Helimutt
Thanks for your last post.
DennisK
Thanks for the four-year moving average stats - pretty alarming stuff. I'm glad I'm past the 'newby' stage.
My comment on the four-year moving average is that I think it's probably less to do with the JAR 5-hour simulated instrument requirement (much as I wish we could pin it on that) but probably more due to the recent ubiquitous employment of moving-map GPS systems. Even the lowliest helicopter now has a few-hundred quids worth of GPS system somewhere in the cockpit. What this does is give the pilot, whatever their experience, extra mental capacity and therefore extra confidence. The time spent thumbing your way along a map in deteriorating weather conditions are long gone. Instead, we all know where we are, all of the time.
A few years ago, when the weather turned, it all got too difficult and flights would get knocked on the head sooner rather than later. Now, there's the temptation to follow the low ground depicted on the Skymap and press-on long after it would have been prudent to turn round.
I love GPS. I use it daily and it makes my life massively easier. I just feel a little sorry for the new-generation of pilots that know nothing else. I'm convinced GPS is indirectly responsibe for several of the recent UK fatal press-on-itis accidents.
Also, we must not forget that helicopter ownership has doubled over the past decade and that alone skews the figures to make them seem less alarming.
Aplogies for the thread creep.
JJ