Thanks for that JJ
Helen sadly came along with an inane, uneducated attack at a time when ,unbelievably for pprune ,the thread was not taken over by self righteous so called pilots who never fly in less than cavok etc etc
This is not about personalities and point scoring ...it is about addressing a REAL problem the helicopter community have. I do not believe you are going to stop people flying in bad weather...i do it all the time here..it is part of living in yorkshire !! I do firmly believe that it is in the training we give. I was lucky that i had a head start when i started flying in UK weather having done crop spraying which gives you an insight into safe low level flying. I also believe that most pilots who have developed their method for scud running have done it by trial and error...and they are the survivors. We need to impress upon pilots ( again IMHO) that in bad weather FORGET about 500ft and all that crap...all you HAVE to do is keep OUT of cloud. At the point where you are below the cloud you can decide whether to make that descent part of a precautionary landing or carry on at a speed where you can see obstacles AND stop if faced with cloud on the ground. IF you try to do as you have been taught...ie i MUST keep 500ft then you are likely to enter cloud and the rest is history. QUESTION. How many scud running flights have come to grief in last few years by flying into obstacles (i am not counting aerial work etc ) ??? How many have ended up in disorientation ???? We should teach students that staying clear of cloud is the only golden rule and if you go low you go SLOW.