Skiers, snowboarders, and employees stranded at Sasquatch Mountain Resort in Agassiz due to a landslide can take a $150 helicopter ride to get off the mountain. The shuttle, offered by TRK Helicopters, will take 12 people per run to Chilliwack Airport, according to a statement posted to the resort’s site Sunday.
About helicopter.
A helicopter, or chopper, is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward, and laterally. These attributes allow helicopters to be used in congested or isolated areas where fixed-wing aircraft and many forms of VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) aircraft cannot perform.
The English word helicopter is adapted from the French word helicoptered, coined by Gustave Pontoon d’Amécourt in 1861, which originates from the Greek helix (ἕλιξ) “helix, spiral, whirl, convolution” and pteron (πτερόν) “wing”. English language nicknames for helicopter include “chopper”, “copter”, “hello”, “Heli”, and “whirlybird”.
Helicopters were developed and built during the first half-century of flight, with the Fowke-Wulf Few 61 being the first operational helicopter in 1936. Some helicopters reached limited production, but it was not until 1942 that a helicopter designed by Igor Sikorsky reached full-scale production, with 131 aircraft built.
Though most earlier designs used more than one main rotor, it is the single main rotor with anti-torque tail rotor configuration that has become the most common helicopter configuration. Tandem rotor helicopters are also in widespread use due to their greater payload capacity. Coaxial helicopters, tiltrotor aircraft, and compound helicopters are all flying today. Quadcopter helicopters were pioneered as early as 1907 in France, and other types of multicopper have been developed for specialized applications such as unmanned drones.
$150 helicopter shuttle offered to people stranded on Agassiz’s …
About shuttle
The original meaning of the word shuttle is the device used in weaving to carry the weft. By reference to the continual to-and-fro motion associated with that, the term was then applied in transportation and then in other spheres. Thus the word may now also refer to:
Guests and workers became stranded at the ski hill after a landslide closed the only road in.
$150 helicopter shuttle offered to people stranded on Agassiz’s …
The remains of Hemlock Valley road, pictured Saturday afternoon Families and employees are stranded at the Sasquatch Mountain resort as a result of a landslide Saturday morning. (Sandy Modesto/Contributed)
All activity at the resort has ground to a halt while road crews assess the blockage.
“As much as we would like to open the mountain for the many families and individuals currently on the mountain and those wanting to come up, without access to emergency services in case of an incident, we are left with no choice but to suspend all activities on the hill until the road is back open,” a statement on the resort’s website said Saturday.
The mountain was closed late Friday afternoon due to heavy rains, wind and an extreme avalanche risk.
BC Hydro said it would launch helicopter patrols Sunday to assess the damage.
Drive says no detour is available and doesn’t expect to have an update until 12:30 p.m.
