This figure may change if you do strange things to the line, like bend it, or use a choker hitch (the sharper the bend, the greater the reduction). Once you’ve bent a line, don’t use it for slinging again.
Ground equipment should include radios and whistles (for communications), weighing scales, accurate to at least 25 lbs, and capable of weighing more than the maximum payload. Emergency equipment should be similar to that for Pleasure Flying sites (see below).
Ground crew should have hard hats (maybe different colours for different groups) with chin straps, goggles or safety glasses, protective gloves and a metal probe for discharging static electricity. As mentioned above, radios in the helmets are most useful.
Static Electricity
This comes from a number of sources, the main ones being engine and precipitation charging from friction between the aircraft's surfaces and airborne particles. There is also a risk from thunderstorms and snow particles.
Although the capacitance associated with this is small, voltages as high as tens of kilovolts can throw people to the ground, as well as being dangerous near potentially explosive cargoes or fuel tanks, or even short-circuiting the hook’s electrics. It's for this reason that an earthed static discharge probe is applied to the hook before any contact takes place and the procedure kept up as much as possible. If you can’t get one, make the guys wear thick rubber gloves.
Alternatively, transmitting on the HF or VHF radio can discharge a great deal of static through the antenna.

Setting Up
Before doing anything else, you should check the following carefully:
Helicopter Condition
Check your HOGE performance and use the standard lapse rate if you don’t know what the temperature at the dropoff point. Remember your fuel consumption will be higher than normal, due to using high power in the hover and flying at slower speeds. Leaving the heavier loads till last will help with your planning.
The rear doors need to be removed so that used harnesses can be placed inside quickly from either side—very often dropoff points are in places where you can't land but only come to a very low hover. Also, there is a little less weight for the machine to carry (50 lbs on a 206, I believe). If you’re doing vertical reference, you will need your door off as well so you can stick your head out of the side. However, taking any door off will mean checking weight and balance and performance figures, and your VNE—going too fast may pressurise the cabin and blow the windscreen out, which is particularly serious in the AS 350. You will also have higher fuel consumption and slower flight times.
You need a mirror so you can see the behaviour of the hook and the load. The hook mechanism must be checked for consistent electrical (and mechanical) operation, as must all standby release methods. All hooks must be enclosed, that is, there must be no opportunity for the load to come out of the mouth of the hook when flying.