Insane in the Ukraine Part 2 – The Spin Begins

Part 3 – Sheep Dipping the Truther? Oct 2019

Jason Goodman has responded to our Part 1 article Insane in the Ukraine – J.Go Like You’ve Never Seen Him Before in a recent episode of “Sundays With Charles”.

A summary of the claims he made:

  • “it started before I got involved”
  • “the original aircraft was purchased in Sweden”
  • “the two original owners of that company actually decided to go to Ukraine and do a video over the Chernobyl nuclear reactor”
  • “this is before I got involved in the company”
  • “they got in a dispute with the Swedish manufacturer and the helicopter failed”
  • “when I joined that company they had no working helicopter, I had to go to Sweden and re-establish the relationship with the manufacturer to get that helicopter repaired and back in the sky”
  • “then I got them to change the name of their company to Aerocine”
  • “the rest is history that’s being distorted by some people who would perpetrate falsehoods on the Internet in an effort to damage Crowdsource the Truth”

Although he does not name us specifically, it is clear that Jason is insinuating that the information presented in Insane in the Ukraine is false. We are not trying to perpetrate falsehoods, as he alleges. We are trying to present true information, supported with citations. So let’s take a look at the evidence we have and compare it to the claims Jason Goodman just made.

Goodman claims that he was not the CEO of Aerocine when the drone flew over Chernobyl at the time of the Ukrainian revolution – February 2014. He certainly had no problems talking about being the CEO a couple of weeks later at London’s 3D Creative Summit on March 12-13, 2014. Did he really only join the company (formed by his NYU Film School chums) between February 21 and March 12, just in time for a speaking gig at the conference?

Video of Jason Goodman presenting as CEO of Aerocine in London, March 12-13 2014: 

He says “it became clear to me that this micro-aerial platform had a tremendous future and so we formed Aerocine. Doesn’t that make it sound like he was a co-founder of the company, and not just someone hired to join them later on?

“I am aware that a video we posted several weeks ago has gone viral” (presumably meaning the Chernobyl video)

We’ve been working on this for a long time, selecting the best platform, the best motors, we’ve done everything to modify the rotor configuration and just tweak this thing out to the utmost extent” – doesn’t that imply he’s been working on this drone project for longer than 2 weeks? Wouldn’t they have done all that tweaking and adjusting BEFORE their flagship Chernobyl flight debut?

8:00 we’ve been working with ARRI CSC. At the end of February we flew an Alexa XT and this is some footage of that”

“We” implies the speaker considers himself part of the group. Goodman is visible in the video clip he plays and appears to be directing the events.

Further video of this flight at ARRI in New York: 

Here is Aerocine’s demo reel, shot in Chernobyl in February 2014. Did they use a different camera?  

That Aerocine was in Ukraine in Feb 2014 is also confirmed from co-founder Jeff Brink’s instagram:

Aerocine, LLC was incorporated December 12, 2013.

Source: bootscores.com

Jason Goodman filed the trademark for Aerocine in his own name, citing first use anywhere March 13, 2014. This is weird, since it seems like it was being used in February to film the Aerocine demo reel. Aerocine’s own web site says they made their public debut March 12, 2014, but talks about its record-breaking drone flight on February 21, 2014. 

It seems there may be some copyright issues specific to the use of the drone in February. If this was not a commercial gig for Aerocine, then who paid for the mission? What was the real purpose of the mission? Who owns all the footage now? 

Goodman’s claims that the Chernobyl flight was “before I got involved with the company” are at odds with the video he shows in his own presentation of him directing the world’s first micro-aerial flight of an ARRI Alexa XT in February 2014. The video of this also proves his claim that “they had no working helicopter when I got involved” to be false. His claim that “I got them to change the name of the company after I got involved” is at odds with the company registration information and his own trademark filings. 

