The thing is, helicopters are different from airplanes. An airplane by its nature wants to fly and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or a deliberately incompetent pilot it will fly. A helicopter does not want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls working in opposition to each other and if there is any disturbance in the delicate balance, the helicopter stops flying immediately and disastrously. There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter.

This is why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why, in general, airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant extroverts and why helicopter pilots are brooders, introspective anticipators of trouble. They know if anything bad has not happened it is about to.

Harry Reasoner