Originally Posted by
malabo
So they flew low, clipped a wire, and died. Not exclusively the turf of the unwashed, judging from the number of similar incidents happening to well-trained militaries, and regulated and AOC wall-papered civil operators.
Is there an RFM limitation to fly the Huey only from the right seat? We regularly fly the similar 212 single pilot from the left. There's a whole tolerated industry to fly passengers in warbirds, for some sanctioned compensation. Flying NAP is inviting disaster and to me has no place in joyrides, especially with a passenger's hands on the controls and the pilot turned around
to entertain the back seat passengers. Did the tragic flight deviate from the previously defined route, then loose or non-existent ops control.
Maybe at the end of the investigation it will end up like the Irish SAR 92, nobody at fault, just an accident.
The UH-1 series Operator Manuals (-10) require a minimum crew of one pilot in the right seat. I don't know if there is a left seat conversion for the UH-1B but from the video it appears that it is an unmodified military UH-1B.
In 34 years as an Army Aviator I have never heard the term NAP used to indicate NOE flight. I think the internet investigator who made the youtube video created it. The cockpit video appears to be low level/contour flight. I didn't see anything close to NOE (NAP?).