Alright, it's gripe time!!!!! The gloves are off, are they? Right then.....
As a helicopter pilot, I've been thoroughly pissed off for ages about the fact that fixed-wing pilots almost NEVER see my helicopter in the air!!!!! Why should we always have to be the ones to take avoiding action? I know you guys sit there with the aircraft trimmed out, looking at the GPS most of the time (or going to sleep), but don't you have eyes at all? I know that helicopters, especially small ones, are difficult to see, but if I'd filed an airprox for every near miss caused by the fact that plank pilots just don't see me, the airprox guy's computer would have crashed long ago! Forget rules of the air and who's supposed to take avoiding action - if I see a f/w aircraft, I KNOW it won't see me, and I keep out of the way. It's called self-preservation.
And while I'm about it, will some of you A/G controllers please learn what helicopters can do! We DON'T need to fly circuits, and it's not a great idea, since we slow down before landing. And the f/w pilot behind us, who of course won't see us (probably still looking at his GPS....) will just carry on....well, you get the point. OTOH, please don't ask us to come down vertically from 200ft, or fly low level across a whole line of aircraft to reach the fuel pumps; the other aircraft don't like it, and blame us.
And if occasionally - very occasionally, mind you - we're not perfect, bear in mind that we may still be recovering from being scared out of our wits by some of you flying a couple of feet away from us and then blaming our rotor downwash, or just given a hard time because you expected us to stop dead in mid-air and land on a sixpence between tall trees in a howling gale.
Phew, I feel much better now.
