Once the nurses get the victim into the helicopter, kierzwinski lifts off. what happens to the helicopter as it lifts off at the end of the story?

Finally he sees the ambulance. Kierzwinski climbs, slows, brings his tail round 180 degrees and  

drops his skids in the middle of the road. Gupta shoves the sliding door aside. The ambulance  

crew pushes one gurney forward. Together they lift the victim into the helicopter.

“Where’s the other one?” Kierzwinski asks.

“She didn’t make it,” the paramedic yells back.  

Kierzwinski nods. The nurses fumble with the straps as they tie the gurney to the helicopter  

floor, which is jumping like a wild horse. “We’ve got wind!” Kierzwinski says. “Let’s go! Let’s  

go!” The nurses take their seats and Kierzwinski lifts off. The helicopter climbs, but slowly, fighting  

the storm. Kierzwinski thinks: I’m lifting, I’m lifting, we’re gonna make it.

He sees the power line at the last possible moment. With the storm to his back he cannot climb  

any faster, and he cannot stop. He feels the impact before he hears it, and he knows he has  

hooked the power line with his skids. As Trooper 1 loses speed, time slows down. Kierzwinski  

pulls the stick with all his strength, hoping to break the line. The helicopter is temporarily  

suspended, roaring at full throttle but motionless in the sky. The radio comes to life.

in the problem you wrote said that the taxi charges $0.070 per mile(which would be 7 cents per mile), but then in your suggested equation you have it as $0.70 per mile (which is 70 cents per mile).

the latter seems more realistic, so i will assume that the taxi costs $5.00 and charges $0.70 per mile with tolls costing an additional $3.50. and it asks you to find how far you can travel on $36.50.

let x the number of miles traveled. since the taxi charges $0.70 per mile, multiplying this by the miles traveled (x) will yield the cost of the taxi ride as far as how far it took you. then adding this amount to the cost of the taxi ($5.00) and the additional cost for the tolls ($3.50) will give you the total cost of the taxi ride ($36.50)

that is,

            (0.70)x + 5.00 + 3.50 = 36.50

adding the like terms on the left-hand side of this equation, we arrive at the following:

            (0.70)x + 8.50 = 36.50

subtracting 8.50 from both sides of the equation, we get:

            (0.70)x = 28.00

to solve for x, divide both sides of the equation above by the coefficient of x (that being, 0.70):

            x = 40

thus, you can travel up to 40 miles on $36.50