In the mid-nineties I was working for Columbia Helicopters flying a 12E supporting a 107. It was late winter and we were in Featherville Idaho. The service landing was a very small cutout in the trees covered in a blanket of deep snow with small clearings for the 12E, the 107 and the service trailer, all relatively close to each other. Getting the 12E ready for a morning launch in the winter begins 1 1/2 hours before sunrise, brushing off snow, de-icing, warming up the transmission, etc. The woods crew and the 107 were waiting for me to deliver the chokers and I was a little bit late. I had coiled up the blade tie-down sleeve which was was a heavy metal clasp and I threw it up into the well in front of the pedals, which was our custom. It was a good visual confirmation that the blades were untied.

In 1971 I was slinging fertilizer in Arkansas with a 47G-5 and it was misting out and the inside of the bucket was building up, so I flew over to a nearby creek to dunk the bucket and wash it out. The creek was running fairly fast and started pulling me down river with a lot of over hanging trees.

There I was..... My first real turbine job. The boss was checking me out in a LongRanger during short tour fllghts around the city. I was left seat, the boss, right. The tours were about 20 minutes at night viewing the pretty lights. Unfortunately we did not have the co-pilot pedals installed. I knew this but the boss must have forgot!