Page 2 - Density Altitude News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> both those factors spelled danger for a pilot. >> in utah, it's about 5,000 feet elevation and it was a warm day that day. >> this creates a condition called high density altitude, which actually means hotter, thinner air, giving the pilot less lift and less power. >> i had to take certain steps, make certain changes to my routine. >> dennis calculates the changes he'll make and at first, everything goes smoothly. >> the standard display routine commences with a pirouette on the left front skids, rotating the helicopter. >> i got my camera out to take footage of his performance. i was excit...

Out of the chopper, shaken but only slightly hurt. >> he actually wasn't even hurt that bad. a few cuts on the face and couple of teeth knocked out, i understand. >> the chopper has not fared as well. >> the helicopter was totaled, completely totaled. unusable. >> within an hour, a rueful dennis is not just walking and talking, he's giving the news conference he had always hoped to avoid. dennis, the safety evaluator, has to assess his own performance and realizes where he'd gone wrong. he'd forgotten one adjustment to his program and had fallen victim to the high density altitude at the airfi...

>> one of the cups up there behind me is for the first place. >> dennis' skills are on display at an air show in utah in june of 2008, and one person eager to see it, and videotape it, is tina tyler, an american gyrocopter pilot. >> i packed up my gyro and headed out to utah with my camera in hand. >> for dennis, there's a setback at the beginning of the event. the helicopter, a schweitzer, is unfamiliar and it's heavier than he's used to. >> i normally fly with ten gallons on board, which weighs 80 pounds, 72, in fact, and i had 30 on board, three times the weight. >> as dennis takes off, he'...

>> this creates a condition called high density altitude, which actually means hotter, thinner air, giving the pilot less lift and less power. >> i had to take certain steps, make certain changes to my routine. >> dennis calculates the changes he'll make and at first, everything goes smoothly. >> the standard display routine commences with a pirouette on the left front skids, rotating the helicopter. >> i got my camera out to take footage of his performance. i was excited about capturing it on camera. >> i turned to 300 feet, then a backflip away from the crowd to get distance from the crowd t...

>> he actually wasn't even hurt that bad. a few cuts on the face and couple of teeth knocked out, i understand. >> the chopper has not fared as well. >> the helicopter was totaled, completely totaled. unusable. >> within an hour, a rueful dennis is not just walking and talking, he's giving the news conference he had always hoped to avoid. dennis, the safety evaluator, has to assess his own performance and realizes where he'd gone wrong. he'd forgotten one adjustment to his program and had fallen victim to the high density altitude at the airfield that day. >> as soon as i started the maneuver,...