Re: Three Dead....Another Night Bad Weather Flight Over Dark Terrain
Do we dare to dream of a day when we can launch, single-pilot on a bad-weather night in our twin-engine, IFR-equipped helicopter with a four-axis autopilot and fly to a scene in the clouds, then make a coupled approach to a stabilized hover 100' above the highest surrounding obstacle?
I do!
And why not? That program Nick was involved in proved that it *is* possible. And it *was* possible back when the study was done which, if memory serves, was some years ago. It is we pilots (especially those of us who've risen into management positions) who aren't pushing hard enough. We keep accepting this paradigm of day/night VFR EMS operations. And helicopters keep crashing into the ground in preventable and predictable accidents.
The future is here, folks. We have the technology, and it needn't be prohibitively expensive. The Chelton Synthetic Vision system is awesome and will only get better. Nick's proposal might seem unrealistic right now, but let's think outside the box. Let's ask ourselves why we can't have such a system? Yes, it might put an end to all of the 206's and 350's running around VFR after dark, but maybe that time has come anyway.