I really enjoyed the experience of flying to the glacier, walking around and drinking the fresh, cold, clean glacier water! The only drawback was that we landed almost as soon as the glacier came into view. The other helicopters left before we did and flew further, thus they viewed more of the glacier from the air. We were also the 1st to return by about 10 min, so I felt I didn't get the same value for my money as the other helicopters. The other thing that upset me was that the pilot left the folded list of passengers & their weight on his seat when we landed. As I boarded the helicopter to leave the glacier, I noticed my name, weight and that of 2 or 3 others in plain sight. I'm sensitive about my weight, so that really bothered me, especially when I saw one woman in the front seat leaning over to get a closer look at the paper. I sent the company an email with my comments, but they have not responded. I know I had the correct email, because I replied back to an email they sent me after I asked a question at the same address a few days before the trip.
Overall it was a great trip and something I would definitely recommend.
Odpowiedź od gospodarza
Sep 2018
Sorry for the delay in responding to your email. We received it over the weekend and I got to it this morning.
First off, thank you for the feedback it is very much appreciated. I am glad to hear, overall, you enjoyed your excursion.
For safety, we do have to weigh everyone and we have paperwork required by FAA. We try our best to make sure we are as discreet as we can with disclosing passenger weights. Each pilot has their own safety procedures that they do each and every flight to make sure nothing is missed and complacency doesn't set in. Again, I am sorry you felt that the information was not handled in the correct manner.
After looking at all flights the hour you went, each helicopter had the same amount of flight time and tour time. The cloud layer was low but not below our safety minimums. For safety, our helicopters will take different routes to space out due to the lower clouds limiting the areas where we can access.
In regards to views, our seat assignments in the helicopters are strictly based on weight and balance of each and every passengers in the helicopter. We try our best to make sure at least 1 person per party gets a window seat, but can very limited due to weight and balance. Your seat was next to a window for both legs of the flight. Our door windows do have a slider windows which are standard in the AS350. It can prohibit some sight but overall still provides great viewing.
Again, thank you for taking the time to provide feedback.
Kind Regards,
Sarah Lowell
Tour & Marketing Manager