Riding a Pelican

Watch YouTube video on how to "Ride a Pelican" 8s1o7HKmPFA

On some levels it's possible for a player to climb or jump on top of a Pelican and ride the ship to its destination.

343 Guilty Spark
At the beginning of the level, when you are still in the Pelican for a few seconds, throw a grenade out of the Pelican and you will stay inside the Pelican. It will fly around the map, eventually going into the hills and hovering there for the remainder of the level. The hills spans around the perimeter of the map and if you go around them, you will eventually find a Marine with a bucket hat and no weapon whom stands completely still (an Easter Egg). If you attack him, his responses and death sequence are still programmed into the game.

It is also possible to jump onto the top of the Pelican using a boulder at the nose of the ship. After that, you must time your jump right to get to the ledge that was to your right at the beginning of the level. Using this method, you can explore the area on foot.

Assault On The Control Room
At the beginning of the level, Pelican Echo 419 will drop you off in a forerunner building. As soon as you are dropped off, it will say "HOLD X TO RIDE PELICAN". If done successfully, you will be able to ride it for a short time. At the end of the ride you will die. Although it is possible to survive if you are playing on co-op mode and one person gets out of the Pelican at the right spot. When you get in the Pelican at the start of the level, you will always pass through a checkpoint. The checkpoint is always there, regardless of whether you get in or not. If one would wish to continue the level after the ride, you'd have to hold x to get out again.

Another way to do this is on the first bridge that you come to. A pelican carrying fire team Zulu will begin its descent near the middle of the bridge. If you jump at the right time, you will be able to land on it, hop off at its descent, and miss a very aggravating part of the level on Heroic and Legendary.

Metropolis
Play through the Metropolis (Level) until you get to the part where you have to rescue some Marines trapped in a building. You will be in a street with a couple of Jackal snipers, two Wraiths, and a couple of Ghosts. Another Wraith and two Phantoms will come momentarily, followed by two Pelicans.

Go to the far staircase between the streets; this is the one closer to the building the Marines were in. This is the point where the Pelican will drop off some more Marines for you. Be at the top of this staircase before the Pelican begins its descent. As soon as the Marines have exited the Pelican, jump toward the passenger bay and hold the X button. Aim for the bottom of the Pelican, right near the back entrance. An easier way to do this is to park a vehicle where the Marines are dropped off, climb on it, and wait for the Pelican. This should allow you to climb in the cargo bay instead of boarding.

After a short trip, the Pelican falls to the bottom of the level. In Halo: Combat Evolved, a free-falling Pelican would travel the exact same path every time, but things might be different here. Occasionally, in co-op mode, everybody will land on a giant concrete platform (too far down to get back into the level, and too far up to continue to the very bottom). The Pelican may continue its way down, while you and the marines are stuck there. Sometimes instead of landing on the giant concrete platform, you land on a invisible platform which is below the giant concrete platform.

Outskirts
Also, if you jump onto the rooftops at the beginning of the Outskirts (Level) and completely ignore the battle in the first part, a checkpoint will appear and Sergeant Johnson will spawn and begin boarding a Pelican which will also come. If you jump onto the Pelican it will fly off with you on it. You won't get far though because it disappears in mid-air!

Delta Halo
Another example is on the level Delta Halo, where you continue as normal until the pelican comes in and drops off the Warthog. Get to where the Shade turret on a small hill was and then wait for the Pelican to come to a halt. Then Grenade jump up to the Pelican. It will fly around with you on its back and then move forward faster making you drop down to your death.

Another way is to continue until the part of the temple where the Pelican starts to drop off weapon pods. You can jump atop the temple via crouch jumping and grenade jumping and finally jump onto the Pelican. It will fly off into a hill and disappear. You will be very far from where you are supposed to be, but the sight is considered very cool.

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Sierra 117
While you must ride the one the end to complete the mission, you can instead get into its troop bay and kill the marine on the turret. (don't destroy the turret). You can shoot the rounds off the turret, though the mission will still be complete if you do so anyway, but you do it in style.

Crow's Nest
The pelican in the first hanger bay can be ridden by jumping on deployable covers while the pelican is coming out of its spot when the hanger is clear. If you time it right, you can get into the pelican's bay (or if you are good, possibly it's cockpit while it stops being part of the scenery and an actual vehicle). it may take a couple of frustrating tries.

Another ridable pelican appears when you get to the part where Johnson gets on the pelican. You can jump on the pelican however,as soon as it takes off you will die.

The Storm
At the beginning of Rally Point Alpha, right before the scarab fight, there will be a pelican that will drop off two mongooses. The back will open up then both vehicles will pull out fastly. There will be a short moment in which you can jump into the pelican right after the second mongoose pulls out. You will stay in for about 2 seconds before it closes again. Then you will ride it for about 2-5 seconds, shortly after you will die, the reason for this is unknown.

The Covenant
At the beginning of The Covenant when you destroy the AA Wraith, the Pelican will drop down to deliver a Mongoose. This is your chance to jump inside the pelican. When you do, it will stay floating for awhile until it finally leaves. It will take you around to the area where you first started and then an invisible wall will push you out. It's easier in co-op.

The pelican that drops off the scorpion tank is also rideable. An interesting glitch on co-op is that have one friend stay in the pelican and the other take off in a vehicle. After the guy in the vehicle moves for some time, the player and the pelican will teleport to where the other person is. It will some how drop through the walls of the map, though it won't go through the scorpion tank. Note that the pelican is also flippable.

Miranda Keyes' pelican is also ridable in the battle with the 2 scarabs. It is the pelican flying during that battle. When Sergeant Pete Stacker yells "Hornets inbound!" if you stand on the little ledge where the Hornets land, you can see where the pelican lands for a couple of seconds and then flies off. Restart from a checkpoint, and rush to that position (I recommend a Warthog)The pelican bay will be closed but if you jump onto the hood of the Warthog, and jump while holding RB you will enter the pelican and will be able to actually ride in the pelican. Another way is in co-op to have one person drive a hornet and another stand on one of its hoverpan wings. the hornet driver drives close to the pelican and the friend can board the pelican.

Pelican rotates, passing through solid ground
Watch the Pelican spin and pass through solid ground (Around 50sec mark) NPhKsY9ZLHY

Halo 2
If you manage to get to the bottom (blue area), you notice two pretty interesting things. The first is that the Pelican lands facing up, or keeps rocking back and forth until it looks straight up. The second is that when you walk up to it, it says, "Press X to flip Banshee." Even though the vehicle is a Pelican and not a Banshee.

Then if you press X it flips end for end and if you time it right it will hit you and send you flying into the air. The Scarab Gun cannot be obtained if someone gets hit by the pelican. The one on top of the bridges is too high up (even if the Sputnik skull is activated) and too (horizontally) far away. The fall timer would kill anyone trying to get the other scarab gun.

Also if you are lucky you can get the Pelican to end up as though it had landed perfectly, you can get into it and go all the way through to the pilots seat and press X. You can now fly the Pelican as though it were a Banshee. It looks pretty cool having a pelican doing barrel rolls and flips!!

Halo 3
Killing a pelicans driver or ejecting him/her will cause the unmanned pelican and its rides and turret gunner (if one is in there) to completely fall through the walls and everyone will fall to there death. videos on youtube show how to do this. note that if it goes upside down, it is flippable. (there is no sign saying "hold rb to flip..."

Head Stuck In Ceiling
Looking at the Pelican in Metropolis that you can ride from the back, if you get in on the right side your head will be stuck in the ceiling and you will not see your weapon, however, you can still look around.