The village benefits from more products coming in and out, and the families who own that property also benefit from landing fees that the helicopter companies pay them to land. Of course, it also benefits any travelers who may need rescued if they fall ill and need immediate evacuation.
Airlines make quick work of getting into and out of the area to get around the difficult terrain and aid waste management. Helicopters frequently bring needed supplies to high villages, and then bring down waste products or sick tourists. Flying in the area, though, has its own challenges. Flying requires good weather, and as mentioned above, the local weather is highly variable. Helicopters can fly in worse conditions than airplanes, but they still often times get grounded due to white-out conditions when thick clouds move in. Pilots manage by receiving special training for flying in these conditions and become accustomed to reading the clouds to better judge both the current weather and what may be to come soon. Ground operators also have to be familiar with reading the weather and knowing whether to send their pilots off or not. While pilots can deny flying in awful weather conditions, they cannot choose to fly if the ground operators don’t first give them orders to go.
Even with clear skies, though, high-altitude flying is inherently more difficult. The thinning air limits how high helicopters can fly, and the higher they fly, the less weight they can carry. When the rotor blades spin, it creates what’s called down-wash that propels the aircraft upwards, but when the air is thinner, it becomes harder to create that down-wash.
