The magnificent man in his flying machine

The magnificent man and his flying machine.  

You have to be slightly mad to be a bush pilot, and Andri Heidberg was nothing if not eccentric. He and his Brantly helicopter were famous in Iceland during the 1970's, and he said he could land just about anywhere. We hired him for 10 hours of flying time over 3 days in August 1973, in our "NW Iceland Reconnaissance Expedition." We flitted about all over Vestfirdir (the Western Fjords), covering a vast distance and making multiple landings. The money (£500) was well spent, and were able, as a result of our observations, to plan four further seasons of fieldwork very efficiently.  

While we were in the air we really did live life on the edge, because in the wilderness there were no refuelling options, and Andri insisted that we had to carry our fuel reserves with us in the cabin, in rather leaky jerry cans. So he packed us in first, and then packed the jerry cans of aviation fuel around us. Then off we went, on each of the three days of work. The trouble was that Andri was a chain smoker, and always had a lighted cigarette hanging from his lips........... Luckily, we did not explode. Sadly, Andri died in 1978, shortly after a helicopter crash and having survived for two days in the wilderness before being rescued.