How best to shoot from the inside of a Helicopter?

Patrick:

Your bad guys used tracers? Wow. I was in the wrong war, I guess.

Ooo-rah,
Charles "Doc" Newcomb
I-Corps, '67-'68

[Patrick King]

Originally Posted by Charles Newcomb

Your bad guys used tracers? Wow. I was in the wrong war, I guess.

Charles, yeah, most anti-aircraft stuff fires tracers. Mezmerizing but still harmful for your health.

[Nate Weaver]

Originally Posted by Charles Papert

Most importantly, please be careful...there are quite a few accidents every year that involve helicopter shooting. I myself don't do it any more, after two incidents within a few years of each other: an associate of mine survived a crash, but his production partner didn't. And a privately owned helicopter that I was imminently due to fly in (had gone for a short test flight the week before to make sure my Steadicam would rig up properly) crashed after hitting some power lines--the pilot and his two passengers didn't make it.

Sorry to be a downer, but this does happen. Garrett Brown (inventor of the Steadicam) has said that he has lost 7 friends due to helicopter accidents.

All the heli shoots I've ever worked on (not that many, only 3) we used a Tyler middle mount, but the pilots were relatively new to "driving a camera".

I know heli pilots are generally more on their game than pretty much anybody you'll meet (they have to be, otherwise they don't last long), but at least once I got the sense that the pilot was a ltitle distracted by the novelty of what we were doing, which was air-to-air shooting with another heli. I would think distraction=danger in that world.

Patrick, you think this ever enters into the equasion with arial shooting?

[Patrick King]

Originally Posted by Nate Weaver

... but at least once I got the sense that the pilot was a little distracted by the novelty of what we were doing, which was air-to-air shooting with another heli.

Patrick, you think this ever enters into the equasion with arial shooting?

Nate, yeah, we even have names for it..."Tunnel Vision", "loss of situational awareness", "looking through a soda straw" and "Target Fixation". It's very, very easy have happen to you, and has resulted in many mishaps. Of course, it only happens to helicopter pilots...no one has ever wrecked a car while changing the radio or watching a pretty girl on the side of the road or anything like that. ;)