Heliservices MD 902 Launch 

Extremely cheaper. At 3.9 Million dollars the 902 is an expensive bird to operate so obviously semi-truck and trailer is cheaper

+Marshall Smith You mean you don't fly in a chopper because it costs 3.9 million ....?!!! I don't get it. At that rate, you would keep the A380 in Fort Knox if you ever began to own an airline.

AeroManiac I didn't say never fly in it. But if all you need to transport it any long distance it is much cheaper and safer to haul it the nearest airfield and the fly out of that location. I have been a PPL (H) for over 12 years and have 3,107 hours in the MD-900 & 902 combined so trust me it costs way too much to operate at that distance especially considering the danger involved such as engine failure, fuel shortage, flameouts and collisions etc etc. which all increase the farther you must fly so only a fuck stick who is not a pilot would think that flying a 4 million dollar chopper that far would be okay and make fiscal sense. Spoiler it don't and for example our Bell-412 is one of the heaviest lifting civilian choppers one the market and has one of the higher endurance ratings with 2 engines but even so we we would hire a freight company if we need to move it more than about 250 to 350 miles depending on how broad the stride is between refuel locals which also provides another issue. Most airports do not service choppers and most pilots can only operate simple aircraft such as Cessna and Piper etc. fixed wing so if I were to have a problem along the way it would be hard to find a pilot for hire who actually knew how to operate a helo.

Marshall Smith™ Over what ranges then are the MD 900 series usually operated and what kind of flight missions does it undertake. Given that, how different would the ferry trip be from one of its routine operation.

AeroManiac A 92 isgoing to use almost 90% of the time as a medevac or police chopper in which case it is never gonna go very high nor very far just lots and lots of short trips. Once you start stretching that out then the fuel stops start to come into play which adds cost and danger. You do realize that it costs money to land at an airport ? not counting the fuel cost because if you top off the tanks to max then you are going to be burning fuel just carry the extra fuel weight. The max range is approx 290 miles but the endurance is another issue. Also this video showed a basically brand new chopper and everytime I start up the Bell-412 or 407 I have to log the hours because the FAA requires that you have to do maintenance, inspections and overhauls at certain times whether or not you wanna pay for it or not. Why would someone pay 4 million dollars for a helicopter and then put 300 miles of wear and tear on it just to get it to the heliport? That 300 miles would be a absolute loss and would not only not make any profit but it would cost a lot of money and after 4 mill goes in I don't think they would be ready to start tossing money out the widows. As far as the ferry trip goes it would be so far from similar to its end-use projected work load that you would have configure it for long haul just to make the first trip and then turn right around and completely re-config it for its intended use. I have been doing this over 15 years and I have literally seen ONE! MD-902 that was a VIP/Private helo while every single other one was either HEMS or Police with some utility coming into the mix of both of those fields. The NOTAR system also has a downside in that, yes of course it is somewhat safer than say the 412 I pilot due to the risk of tail strike but it can still have major damage if the NOTAR tail strikes something and if it does it will cost probably 15 to 20 times more to repair than a conventional tail rotor config.

You could not be more wrong. This was a beautifully produced video, and some of the stills that they got were simply stunning and quite artistic.