Overpitched, was waiting for someone to mention the Oz mustering pilot as it is common for the senior pilots to do there 1000-1400Hr limit in a season of which 80-90% would be low level and inside the HV Curve and mainly in the R22 with some H300's about (few and far between). You have to be aware of absolutely everything around you in this environment, including thinking about your wind, cattle, other helicopters, groundcrew, fuel,Ts&Ps, your surrounding around you eg, trees,powerlines, birds and all the other nastys.Trying to maintain your airspeed as much as you can is one of the most important factors I believe as well as always planning yourself escape routes before you go into every situation as these things combined will help to minimise risks. If something does go wrong you can only try to put yourself in the best situation possible. All this was taught to me when starting off in mustering by high hour pilots and it still stays in the back of my mind in every situation I go into.
It's unfortunate that some rogue mustering pilots stereotype the whole mustering industry into "cowboy pilots". That's why I believe you see alot of mustering pilots getting out of the industry after 2-3yrs as they don't want to be labelled with this cowboy pilot image by the rest of the aviation world!
I do believe a mustering pilot with the same amount of hours as a tourist or charter pilot is miles ahead skills wise when it comes to handling and flying a machine maybe not flying a textbook circuit or doing the best radio calls but actually flying the helicopter. Anyone else with comments on this?
Anyway getting pretty sick of the wet season at the moment and just about ready to get into another season in the next month or so
