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Egli Air Haul has flown the aerial filming of the popular Discovery Channel series "Deadliest Catch", hosted by Mike Rowe, for the four years so far of its production. Filming Red Crab Season in October, and Opelio Crab Season in January has been an exciting job on our flight schedule again this winter.

The flying of the helicopter and camera in this application is as challenging as the operation of the crab boats and the catching of the crab the TV camera portrays. Filming over rough seas is what the cameraman wants, and that means flying in strong winds to do it. Add a touch of rain- or snow-storm, along with some filming over the black ocean, down low where big waves live in the dark, and you pretty much get the picture the cameraman is looking for.

Dave Arnold, the primary Wescam/Cineflex camera operator for the production, and Sam had been flying a particular over-water night sequence when the weather was notably wild. Dave and the director were really excited about the camera shots they had captured. After the filming flight, Dave mentioned that during the sequence he had pulled his head out of the camera to look outside, and decided it was too scary out there for him, so he stuck his head back into the camera where it belonged and just stayed there the rest of the time! "It's not for the faint of heart!" Sam quipped in reply.

We at Egli Air are proud to be a part of this telling of the story of the people, the lifestyles they live, and the work they do here in Alaska's frontier.

With the addition of our new Dart Heli-Utility Cargo Basket, external basket loads are safer to fly than ever. We just prop the basket lid open, evenly distribute up to 170 pounds of external-load cargo inside the steel-mesh-sided basket, and close and latch the lid! No need for straps, bungee cords, ropes, etc., to keep cargo from blowing out of conventional open-topped baskets or transporter deckboards. The positive latch of the lid ensures that "what happens in the basket, stays in the basket!" No more F.O.D. (foreign object damage) blowing loose out of the basket while in flight!

The way everyone conducts themselves around the aircraft is somewhat affected, whenever the basket is installed. Its mounting location on the right hand side of the helicopter does not completely block off access to the rear door, but it is in the way if you want to climb in or out of the cabin from the right hand side. To work around this, we simply load and unload our customers through the left hand door instead. It's easy to step in and out of the left door as usual, and also easy to just slide across the rear seat if necessary. The preflight briefing changes slightly, in mentioning that "Because the basket is installed today, the right rear door will serve only as an Emergency Exit for you on this flight. Your normal rear seat exit is the left rear door, the way you came in."

It is also very easy to just remove the basket when desired. With the quick-pull mounting pins, all you need is a zip-lock bag for the hardware and one more guy to help you pull the basket off. It takes about 2 minutes for 2 guys to remove it. It takes about 2 minutes for 2 guys to install it.

Sam says, "I expected large lateral balance effects to our aircraft due to having only the one single basket on one side. We are finding that typical basket loadings counterbalanced by typical personnel seating assignments manage this almost intuitively, with no such major lateral shifts in C.G.location." The pilot needs to brush up on lateral CG calculation, but that's not so complicated.

Customers like all the room it affords them to load their stuff safely, and still have a roomy cabin to ride in. We like it because it closes and latches tightly and quickly, without having to do a lot of exotic lashing down of the load to secure it from the wind in flight. And it opens just as quickly to unload.

If you need the basket installed for your next job, let us know, so we can be sure and include it for you in configuring our helicopter for your mission.