No heli on Everest

**sftc** · 08-02-2005, 11:52 AM

It looks like that story about a Eurocopter landing on Everest was bullshit. Eurocopter has pulled the video of the alleged landing off the web. This is the link to the original story copied below:

http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/pagelo...stories/main14

No chopper landing on Everest: Ministry

By A Staff Reporter
KATHMANDU, July 28: Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has reiterated its denial that a Eurocopter chopper had landed atop Mount Everest in mid-May.

The Ministry had instructed the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) to carry out an investigation whether AS 350B3 helicopter of France-based helicopter maker had landed on top of the world’s highest mountain following news reports at home and abroad that it had done so on May 14.

The company had organised a press conference in Paris on May 24 where it announced that its helicopter had landed atop the highest mountain in the world.

According to the Ministry, the company had earlier registered an application at the Royal Nepalese Embassy in Paris seeking permission for conducting test flights of its chopper in high altitude. The Embassy forwarded the application to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs which, in turn, forwarded it to the MoCTCA. In response, the Ministry wrote to the Home Ministry, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Information and Communications and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Reserves for their approval and coordination before the issuance of permission for conducting test flights in the restricted areas. After the concerned authorities agreed, the Ministry instructed CAAN to issue the permission and the company received permission from the Authority to conduct test flights in high altitudes.

Meanwhile, Solu District Administration Office informed the Ministry that the chopper, in course of its test flights, had landed on top of Mount Everest. Then the Ministry ordered CAAN to investigate whether the chopper had really landed on Mount Everest which it was not allowed to, take necessary legal actions and inform it.

In the investigation run by the Authority, helicopter pilot Didier Delsalle said that the chopper had not landed on Mount Everest adding it was not possible to land at the difficult terrain of the high Himalayas.

The Ministry said that CAAN had also written to the director general of French Civil Aviation Authority expressing disapproval in relation to the false news reports of Eurocopter.

**Endlessseason** · 08-02-2005, 12:03 PM

It sounds to me like they really did but they're backpaddling real fast and denying it because they didn't have permission.

**skier666** · 08-02-2005, 12:53 PM

Hmmmm, I just watched that this morning...

...I didn't even question it, but now?

**Jumper Bones** · 08-02-2005, 01:05 PM

Hmm, the French lie and brag in order to sound superior to everyone else? Nah, no way!

**oosik** · 08-02-2005, 01:16 PM

The pilot doesn't deny it here
http://climbing.com/above/desalle

kb1dqh · 08-02-2005, 02:22 PM

You can take a heli upside down, to way. Wouldn't work right? I call BS on the interview.

What’s your favorite helicopter?
I like my single engine, the B3 is a very capable aircraft; you can take it upside down. Don’t forget I was a fighter pilot in the beginning and I like to do maneuvers.

**Mulletizer** · 08-02-2005, 02:28 PM

You can take some helicopters upside down. Fact.

When I first heard about the Everest landing I said "bullshit". Then I believed it as so many sources treated it as fact.

Anyway, the French are always talking theselves way up...

**PNWbrit** · 08-02-2005, 02:30 PM

You can briefly roll some helicopters upside down but they can't fly upside down like a fixed wing plane.

**edg** · 08-02-2005, 02:32 PM

Perhaps they attained the alitutude of Everest? You know, it's a fine line between being on a ground, and not being on it

edg

**sftc** · 08-02-2005, 02:37 PM

I've seen test flight video of a heli doing a loop, and I asked a heli pilot about it and he said it takes big balls and a big engine. If they stall at the top they are totally screwed and they will end up taking the bird straight into the ground. No chance at all to point it and pull out like you can in a plane when it fails to complete a loop.
The pilot said an $11 million USAF Cobra can do it fairly easily, but I doubt that is in the book of standard air force flight procedures.

**PacRimRider1** · 08-02-2005, 02:47 PM

In other french flying news Air France flight 358 crashes in Toronto

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8801092/

**summit** · 08-02-2005, 03:17 PM

I've seen the helicopter model in question land above 13K... maybe above 14K (it sure looked liked it touched down but I was paying attention to other things)

Originally Posted by kb1dqh

You can take a heli upside down, to way. Wouldn't work right? I call BS on the interview.

I've seen an AH-1 do a loop.

