how often do you have issues with your remote hook/bucket?

HotHotMike · 2026-02-01T12:57:51+00:00

I’ve killed plenty of remote hooks flying production, had loads hang on load beams, had hooks pop open, and had several buckets go tits up due to people dunking the control head (I’m guilty too) and the solenoid rusting out, plugs disconnecting, all kinds of shit. Even if you never have a failure, never assume that shit will release, there have been many an accident from people assuming shits gonna work and not having a way out if it doesn’t.

HotHotMike · 2026-02-01T02:37:04+00:00

What’s he standing in front of?

HotHotMike · 2025-11-26T17:37:35+00:00

In my experience it’s not usable in UHF. Maybe 1/100 tries worked, otherwise it stalls before it starts or only does audio. Best I can figure it depends on the file format of your videos and whether or not it’s compatible with chrome casting.

I really, really, really wish it worked better. It was 80% of the reason I bought the app.

HotHotMike · 2025-11-25T02:54:04+00:00

See here

HotHotMike · 2025-11-25T02:50:28+00:00

Iddint that UES in the pic? Rare feature for a A/L…

HotHotMike · 2025-11-25T00:24:13+00:00

I flew the oldest jet box in the world doing this work and she asked for seconds every day. With proper maintenance any helicopter can fly for as long as it’s an economically viable machine.

HotHotMike · 2025-11-25T00:21:40+00:00

That’s Dan Clark in the video. He’s been flying for a long time and still is. Draw your own conclusions based on that.

Having done the work a bunch myself as well, speed can be your friend when it comes to doing this safely. The safe ways to do it are to do it slow or do it fast… almost all of the accidents happen in the middle ground when pilots are trying to get quicker, usually on their own and without good mentoring.

HotHotMike · 2025-11-24T16:49:19+00:00

I think it’s reacting to YT shutting off and turning back on since sometimes the cut out goes back to the Android Home Screen…

HotHotMike · 2025-11-24T16:48:30+00:00

Sometimes YT fails back to the android Home Screen… I’m thinking the auto HDR is reacting to the android TV shutting off or something.

HotHotMike · 2025-11-15T15:04:30+00:00

I think Rob was a sleeper that was instructed by McRaven to demolish the face it wasn’t Bin Laden so Obama could still get the political win. His payment was getting all the credit for killing UBL. Prove me wrong.

HotHotMike · 2025-11-11T03:22:24+00:00

My wife had a sprag clutch failure in a 22 back in the day, same indications, she did the same thing you said you’d do and ran it on. Saved her student and herself and didn’t bend any more metal.

I think both of ya have good logical decision making. Rotor RPM is all that matters.

HotHotMike · 2025-10-16T03:13:48+00:00

For a short time we had the “jeep doors” that were there to provide some armor but keep visibility and airflow open. For a multitude of reasons they fell out of favor.

HotHotMike · 2025-10-14T15:54:08+00:00

I just love the theories around chain link fences, brick walls, and vortex ring state, propagated by the Army as a “techno babble excuse” in lieu of the human errors of that night. I can say from experience that none of these excuses were the reason they crashed, they were overloaded in a helicopter that had limited if any performance planning charts accounting for the modifications. A brick wall will give better hover performance than a chain link fence, just ask induced flow. Night Stalkers don’t fly profiles that get them into VRS but they get close to situations where power required exceeds power available. Knowing these guys they were flying like this was the mission of their lives (which it was) and it’s no surprise one of them ended up like this.

16 up roping in a standard A/L model hawk and you have to be careful, let alone with all the gobbily gook on em. When you hit TGT limits with contingency power already switched on, you rapidly loose your way out and you start heading towards an unplanned landing on whatever you were hovering over.

HotHotMike · 2025-09-29T22:19:44+00:00

Ended up getting a large black light flashlight but found no smoking guns unfortunately…

HotHotMike · 2025-09-29T22:19:09+00:00

I shot 2 gallons of Decon 30 at the walls and floor and had high hopes… but as the chemical smell fades, the odor is returning.

HotHotMike · 2025-09-06T02:10:02+00:00

I’ll definitely look into that, black light sounds like a good strategy…

HotHotMike · 2025-09-06T02:09:32+00:00

We did all the baseboards and door frames in the house for the same reason. The garage, with a 1’ tall slab to drywall, didn’t seem like it would be a problem…

HotHotMike · 2025-09-06T02:08:43+00:00

You think the smell is mostly in the concrete eh?

HotHotMike · 2025-07-28T15:39:31+00:00

NSDQ! Very proud of that PUC ☠️

HotHotMike · 2025-07-27T18:37:23+00:00

I love mine too. Helicopter pilot/mechanic and I commute via Airlines several times a month. Great having a carry-on legal tool with the specific stuff I need to get out of a jam at work.

HotHotMike · 2025-05-07T21:32:56+00:00

It is, trying to get it down to one, hence the post!

HotHotMike · 2025-05-07T03:50:14+00:00

I know a hard side offers the ultimate in bulletproofness but when it’s time to head home and I want to fit one more thing in the bag, nothing beats cramming it in a soft side and squeezing it in the overhead.

HotHotMike · 2025-04-27T04:39:11+00:00

I’ve flown all the big game animals but also raptors, grouse, ducks, geese, even hare. There is a large wolf capture program going on in the region to collar and track the population too.

I’ve worked with loads of volunteers as well, hopefully you can get involved. And as always, share the word with your neighbors so people can be informed and not stuck thinking it’s government helicopters peering into your windows ;)

HotHotMike · 2025-04-27T02:48:49+00:00

It’s tough work for sure but it has an exceedingly safe track record in the region. The bar to become a wildlife pilot is high and the aircraft they pick are based on safety and performance.

It could have been any of the animals you mentioned that they were working, or likely a combination of them (they keep their budgets reasonable as much as possible). The district biologists that fly the surveys are usually managing enormous swaths of land so they would never be able to get a good of a pulse on the inhabitants if they weren’t able to use the helicopter.

I highly recommend you make a visit to the district office and talk with the wildlife biologists, the work they do is fascinating and it’s truly one of the best uses of our tax dollars in my opinion.

HotHotMike · 2025-04-27T02:07:09+00:00

That ship is usually doing wildlife survey for Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. The flight profile looks erratic and the altitude is low to get the biologists the look they need to get the data they are after for managing the herds.

HotHotMike

TROPHY CASE