[NMCAVER] Helicopter charters?

[DONALD G. DAVIS]

>Has anybody out there ever used a chartered helicopter to visit remote cave
>locations? I'm guessing I would have heard about it if anyone had, but my
>momma taught me it never hurts to ask. I know it has been done in the Grand
>Canyon, but I believe that the fellow who did that is no longer alive.

      You may be thinking of George Beck, who in the late 1950s and '60s 
was able to hire helicopters for cave reconnaissance in Grand Canyon 
National Park.  I was on one of his chopper trips into the Phantom/Haunted 
drainage in 1966.  But even then this was not a routine privilege for 
private individuals.  I was told that George had the clout to get a 
negative decision by the Park Superintendent reversed by the Park Advisory 
Board.  More recently I believe the rules are much tighter, but it has 
still been possible for authorized research teams to land in remote parts 
of the Park--I was on a helicopter trip led by Steven Emslie in the 
mid-1990s.  I don't know the current rules.

      Some Indian reservations allow commercial use of helicopters.  When 
"Journey into Amazing Caves" was made, that was one reason the Grand 
Canyon cave they used was on the Navajo reservation rather than in the 
Park.  And some flout the law.  In the '60s and '70s, I heard reports that 
pothunters would charter helicopters in Las Vegas and fly out to the 
Hualapai reservation, where they could land, steal artifacts from caves 
and get away fast before any law enforcement could reach the scene.

      I don't know how BLM, USFS or other public agencies handle 
helicopter use.

>I would be especially interested in charters out of Silver City, Cruces, El
>Paso, or even Tucson. Affordable ones...those I have seen so far charge for
>an hour what I could maybe afford for a day.

      Hiring those things is certainly not often affordable for people of
ordinary means.  And if you want to land, there also needs to be a
suitable landing site within a reasonable distance of your destination.

							--Donald Davis