Question:

Posted by Charles Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:28:00 GMT

“Where on the Tahoe Rim Trail is a good place to land a helicopter?”

ANSWER:

“Nowhere”

Nigel and I were riding from Tahoe Meadows toward Marlett Peak last Sunday, watching this chopper hover near the ridge for some time, then it disappeared. What we found out later was the pilot was looking for an acceptable spot to put it down as part of a rescue evac, and after finding the best spot, he hovered very close to the ground, close enough for a member of the flight crew to jump out, break the top off a small tree. They landed on a very uneven surface of boulders and brush, on the edge of dropoff and left one member of the flight crew behind to “hold the bird” while they went to work. It seems there was some concern the chopper might slide off a boulder and down over the edge.

Their victim had a broken ankle, and was splinted by the time we got to the scene. The pilot was picking out all the Clysdales passing by and recruiting them to help carry the victim back to the Landing Zone. Obviously, I got picked.

When we got to the chopper, we found it had settled into a grove of young Fir trees with about 5 feet clearance between the rotor and the nearest branches. The volunteers had to scramble over boulders to get the victim into a seat in the open door of the bird. She was having a great time, in good spirits, comfortable, and getting the maximum enjoyment out of what we figured was morphine. Her chair pivotted in, and slid on rails into the nose of bird, and the pilot had us move back 40 or so feet so he could lift off. No sooner had the skids cleared the brush, the pilot spun it around, banked hard right, and dropped into the canyon below with the victim in the pole position, waving at us through the windshield.