Well done video. Thanks. Very quite out there. I spent decades in very slow airplanes and was cognizant that most other traffic could overtake me. I flew final at an angle to the runway and either landed at an angle in crosswind or turned very late to line up. Takeoff was less worrysome but I angled away from the centerline extended there as well. A huge advantage of the helicopter, over many hours of operation, is that exposure to faster aircraft can be very safely limited by operating away from heavy traffic areas around the airport.

Nice video. That makes me want to learn to fly a helicopter!

My wife bought me an intro flight in a helicopter some years ago. It was all fun and games until I tried to land. But I figured I wasn't ready for a helicopter yet when I saw the preflight checklist. We did the first page and I said "Cool let's go fly" and the CFI said "there's 4 more pages of this checklist."

Everything rotates a lot and wears out much faster than rudder, elevator, and aileron hinges. Everything from engine, through transmission, swashplate, pitch change links, blade grips, blades, and Jesus nut have to work perfectly. You can live without tail rotor drive shaft, 42 degree gear box, 90 degree gearbox, pitch change links, and tail rotor, but it is not fun. All the rest, save engine, you cannot live without.

contactflying wrote:..... I flew final at an angle to the runway and either landed at an angle in crosswind or turned very late to line up. Takeoff was less worrysome but I angled away from the centerline extended there as well.......

That might have been fine for you,
but how many other pilots were left wondering "what the hell is that guy doing?",
esp if you were NORDO.
One of the reasons we have traffic patterns & standardized procedures is so we are all on the same page doing the same stuff.
We have a local pilot who is always doing unexpected & non-standard things in and around the traffic pattern.
Also he often cuts people off in the pattern, or pulls out to take off in front of them when they're on short final.
His friends have talked to him about this, but it hasn't done any good,
so about all we can do is try to avoid him as best we can.
But it gets old.

Yes, the only way for airplanes to operate differently is to give way to all other aircraft. Based on the same rules that set traffic pattern, crop duster is to operate different where possible. And the angle across, after giving way to all traffic, has saved me from the airliner or fast twin way out more than once. So, had I operated normally, I would be dead twice now. Where there is effective control, at controlled airports, there is a controller on the ground. And, yes, he authorizes Ag, pipeline patrol, and helicopter to operate differently. When we do so at uncontrolled airports it is safe only if we give way to normal traffic. From no higher than a couple hundred feet up and never crossing the normal centerline extended, landing to the grass is not conflicting with normal traffic. If we have to cross the runway or centerline extended, we must wait until normal operations are on the ground or have departed the airport traffic area. What makes these non-standard operations as successful and uncontroversial as they are is that normal operators seldom know that we are even in the area. Technology will eventually solve the fluidity of different operations at uncontrolled airports, but self separation is the only way I have survived uncontrolled airports under present technology. I know it seem logical that it would be safer will all aircraft communicating with all other aircraft. I have found that to be more confusing and more dangerous for other airplanes. I do not see climbing up to traffic pattern altitude and entering the fray to be safer than giving way and landing behind all other traffic. I did the same with Army helicopters when in the military, as was our SOP at uncontrolled airports. Communication didn't disrupt normal traffic in that instance because we were at an altitude where normal traffic could see us without ground clutter. It can be very disruptive to normal traffic to report your non-standard and very low position, especially because they cannot see you. It is very easy to remain clear of them because you can see them and you absolutely avoid the areas they operate in. Almost all pipelines that cross runways cross in the middle of the field, the absolute safest place for a patrol airplane to cross at 200' AGL. Crossing at pattern altitude would be unnecessarily dangerous. At tower fields, even in B airspace, this can be done without disrupting or delaying normal airline traffic. At uncontrolled fields it would be unnecessarily dangerous to do so with any traffic. In a 3500 mile pipeline loop, I never crossed a heavy training uncontrolled field. Operators must decide not to set up where pipelines cross the uncontrolled airports. None of us are above the law and we need to cooperate with authorities, but uncontrolled is different. Making laws to control uncontrolled airports, the FAA is smart enough not to do. Advisory yes, understanding that there are different operations and that the situation is too fluid to control without human oversight at this technological point. I can't help you, Hotrod 180, with your problem. If you are in an airplane and can see him operating abnormally, he is messing up. Those operations should not be seen. I was seen and complained to twice in 17,000 hours, once landing a Pawnee in the grass and once landing a 172 behind the last airplane in traffic, both at uncontrolled fields. Uncontrolled gaggles are dangerous wherever they exist. As I say to MTV, you are absolutely correct. Without a ground controller it works to just give way.