If we are “perpetrating falsehoods”, we sure have a lot of evidence to accompany our perpetration. Evidence that comes from Goodman and his company themselves, and disproves his own claims. The onus is now on Mr Goodman to provide any evidence whatsoever that any of our claims are false.

Part 3 – Sheep Dipping the Truther? Oct 2019

See also: https://medium.com/@thehudsonreport/jason-goodman-from-russia-with-love-2c26da55f436

Radical Copter Reliance

brh sikorsky

black rock helicopters playa chicken

Images: Facebook

Thanks to Tex Allen from Why The Nose for sending this. Nice touch with the headdresses on the Playa Chickens – just to really stick it in, a MOOP and cultural appropriation double whammy. Are they Russian?

Here’s Tex’s take:

.

I can confirm this is really happening, and not an elaborate troll. I was offered a ride to the Playa from Reno in this very sexy chopper. It is part of Burning Man’s new Burner Express airline.

From the sky to the playa and beyond – the journey is the adventure!
Room for 8 people and 600lbs of cargo
Service from Reno to the event
Service From the event to Reno
Official Charter with Burner Express

Is this why they made Da Vinci the theme? So they could introduce helicopters? Talk about turning Radical Inclusion and Radical Self Reliance on their heads.

black rock helicopter da vinci

Screenshot 2016-08-29 02.57.09

black rock helicopters girl and guyblack rock helicopters interior

black rock helicopters luggageImages: Black Rock Helicopters | Facebook

Personally I would be stoked just to go in the Jetranger. A Sikorsky S-76 costs a cool $9.9 million. That sure is a sweet ride. They can pick you up from Tahoe too, possibly the world’s most beautiful airport. There’s plenty of room for the sparkle ponies to stretch out, they need their rest.brh girl sleeping

Jalopnik has a story on it:

If you thought Burning Man was just a steampunk renaissance fair for filthy hippies, like I did, you too may be surprised to learn that this $10 million helicopter is doing taxi service for (rich) people who want to go to the party…

That S76 truly is a thing of beauty. Active in various forms since the 1980’s, some can cruise at over 150 MPH and top out at a blistering 175+. And you can see from the interior shots in that clip, Black Rock really spread some magic throughout the substantial passenger cabin. No tent is going to be as nice as one of those seats.

Burning man is actually going on right now through September 5th, by the way. And this year’s theme is da Vinci’s Workshop. So actually, riding in with a helicopter might be appropriate after all.


This is what it looks like to fly over Black Rock City in a helicopter:

Before you enter the port-a-potties, scan the sky for Sikorskys…

 

Sheriff Takes Family on Raven Trip to Burning Man

raven washoe 5155

Who said Burning Man is not a rave? The Sheriff of Washoe County took his wife and kid on a joyride official police business trip to Burning Man in the company chopper. The name of the military grade, electronically souped up aerial enforcer? RAVEN.

Anjeanette Damon at the Reno Gazette-Journal has the scoop:

Washoe County Sheriff Chuck Allen hitched a ride on a preplanned RAVEN helicopter flight to Burning Man last year, and brought along his wife and adult son.

Allen said he had to attend a multi-agency meeting at the annual arts celebration in the Black Rock Desert 110 miles north of Reno on Sept. 5 and didn’t want to make the two-hour drive that often ends in a traffic jam. So, Allen said he asked the department’s chief pilot if he could jump on the flight planned for that day.

“Yes, I did include my wife and son,” Allen told the Reno Gazette-Journal on Thursday. “I can do that as sheriff.”

“I checked to make sure I wasn’t breaking any of my own policies,” he added.

The policy that governs the sheriff’s office helicopter program does not specifically address civilian ride-alongs. It has a section, however, that limits “non-RAVEN affiliated personnel” who are authorized to ride in the helicopter.

“Police, fire, REMSA, (Search and Rescue), county, city, state, military and federal employees actively involved in public safety missions may be carried on RAVEN aircraft in accordance with public law,” the policy reads.

