Most helicopters have tail rotors located in the back of the helicopter. The tail rotor spins very fast, is often difficult to see while spinning, and is extremely dangerous. To ensure safety around helicopters, never walk towards the rear of the helicopter.
Helicopter blades are designed to be able to tilt. That is part of the system to provide control of the Helo, and the blades are also flexible. A strong gust of wind, or a moving on the control stick can bring the blades much closer to the ground. Best to duck when walking under that blades.
Never approach or leave a helicopter when its engine and rotors are running down or starting up. Crouch while walking for extra rotor clearance. Secure any loose articles such as hats and ensure your pockets are zipped up.
When approaching helicopters, stay in front of or even with the boarding door. Approach from the front so the pilot can see you. Never approach from the rear, as the area around the tail rotor is the danger zone.
Never stand directly below the helicopter. Standing too close can lead to you getting hurt, or covered in dust, dirt and debris that the rotors' force can kick up.
It is good practice to crouch while exiting the helicopter if the rotors are turning. Many helicopter rotor systems can dip well below 6 feet from the ground level, which can potentially contact a person or object on the ground.
The aircraft fuel tanks are located in the wings, so you're not allowed to walk under them in case of fuel leakage. You don't want to get anywhere near flammable stuff unprotected. All in all, it is a safety thing. Saving three seconds by not walking around the wing is just not worth the risk.
There are many reasons for this, the main one being that helicopters require more active effort to fly, whereas once an aeroplane reaches a cruising altitude, things are pretty much reliant on autopilot. While flying a helicopter is more physically demanding and challenging, it is highly rewarding.
Always keep in the pilot's field of vision. Never go near the tail of helicopters. When loading helicopters in uneven terrain, always approach and depart from the down slope (lower) side and do not hold equipment overhead. Remove or secure loose articles prior to working around an operating helicopter.
Why are people told to keep their head down when near a helicopter? So in case a gust of wind comes and moves the blades up on one side and down on the other. The blades would hit you. It's a safety margin, if the blades flop around from a big gust of wind, you're further from the blades.
Different for helicopters
According to Smithsonian Magazine, sitting on the right-hand side is common (but not universal) practice as it allows the pilot in command to keep their right hand on the aircraft's sensitive cyclic control stick.
Bright colored clothing may put a reflective glare on the helicopter plexiglass windows and reflect in your photos. Dark clothing helps to eliminate the reflection.
General Helicopter Safety Rules:
Never rush. If the helicopter is on a sloped surface, approach from the downhill side, never from the uphill side due to the angle of the rotor.
Never enter or exit toward the rear of a helicopter, as the tail rotor is invisible when the machine is running. See also # 6 and 7 below. 5. Always approach or exit in a crouching position to give your head more clearance from the rotor blades.
Exiting the helicopter - Do not remove your seatbelt until your pilot instructs you to do so or a designated person has opened the door and motioned you to exit. Be sure you put your hat and gloves on before you exit. Loosely fitting hats should be stored in a pocket. Hang on tightly to any personal items.
General Helicopter Safety Rules
Always approach & depart helicopter from the sides (3 or 9 o'clock), never around the tail rotor. from the downhill side, never from the uphill side.
Statistics show that business jets are involved in fewer accidents than helicopters, but the risks are far greater if the worst should happen due to the height, speed and number of passengers. Helicopters can make more frequent journeys and always travel shorter distances than jets.
The crash rate for general aircraft is 7.28 crashes per 100,000 hours of flight time. For helicopters, that number is 9.84 per 100,000 hours. That means helicopters have a 35 percent higher risk of crashing compared to airplanes.
So they wonder: How safe are helicopters? The short answer is that riding in a helicopter is far less safe than flying on a commercial airline or taking an Amtrak train, but significantly safer than riding in a car or truck.
Mature experienced airplane pilots can make well over $100,000 per year, but it takes longer to get to the big money than it does for helicopter pilots. Experienced helicopter pilots can make $65,000 to $85,000, and some make up to 100K and above.
One of the most difficult helicopter maneuvers is hovering and it's often one of the first things a flight student is taught to do. Learning to hover can take a while, up to a couple of hours, but once a student learns to hover, he or she can move on to learn more advanced techniques.
Training to become a helicopter pilot will typically be more expensive than becoming an airplane pilot. This is because helicopters are more expensive to maintain and fly. Yes, becoming a pilot is expensive, but it's totally worth it because you'll spend your workdays in the sky living your dream.
The three-dimensional environment of flight is unfamiliar to the human body, creating sensory conflicts and illusions that make spatial orientation difficult and sometimes impossible to achieve. The result of these various visual and nonvisual illusions is spatial disorientation.
In a particularly turbulent storm, some may imagine that the wings bend so much, they could snap off. However that scenario is almost impossible. The entire aircraft is basically designed to allow the wings to bend in turbulence without compromising any structural integrity.
Curving towards the poles is quicker than flying in a straight line. Even using a globe of the earth is not entirely right, as the distance when making a complete circle of the earth from north to south is shorter than making a circle of the earth around the equator.