Between these displays, the pilots who wanted to enter for the helicopter flying event received their briefing and shortly thereafter started the display of their skills.  As in the previous year, the event consisted of flying a bucket of water held on a rope by the co-pilot/observer between and around some posts and dropping a number of golf balls into buckets.  The water bucket flying tested the hover flying capabilities of the pilot to the utmost; while the golf ball drop tested the ability to manoeuvre, accelerate and decelerate the helicopter in confound spaces as this event was also flown against time.  Nine different teams entered for the competition and participants flew R44s and the EC-120.

Steady now... Get in the bucket

Bell 47?

Unfortunately the event was cut short by an accident on the airfield by a non-participating helicopter.  The Fire- and Rescue-Services responded to an R-44 helicopter that crashed while flipping members of the owner’s business and their families.  Due to the absence of these Services (as they attended to the incident), the programme could not be continued and eventually the rest of the day was cancelled.  Although the R44 was destroyed in the post crash fire, all the occupants fortunately survived the accident, but with various degrees of burn wounds.  The media briefing after the accident was extremely well handled by Brian Emmenis in his capacity as ASSA Media Coordinator for the day and his years of experience in these matters clearly showed again.

  One of the demonstrations which were cancelled would surely have been the highlight of the day, namely a fire-fighting demonstration by the Huey, with its Bambi-bucket.  Another event which was practised during the day, but unfortunately also later cancelled due to the unavailable services, would also have shown the helicopter at work, namely in the role of a Netstar vehicle tracking and recovery operation.  The interaction between air and ground teams were highlighted by the commentator and the quick reaction time of the helicopter was demonstrated by the local Netstar sponsored R44, while deploying for the practise run during the morning.