I’m shocked he was able to manage it since this was his first time ever flying a helicopter drunk.
This is the first time he was caught flying a helicopter drunk.
Even for an experienced drinker, it’s a wonder he isn’t dead.
I’m barely able to crawl home on foot at that sort of level, or a half of that level. He’s flying a helicopter, which has been described (albeit on Quora) as “it is like balancing a metal ball on a glass plate while learning to ride a unicycle.”
And this was a medical trip, with a patient. The guy needs to find a new job after he hopefully gets some prison time.
I suspect his landing of the chopper was mostly from trained-in reflex despite his intoxication.
And they had to tell him that a crew member was having a medical emergency in order to convince him to land.
Well, it’s true. A crew member was having a medical emergency.
Man, how bad does your substance use disorder have to be in order to do something like that? I know people routinely drink and drive, but flying a helicopter?
It feels like this while you’re learning to hover. But once you learn the motor skill, it becomes routine. It’s fundamentally no more difficult a skill than walking upright without falling over.
It’s shocking that he didn’t crash at that BAC, but if he is (was) a professional pilot, I think no more so than the fact that he didn’t fall over while walking to the helicopter.
Hovering is the hardest thing to learn in a helicopter. It’s also the first think you need to learn and master.
You’d be amazed at the BACs hardcore, long-term alcoholics can reach and still function (for a loose definition of “function”). Seriously.
How? The same way you get to Carnegie Hall…
Over in the aviation thread we recently had a cite to an article about a guy flying a bizjet who was utterly wasted. He ended up landing at an airport almost hundred miles from his destination and had he not made a teeny error and crashed he’d still be drunkenly flying his bizjet today.
Hard core alcoholics can do amazing shit at BACs that would put you or I into a coma. Not that they do it well, but they’re sorta there mentally, unlike you or I.
Shades of Island of the Sequined Love Nun by Christopher Moore. Highly recommended.
As you know, sober pilots have done that surprisingly often. In commercial airliners with two or more on the flight deck, that is - I’m quite sure private pilots in light aircraft do it daily.
“On Patrol: Live” (the current incarnation of “Live PD”) recently featured one of those. Drunk driver overshot what may have been the last turn before reaching home and ended up in a ditch.
By the time they took her in and gave her a test, she registered 0.32. One has to wonder how high it was behind the wheel.
Hey, I watched that one too. She didn’t seem that drunk. I mean she was not slurring or stumbling around, so I was really surprised to hear that number.
Her hubby was not happy getting that call.
I’d be so humiliated to be so publicly shamed. I feel a little icky even watching this show sometimes.
This is the DL I use in my scambaiting.
Notice that Peter Mosse is licensed to drive drunk.
“Prostate donor”
I was hoping for more gags in the QR code, but that part looks legit.
Of course. It needs to look legit.
Weirdly, the only objection I’ve gotten is the claim that there’s no such thing as an electronic license. They need to keep up with the times.
ETA: The address is an empty lot outside of town. The story is I just moved in a couple of months ago and the house is newly built, Google hasn’t updated the area yet.