Originally Posted by
Gordy
Here is a still from the video....me flying.... You see it?
Yes, I see the wire. The thought of hitting that over that valley isn’t a happy one.
However, one thing we used to stress in the military was that when flying at low level was NEVER to fly down the middle of a valley, because as well as exposing yourself to enemy fire, that’s precisely where you’re most likely to encounter wires! It’s much safer to fly off to one side, near the apex of the higher terrain. Wires have to be supported at either end and there will be poles near the top of a hill in order to string them across a valley. The poles are generally much easier to spot than the wire itself.
I’m glad to say that I’m not ever going to be in that situation again (especially the 150’ agl by night on NVG). The old heli pilot’s nightmare of trying to pull up from low level only to be held down by wires above doesn’t seem to trouble me these days.