Are there any non-local pilots flying that route?
I have only once flown into the Washington area, and it was more than a decade ago in a light single. I seem to recall DCA required special training even for airline pilots.
Is that not the case now or not for helicopter pilots? I thought it was a case where you need to be familiar to use those routes.
there's no non-local civil traffic within the FRZ per 93.341 without a TSA waiver but the DoD has can fly who they deem fit. I find it hard to believe that at least the IP was not very familiar with the landmarks and route. It appears that CWO Eaves was the IP overseeing the currency check for Pilot2. I assume IP knew that area very well to conduct that assessment. From a couple weeks earlier, it seems there's a training route loop
https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/map/PAT25 for a previous PAT25 . I would think it reasonable that this is the training card (or some similar route) that they briefed and were meant to be following. IMO there's a reasonable chance CWO Eaves was also IP on that prior .
I fly in the DC FRZ and you hear the helo folks on freq all day, ( a lot of Coast Guard, various DoD, various fed LEO, some medivac and lifeguard)
and they all know every inch of the area. Also surprising to listen to is that helo pilots through the FRZ are pretty much
self-directed and entrusted with self sufficiency that fixed wing traffic is not. They've all been vetted, fingerprinted, have their own squawks etc and so ATC gives them a lot of respect. They announce intentions to 'fly route X' or 'request direct Andrews', and ATC is able to understand their intentions and clears a path and approves - and then you don't hear a peep from them until they reach the endpoint - then they announce next intention like "Field in sight'" -> "contact Andrews tower on..., Freq change approved" -> "good day" and
the whole 20 minutes had a total of three radio calls..
They seem to all know what they're doing and it's nobody's giving off the vibe that it's any kind of initial training for anything - you don't hear ATC having to telling them to 'say altitude' or 'turn left 10 degrees' or really anything, and you don't hear the pilots giving half arsed requests. [This level of trust might have had consequences, but I'll defer my judgement]
For all helo pilots local knowledge is a survival. Lots of civi helos in DC are based out of KFME, and the ones I know every inch of territory, every local landmark, overpass, bridge, body of water within the DC beltway like the back of their hand - one guy knows off the top of his head if every single road is asphalt or concrete, light or unlight, etc. Similar experience when I met news chopper folks based in the Valley - they knew hundreds of places in greater Los Angeles that I never even heard of.
Landmarks in DC are hard to miss, basically every one knows where the WW bridge, Hanes Point, the route of the Potomac, etc.. DCA is strangely popular for plane watching (there's rec areas to view at each end) so an absurdly large number of non-av people in the area are familiar with how the traffic flow works. I kayak right below the crash area and when wind is out of North, you can see landing lights of 7+ sequenced arrivals coming up the Potomac, it's basically impossible to miss the incoming landing parade and even non-av people get the concept. The WW bridge would seem to me a good point of reference for a callout, everybody knows where to immediately look. It's hard to think that the IP didn't understand local reference of the ATC traffic advisory.