The sheriff’s office Regional Aviation Enforcement Unit was formed in 1996, when the department obtained four helicopters through the U.S. Department of Defense’s surplus program. The unit’s primary mission is to respond to crimes in progress, search and rescue operations and drug enforcement surveillance missions…

Allen said he saw the trip to Burning Man no differently than if his wife went along with him to a department function in “my vehicle assigned to me.”..

Allen said his undersheriff and a chief deputy also brought their wives along on a previous flight to Burning Man…

Allen needed to make the trip to Burning Man to meet with Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen, as well as Bureau of Land Management personnel. Burning Man staff also gave him a tour of the 70,000-person Black Rock City. Allen said he also greeted all of the Washoe County deputies working the event and attended a dinner, which included other law enforcement personnel and their spouses…

The day Allen and his family traveled to Burning Man included the celebration’s pinnacle event of the burning of the man.

Read the full story at the Reno-Gazette Journal

What is RAVEN? It’s the Regional Aviation Enforcement Unit.

In 1996, The Washoe County Sheriff’s Office was able to obtain four helicopters through the Department of Defense’s excess property program. The four aircraft that were delivered to the county were hulks that need quite a bit of restoration and overhaul before being transformed into useable assets. Building two flyable aircraft from the original four, the Regional Aviation Enforcement Unit, or RAVEN, was born. In addition to the two Kiowas that the unit operates, RAVEN is the proud operator of the very first of only 30 manufactured HH-1H Huey helicopters, originally built by Bell for the United States Air Force for Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) purposes. The two Kiowas and one Huey are all in outstanding mechanical condition thanks to the dedication of the full time and part time maintenance personnel assigned to the unit, and were acquired and refurbished using drug forfeiture money rather than taxpayer dollars.

Originally staffed with part-time pilots from the local Army Guard helicopter unit, RAVEN has become a self sufficient aviation unit that has dedicated deputies assigned both full and part time to flying duties.

[Source]

The RAVEN unit operates both rotary and fixed-wing aircraft. They use the OH-58 Kiowa, which is a 2 seater surveillance chopper; and the HH-1H Huey, which is a USAF Search And Rescue variant of one of the largest passenger capacity helicopters ever made. The standard model can take 14 troops as well as the 2 pilots. I’m guessing the Sheriff and his family rode in on the Huey; were there other civilians with them on this flight?

The story has this to say about the logistics:

The Reno Gazette-Journal obtained a flight log from the sheriff’s office that listed three RAVEN flights to Burning Man last year on Sept. 3, Sept. 4 and Sept. 5. However, no public records apparently exist to document the family members’ flight or whether any other civilian ride-alongs have occurred in the past.

According to the log, the helicopter departed Reno at 10:50 a.m. and returned at 11:20 p.m., reporting a total of three hours of actual flight time.

Allen said the flights were not “joy rides.” Rather, they were pre-planned missions that were able to accommodate the extra passengers.

“I would have to stress, yes, it was a scheduled mission,” he said. “I would never encourage or even allow someone to go on a joy ride.”

He said his wife and son stayed with him the entire day and did not travel to participate in the Burning Man event itself.

“My wife and son shadowed me the entire time,” he said.

[Source]

Even though they watched the Man burn (presumably from a VIP position), and attended a fully catered dinner, the Sheriff takes pains to stress that they didn’t participate in the Burning Man event. This is similar logic to BMOrg’s claim that 80,000 people sitting down to watch a 30-minute uninterruptible performance with hundreds of fire dancers, followed by an hour+ pyrotechnics show when they burn the Man, does not in any way constitute live entertainment.

It doesn’t sound like these civilians needed tickets. Glad to hear that the LEOs can entertain their families by spectating on all the participants. Hey, if they can’t have bottomless Chocotacos, at least they can perv on some titties and shirt-cockers, and laugh at all the freaks they’re looking down on.

washoe sheriff huey1

Read more about the Washoe RAVEN unit at Vertical Magazine.