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Tampa Police Suspend Pilot For Borrowing the Helicopter
Usually a boss won't care if his employee takes a company vehicle to run a few errands, but when that vehicle is a helicopter it's a different story. 32-year-old Dave Dennison is accused of taking a police helicopter to drop off a fishing net to a friend last fall. Tampa officials have suspended him for five days without pay following an internal affairs investigation. I wonder if Dave was at least smart enough to fill the tank when he was done?
Mountain rescue helicopters need training time too. Proper training sometimes means doing things aimlessly and relaxedly trying different things as they occur to you. Any rules against trying things will limit that. Sometimes sensibly (e.g. a rule against flying within a couple of meters during training - it's needed in real life, but it's very dangerous to practice properly) but practicing hovering at the right height to create a wind sounds exactly the right thing for mountain rescue pilots to do. Getting an expert spotter to tell you if you are flying at the right height is superb. People need to lighten up.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();