Originally Posted by
Robbiee
If a required artificial horizon and "night rating" didn't keep a 16,000 hour pilot from crashing, then what good would it do a low time guy in an R44?
Instead of increased regulation it might be better to just try harder to get the point across that if you're not going to be able to clearly see the ground at anytime during a night flight, then just file and fly IFR.
,...and if you can't, just don't fly!
From the accident report the pilot should not have been carrying passengers.....
The pilot reached 60 years of age in October 2010 and was therefore subject to additional check
requirements. Civil Aviation Regulation (CAR) 5.126 required that a commercial helicopter pilot
not undertake a commercial flight as pilot in command with passengers if the pilot was 60 years
old unless they had completed a proficiency check or flight review in the previous year. 4 The pilot
reached 60 years of age in October 2010, and his last proficiency check was conducted on
27 April 2010. Therefore, he was not permitted to undertake any commercial flights with
passengers after 27 April 2011.
and shouldn't have been night flying with passengers.....
Of the pilot’s total recorded flight time, 483.8 hours were conducted at night. He recorded a total of
3.4 hours night flying within the previous 12 months and about 30 hours over the last 4 years. To
carry passengers at night, the pilot was required to have conducted 3 night take-offs and landings
in the previous 90 days (see Requirements and guidance for night operations). The only recorded
night flight in the preceding 90 days was in VH-NTV on 24 June 2011. This was a 1.3 hour flight,
which consisted of a night departure from Cooma, New South Wales, and a night landing at the
helicopter’s base in Sydney. The two previous recorded night flights were 0.6 hours on
4 April 2011 and 1.5 hours on 7 September 2010.