Contributor guidelines – Helicopassion

1. Spirit of contribution

Helicopassion is an independent platform dedicated to the helicopter world, built on the sharing of field-based experiences, images and knowledge.

Published contributions are based on:

• passion
• respect for everyone’s work
• a documentary, authentic and contextualised approach

Helicopassion favours content rooted in reality, showing the aircraft, environments and women and men who bring them to life.

2. Who can contribute?

Helicopassion welcomes contributions from:

• amateur or professional photographers
• pilots and crew members
• mechanics, technicians and operations personnel
• enthusiasts with relevant experience or insight into the helicopter world

How to submit a contribution?

You can send your photos, ideas or testimonies by message via the Contact page.

There is no need to write a complete editorial text: Helicopassion can handle the editorial shaping based on the essential information provided: location, date, aircraft and context.

Contributions that enrich the site through a rare image, a precise context, a testimony or field information are particularly welcome.

3. Nature of contributions

Contributions may take different forms:

• photographs
• mission or flight stories
• field reports
• technical or operational information
• illustrated testimonies

Helicopassion may adapt the editorial presentation — layout, captions, optimisation for the web format, integration into an article or dossier — while respecting the meaning and spirit of the content submitted.

About images

To best serve the documentary approach of the site, certain characteristics make an image easier to showcase. Helicopassion favours images that are:

• sharp and well exposed
• showing the helicopter in context: in flight, on mission, in its environment or in human interaction
• showing rotor movement whenever possible

Photos that are too distant, heavily cropped or without rotor dynamics may be more difficult to use editorially.

These criteria are not exclusive: a rare, documented image or one linked to a specific context may be of interest even if it does not meet all these elements.

4. Copyright and ownership of content

Each contributor remains the full owner of their texts and images.

By authorising publication on Helicopassion, the contributor grants a non-exclusive right of distribution, limited to the Helicopassion website and its associated editorial content, within a non-commercial framework.

No transfer of rights is requested and no commercial exploitation of the submitted content is carried out.

5. Identification and promotion of contributors

Contributions published on Helicopassion are clearly identified by the author’s name, in accordance with the site’s editorial practices.

This identification may take the form of a credit associated with each image or a reference within the relevant article or report. It is part of an approach aimed at recognising contributors’ work and visibility.

Authors whose contributions are published are added to the Helicopassion contributors list.

When an author provides a website, personal gallery, dedicated page or external publication space, this link is added to the Credits & contributors page, unless otherwise requested by the author.

When submitted photographs include a watermark, signature or logo added by their author, these elements are preserved as they are when published.

In order to make authors easier to identify in the event of distribution or redistribution of images by third parties, particularly on social media, Helicopassion may add a text credit when the submitted content does not include a watermark or visible credit mention.

Depending on the case and the distribution format, this credit — mentioning the author’s first and last name, in the form “© First name Last name” or “© First name Last name - Helicopassion”, in accordance with the site’s editorial practices — may appear on higher-resolution versions of the images made available, without necessarily appearing on the reduced-size image displayed on the page.

The provisions relating to identification, credits and usage described above apply to contributions from individuals. Content from institutions, operators, manufacturers or communication departments is subject to specific arrangements, detailed on the Copyright & published content page.

6. Responsibilities and editorial framework

The contributor guarantees that they are the author of the submitted content or that they hold the necessary authorisations for its publication.

Helicopassion undertakes to:

• respect authors’ rights
• preserve the meaning and editorial integrity of the content
• contextualise published images and stories

Sensitive content — military, operational, identifiable persons, regulated locations or sites subject to authorisation — is handled with particular care, in a spirit of responsibility.

7. Corrections and long-term publication

The contributor may request at any time:

• the correction of factual information
• the adjustment of a credit or identification

Content published on Helicopassion is part of a long-term editorial approach. Except in exceptional cases — obvious error, proven legal issue, clear harm to individuals — content is not removed once published.

This rule is intended to preserve the editorial consistency of the site, the long-term value of the articles and the editorial work carried out.

8. Distribution on social media

As part of the information and promotion of publications, the contributor authorises Helicopassion to share, on its official social media channels, a limited selection of images from published articles.

This distribution:

• has the sole purpose of announcing or relaying an article
• systematically mentions the author’s credit
• links back to the content published on Helicopassion
• does not constitute commercial exploitation of the images

9. Image reuse and author protection

If Helicopassion is contacted regarding the reuse of a photograph published on the site, Helicopassion undertakes to:

• never resell, transfer or license the rights to an image belonging to a contributor
• never act as a commercial intermediary
• systematically redirect any request to the author concerned

Any external reuse is exclusively a matter of agreement between the author and the requester. The general rules regarding reuse and sharing are detailed on the Copyright & published content page.

10. Contact and exchanges

Contribution proposals, questions or exchanges relating to publications can be sent via the Contact page.

Helicopassion remains open to any exchange or clarification regarding contributions.