Can a helicopter land at fast food?

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Mtns2Skies

Final Approach
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Mtns2Skies
This is one of my favorite youtube channels. I think they did a pretty good job:

 
I know that my father and his pilot did so numerous times, but we're talking a 47G back in the 1960s.
 
Why does that helicopter have such large wing roots (where they put the N number)? Fuel tanks? Baggage?
 
The FAA rules the air... and the local municipality rules the land. Most urban areas have rules about landing helicopters at Mickey Ds or will adopt rules after the first person who does land one. These types of rules are slowing moving out to rural areas too.

asicer said:
Why does that helicopter have such large wing roots
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They are called sponsons, and contain the standard fuel tanks and landing gear plus emergency life rafts if so equipped. The baggage goes in the aft cabin accessible by hydraulic ramp at the rear of the aircraft.
 
Done many large parking lots (Home Depot, Food Lion, Walmart, etc) but never McDs. Generally with the size, the amount of obstructions and vehicles, just not enough room. At least not enough for company criteria. I’m more of a DQ fan anyway.
 
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Back in the Houston boomtown days, I sometimes accompanied a wealthy real estate executive on property inspections around town. Sometimes we used his 206L, and he would convince his pilot to land in the nearest open space.

The pilot kept a stick, actually a small tree branch, in the helicopter, and upon landing he would use it to prop open one of the engine inspection panels. He thought the look of improvisation with the stick would make his claim of a precautionary landing more believable if a Harris County deputy asked why we were on the ground. :D
 
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Back in the late 50s and 60s my uncle used to own 2 gas stations, one in Midland and one in Odessa, Texas. He had a picture of I believe a Bell 47 that had landed at a station somewhere and parked next to the fuel pumps. I wish I had that picture.
 
I have flown helicopters to restaurants a few times, but there was either a helipad provided, or a convenient field within walking distance.

Landing a Helicopter Next to a BBQ Restaurant:

 
Used to do it during air shows in a buddy’s UH-1E. We would load it up and go somewere for dinner after the field opened up. Last time we went, my then girlfriend and her kids, a couple other friends and some girls they met at the show piled in and we went to dinner at a place right next to the Wendys at Western Center and I35W in north Fort Worth. Had a blast and we really screwed traffic up around there when we started up to leave.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
This is one of my favorite youtube channels. I think they did a pretty good job:
Click to expand...

Worked at a TV station in the 80's One day our station chopper and one of a competing station on the way back from covering a forest fire popped into Lota Burger side by side.
 
JOhnH said:
OK


Now I"m confused.
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113dd186228.jpg
 
Ok, Landing gear for sure. Is that a fuel bladder in front of the gear?
 
IK04 said:
I have flown helicopters to restaurants a few times, but there was either a helipad provided, or a convenient field within walking distance.

Landing a Helicopter Next to a BBQ Restaurant:

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Pffftttt. I've landed a fixed wing next to a BBQ restaurant.
 
I've seen his videos before. He is so long-winded and boring to listen to that I could not make it to the end of this one.
 
An ag operator running a few choppers was just landing at the local Holiday Inn for nights a few years back. Pretty convenient.
 
We were counseled after the fact but we landed a 3/5 mix Air Cav at one of the first Burger Kings In Germany located adjacent to the Autobahn...other wise at the time you had to got to West Berlin to get a whopper...never happen in the modern army...Cold War and unlimited maneuver rights in the American sector...our defense was weather retuning from Graff and Gunnery...stupid 1Lt as an Air Mission Commander and a safety Officer in the hospital helped...I was the AMC...
 
A friend of mine used to routinely taxi his powered parachute to the gas station about a quarter mile down the road from the airport.
 
One of my CFIs was telling me about the time he landed an R22 in the parking lot of a pizza joint near the college campus here in town. I tried not to be a jerk when I said that kind of thing leads to ordinances that will keep us front landing in more conservative spots. It seems like everyone is looking for drama these days and all it would take is one person saying they feared for their child's life.

Several years ago I took quite a bit of heat here on POA when I said it wasn't a bright move when a guy landed on school grounds when all the kids were arriving one morning.

The last thing I'll throw in...there aren't many fast food joints that don't have power lines around.

(man, I sound like a read debbie downer today.)
 
Many, many years ago I landed a CAP PA-18 on Route 84 in Connecticut so we could walk to a diner to get something to eat after 4 hours looking for a downed plane.
I parked it behind a billboard (yeah, that long ago) to hide it.
In my defense, the weather was getting really bad, so we had to land someplace.
 
IK04 said:
I have flown helicopters to restaurants a few times, but there was either a helipad provided, or a convenient field within walking distance.

Landing a Helicopter Next to a BBQ Restaurant:

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Doesn't count. It's a heli-pad.
 
Warlock said:
We were counseled after the fact but we landed a 3/5 mix Air Cav at one of the first Burger Kings In Germany located adjacent to the Autobahn...other wise at the time you had to got to West Berlin to get a whopper...never happen in the modern army...Cold War and unlimited maneuver rights in the American sector...our defense was weather retuning from Graff and Gunnery...stupid 1Lt as an Air Mission Commander and a safety Officer in the hospital helped...I was the AMC...
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Graff gunnery in the winter...ugh.
 
IK04 said:
I have flown helicopters to restaurants a few times, but there was either a helipad provided, or a convenient field within walking distance.

Landing a Helicopter Next to a BBQ Restaurant:

Click to expand...
Is that Salt Lick? I've landed there a couple of times in a helicopter, but we landed in the parking lot.
 
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