**Hacksaw** · 08-02-2005, 08:59 PM

Sounds like the goverment departments are playing games. Permits and permission are the name of the game over there. If you don't have permission and go ahead and climb a peak, your ascent doesn't count in their view. So, if you didn't have "permission" to land on the exact summit and go ahead and do it anyway it doesn't count.....

**Red Baron** · 08-02-2005, 10:45 PM

Hacksaw, you hit the nail on the head. There's video from the helicopter, thats been analyzed by "experts" from Everest, and I'm convinced they were up there and are now backtracking in the name of international peace...

**Jumper Bones** · 08-02-2005, 10:55 PM

There was a detailed article about it in Aviation Week & Space Technology, which is pretty much the aviation industry's most reputable publication. I'd actually meant to share it with people here when it came out, since there was so much interest on the subject (heli-skiing Everest), but got busy and forgot about it...anyway. According to that article, they did alight the heli on the summit, however it was not a full 'landing' per se, but rather skid contact with the ground while in a hover - terrain & weather up there is sketchy enough that it would be pretty stupid to actually settle the heli down. Anyway they skid-hovered for several minutes, and then flew away. The only occupant of the heli was Monsieur Delsalle, and the heli was pretty stripped down as it was - all unneccessary eqpt removed to make it lighter. Also they used updrafts to help climb. So the prospect of heli-skiing up there is actually very very dim...

according to a follow-up article, they could not perform the second landing necessary to seal it as a world record, due to the permit territorial pissing contest being described here. The article kind of made it sound like they didn't really have full permission to do the first one in the first place.

anyway, the article was written on information submitted by EADS and their subsidiary Eurocopter, so I guess it's possible that there was a bit of Gallic machismo bs being marketed there...

**Jumper Bones** · 08-02-2005, 11:03 PM

and yes, helis can loop and roll. I think it has something to do with the articulation of their rotors, so only certain ones can do it, and I think because of the design issues it's usually only military helis that do it. The Westland Lynx, a British utility helo, has been doing them for years...

**Dr. Send** · 08-02-2005, 11:55 PM

It doesn't look like it's doing a loop to me

**Jumper Bones** · 08-03-2005, 01:51 AM

see the sunlight reflections on the underbelly? and how dark the roof area is by comparison? Unless the helo has managed to directly overfly the sun, that's the giveaway.

photos taken at an airshow, btw. NOT company publicity photos.

**Red Baron** · 08-03-2005, 08:00 AM

The Gazelle can also loop, these guys do an amazing job with them...

**Hacksaw** · 08-03-2005, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by Red Baron

Hacksaw, you hit the nail on the head. There's video from the helicopter, thats been analyzed by "experts" from Everest, and I'm convinced they were up there and are now backtracking in the name of international peace...

Backtracking in the name of future helicopter sales, might be what's happening here......

**PacRimRider1** · 08-03-2005, 10:30 AM

Video of the alleged landing. Seems pretty convincing, or a very elaborate and expensive hoax. I wouldn't put it past those frog eaters

http://www.eurocopter.com/everest/vi...NET_ZICOFF.wmv

**tarkman1** · 08-03-2005, 11:11 AM

Loop or barrell roll in the heli? There is a big difference between the two, namely the required g-loading (stress on the rotor) is much less in the barrell roll. The real question is why the hell would a helicopter need to do a loop anyway.

Skid contact in a hover? I'd log it as a landing.

**Hacksaw** · 08-03-2005, 11:25 AM

Originally Posted by tarkman1

.....Skid contact in a hover? I'd log it as a landing.

I've gotten in and out of helicopters several times here in Colorado and Canada, where the pilot just held the helicopter with one skid on the ground. Yes, I call those "landings."

**Crinkle** · 08-03-2005, 11:33 AM

exhibit A
http://www.eurocopter.com/everest/img/bscap005.jpg
exhibit B
http://www.eurocopter.com/everest/img/bscap000.jpg
looks good to me

**Dr. Send** · 08-03-2005, 01:05 PM

Originally Posted by Jumper Bones

see the sunlight reflections on the underbelly? and how dark the roof area is by comparison? Unless the helo has managed to directly overfly the sun, that's the giveaway.

I was joking, Mr. Serious.

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