rule 5
Rule 5 - The implications of changing it so that you must remain 500ft above the surface are many and I cannot believe heli pilots do not realise how serious this is. Once changed it will be forever.
Most pilots I have spoken too shrug their shoulders and say they will simply ignore the changes proposed. Why should we suddenly become cowboys and law breakers for no good reason, I PREFER TO FLY LEGAL. These proposed changes mean - the annual heli club trip across the Channel under the notoriuos sea fog will not be possible. Commercial operators and clubs will no longer be able to go mountain flying. The obvious training/autos to the ground no longer possible etc.
Increased risk of mid air collision - at the moment helicopter pilots in bad weather pick their own height to negotiate a ridge or hill, If they are trying to maintain 500ft, one from one side and one from the other its hardly safer. To comply helicopters will suddenly be flying up with the fixed wings dodging around in the clouds then trying to find a hole to get down with all the problems of control - overspeeds - negative G etc. Another result will be increased traffic over towns and villages as pilots turn right or left to follow the valley instead of flying through the 400 ft gap over the sparesely populated ridge. Pilots will be flying up a valley for half an hour to find the are trapped by a cloud base either side, if they decide to turn back and not fly through - fuel becomes another worry.
Commercial operators will be hard hit by having to turn back , passengers will be baffled when a pilot tells them he has to turn back because there is only a 450ft gap and he cannot break the 500ft rule and fly over the hill.
When the weather catches a pilot out the safety option to fly down to the surface must be kept, I am alive today by staying visual with the surface when conditions have got bad and on two occasions landing in a field. You have enough to worry about without the thought of being procecuted. I have never flown fixed wing but if these rules go through whats the point of having the manouverability of a helicopter?