cow versus helo. Cow wins.

[greybeard]

"Police in Far North Queensland are investigating an incident in which a cow brought down a helicopter.

It happened south of Coen, right near the north eastern tip of Australia. Presumably trying to get their daily muster under wraps, the pilot got a little too close to his livestock and ended up with one of the chopper's feet caught on the horns of a cow.

After trying to disengage from the animal, the Robinson R22 Beta mustering helicopter lost balance and was forced into a rough landing, resulting in the chopper quickly being engulfed in flames.

The Rural Fire Service was called to the site from Coen and quickly extinguished the chopper.

The cow that caused the kerfuffle is said to be totally unharmed and presumably quite smug. The helicopter pilot is fine too — he was able to simply walk away from the crash before to went up in flames."

http://mashable.com/2016/09...copter/#_w5FZujCg5qk

I guess "quickly extinguished the flames" is a relative term...

 

[TN Cattle Man]

"the pilot got a little too close to his livestock and ended up with one of the chopper's feet caught on the horns of a cow."

As an prior military aviator... that sentence just made me laugh a little...

 

[greybeard]

"Chopper's 'feet'" did make me chuckle as well. We called them skids. I flew on real helos tho--retractable landing gear with real wheels and tires.
We didn't need no stinkin skids. ;-)

 

[wbvs58]

Up that way I doubt that the rural fire service would have been too close by to quickly put out any fire. More like just douse the embers.

Ken

 

[Kingfisher]

What do those cows eat there? Dirt??

 

[greybeard]

What do those cows eat there? Dirt??

They have 'low inputs' down to an exact science--kinda like some of the places I saw out near Temple last weekend that have evidently figured out how to get great ADGs out of goatweed..

 

[Nesikep]

"Police in Far North Queensland are investigating an incident in which a cow brought down a helicopter.

It happened south of Coen, right near the north eastern tip of Australia. Presumably trying to get their daily muster under wraps, the pilot got a little too close to his livestock and ended up with one of the chopper's feet caught on the horns of a cow.

After trying to disengage from the animal, the Robinson R22 Beta mustering helicopter lost balance and was forced into a rough landing, resulting in the chopper quickly being engulfed in flames.

Hmm.. Rough landing... I could think of more accurate terms.. like CRASH?

"chopper's feet" got me laughing a little too

Regardless.. It must have been a Saler cow to have the horns and be that airborne!

 

[wbvs58]

What do those cows eat there? Dirt??

Obviously that is a road there. Not too much in the way of bitumen roads up that way. With the right type of cattle mostly Brahman and crosses such as Droughtmasters they do OK, a bit of a protein deficiency during the dry season but when the wet comes as a result of the summer monsoon things pick up. They would supply a lot of feeder type cattle to the live export trade to Indonesia. It is pretty extensive operation up that way, they aim to muster just once a year, the cattle are just left to their own survival instincts, maybe some phosphorous supplements during the dry.

Ken