborne (typically between about 300 and 450 rpm depending on type). Lift is generated by varying the pitch of the rotor blades, not changing the speed. Ground effect has nothing to do with any of it.

[powder11]

A Coastie pilot woulda had that thing down in about 2 seconds.