Helicopter pilot lives to fly another day

[MikeT]

Greg Gribble doesn't have an ordinary job, he flies helicopters for a living.
Last week in Auckland, that went sort of pear-shaped, while trying to erect a Christmas tree in Auckland's Viaduct basin.
One of his rotors clipped a bridge support wire and this bought the aircraft down, throwing Greg out of the cock-pit.
To say this guy is lucky to be alive, is some what of an understatement.

Check out this Story at Stuff.

It has a video of the crash as it happened.
This guy's son is also a chopper pilot, whom I met when I was helping fight the fires in Melbourne.
As a pilot myself, who has been involved in a couple of crashes, I can fully understand what this guy is going through.

But, the reason why I posted this is not about "have a look at this chopper crashing", it is about the resilience and drive of a man to get back on the horse that bucked him off and over-come any sort of fear that could conceivably prevent him working in that field again.
This guy is in my opinion, a legend, have an accident one week, be back at work the next, without lumbering his employer with a law-suit saying they put him in a dangerous situation or whatever, he just got on with it again.

[Percy]

A fine chap. I noticed Mike that he was flying from the right side seat. Is this a New Zealand thing?

And is there any truth in the rumour that they are taking the cost out of his pay? (a joke)

[MikeT]

A fine chap. I noticed Mike that he was flying from the right side seat. Is this a New Zealand thing?

Heavy lift helicopters like the Squirrel B2 have dual controls installed, there is amongst the many switches on the instrument panel a switch which reads "Essential" and you flip that from left to right, to enable/disable either set of controls.
Reason it is called that is so that only a person experienced in helicopter controls can change who is flying the aircraft, if you happen to have a person in the cockpit with you that can't keep their hands to themselves.
God knows I've had a few of them.

And is there any truth in the rumour that they are taking the cost out of his pay? (a joke)

Crikey, if that were the case, we'd all be bankrupt in the rotary-wing industry.
As I said above, I've "crashed" 2 helicopters before today, while they weren't actual crashes, they were as one might say "very hard and sudden" landings, there is a big difference in the terminology.
Us helicopter pilots are VERY well paid for what we do, when you consider what it costs to train us to a certain level of competence in the first place.
And I would tend to say that a rotary-wing pilot that has finished their training would be a safer pilot than a fixed wing pilot at the same number of flight hours.
I just know I'm going to get caned for saying that.

[Rindfan]

"If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it's probably a helicopter - and unsafe."

Well done to that guy for, as you say, getting back on the horse. He's very lucky to have walked away from that one and his positive attitude should be an inspiration for everyone.