What was it with helicopters in TV shows of the 80's?
Airwolf, Blue Thunder, Magnum, P.I., Riptide... every show seemed to have had a pilot and a helicopter in many episodes
shareThe way I heard it, the USA was coming out of years of economic recession and the aviation industry donated their helicopters as "product placement" for young businessmen and others they thought would make good customers. Personal helicopters never caught on, but more businesses, particularly those started by young entrepreneurs did start using them. Economics and business is behind just about every TV/movie fad.
sharebut wouldn't you need a flight permission every time you take off? these guys just took the helicopter on a whim to chase the villains without asking the authorities for permission.
shareYou're absolutely right. It's one of innumerable cliches and unrealistic situations used in TV and movies all the time. With your permission, I'd like to add it to a thread covering that. It's under "watered-down penecillin from the boards for "The Third Man."
sharebut wouldn't you need a flight permission every time you take off?
Not necessarily. If you are flying IFR, you gotta file a flight plan every time. But if you are flying VFR (daytime, good visibility), just a quick call to the tower then it's kick the tires, light the fires and away we go!
As for the OP's question: this was the post-Vietnam era, rotorcraft were the latest bad-ass technology, and thus all the rage.
After 20 years of practice, I still can't spit like Josey Wales. share
Actually it can be even simpler that that.
Most airports don't even have a tower (the tens of thousands that aren't used by airlines), so all you have to do for VFR flight is give an advisory to local air traffic on the radio, and take off.
Or the simplest of all, if you're not running radios (and it's NOT mandatory for a lot of aircraft and airspace) then you just take off, period. Of course it's your responsibility to avoid controlled airspace then.
Amusing how most non-pilots like the O.P. think you have to "ask permission" to use the sky. If you fly outside major metropolitan areas, you can just jump in and fly whenever/where ever you like.