Tommy Shane Steiner, a mostly retired country singer, has been flying and landing his private helicopter at an Austin shopping center to "ward off" people who he said were breaking into businesses.

Tommy Shane Steiner, a mostly retired country singer, has been flying and landing his private helicopter at an Austin shopping center to “ward off” people who he said were breaking into businesses.

  • FuglyDuckEnglish
    24•1 year ago

    helicopters use vastly more fuel than cars. and they always will.

    This is one of the reason that “flying cars” never actually catch on- it’s horribly inefficient and most people can’t afford the fuel, never mind all the other associated maintenance costs.

    the amount of fuel being consumed by a helicopter depends greatly on it’s engine- piston engines like the bell 47 and Robinson r22 are 15 and 8, respectively. But turbine engines? the bell 206 jet ranger will use about 30+ (don’t get me started on the military birds- the black hawks are like 180, and go down hill from there.)

    • @[email protected]
      3•1 year ago

      I am not defending this dumbass, but how much fuel are you using if you go directly back and forth compared to a car which has to take a variety of different directions to get there? It still is bad regardless as helicopters use avgas, which is leaded.

      • FuglyDuckEnglish
        9•1 year ago

        So, it kind of depends on fight paths and highways, and traffic in general. But if you’re talking about a ten minute flight, at (the low side) of 30 gallons per hour on a turbine helicopter, compared to the high-side of 5 gallons per hour in an suv (10mpg@50 mph), you’d have to be stuck in traffic for more than an hour to justify on fuel.

        if he really was concerned about the enviroment and not just being snarky… public transit is the way to go.

      • @[email protected]
        4•1 year ago

        You basically need the majority of the fuel to counter gravity, which with land vehicles is done by the road.