TheNorthwestReport
4 HN mentions · mentioned in 4 months, 2019–2023
1:50 · 5.2M views · Dec 26, 2011
A short clip of a helicopter pilot harvesting Christmas trees at an Oregon farm with a sling load. The description adds facts about Oregon's Christmas tree industry.
HN cites it as an example of the skill of sling-load helicopter pilots.
4 comments from Hacker News
Some blueberry farms and vineyards here in Oregon use large fans to mix the higher/warmer layers of air with cooler/lower layers, or “drain” cold air away (by blowing it straight up, it apparently doesn’t come back down). This keeps cold air from pooling in certain areas, which is what is needed to cause frost damage. Here are some large mixers, which might be mistaken for small windmills. These are powered by propane (I think), which is what the tanks nearby hold. The heat produced is a bonus, even a degree can make all the difference: [LINK] So while helicopters used to shake water off of crops can sound crazy, it’s literally a big mobile fan you can call in when needed to save your established perennial crop from much more expensive problems (like a disease epidemic, which now requires bacteria codes/fungicides instead of just burning some fuel. Which can make sense. We also use helicopters to harvest Christmas trees. It’s too damn wet in the fall/winter to run most wheeled equipment up and down those horrible on red clay hills, which often have artesian springs temporarily form, resulting in clay mud that can grab and hold all land vehicles. this video Agriculture is a whole lot of “sure it’s stupid, but it works and is cheaper than the alternative”
Watching this in action, as well as some other sling load pilots working away [0], I am amazed as the skill and dexterity that they can handle their flying machines and use physics to best effect. When you consider that I heard a veteran chopper pilot once say that flying a chopper was like "balancing a dinner plate on a ball bearing", then these guys and gals are next level aviators! [0] - this video
You would probably need to be the US military. Once you have a setup onsite; helicopters, pilots, fuel, maintenance, crew to rig containers, you could rapidly unload the containers. Check out this video: this video US Military is probably the only entity that could pull this off in a timely manner. At great cost of course...
I have friends in forestry, and their industry routinely uses helicopters, despite the risk, for a much lower ROI. Below are some videos of a christmas tree farm and a remote logging operation. I can't imagine that what rocket lab is attempting will be anything short of 10-100x safer. this video [LINK]