Sorry mate,
I don't think looking in the mirror (if installed) is a good idea if in the meanwhile I'm using a winch operator as source of primary position informations.
There's a lapse in when the informations come to the pilot from down the bottom of the hook via the helicopter motion and winch operator patter.
The pilot knows that, the winch operator knows that, the winchman knows that either.
On the other side looking directly down through a mirror is a source of direct informations in which the only lapse is coming from the relationship between the load and the helicopter and the cable length, so no patter and speech lapse involved here. Which can be good when performing single pilot sling load operations.
Winching is more MCC related matter. I tried to have mirror habits and winch operator patter merged together, believing it was a safety improvement but I **** up things.
Much more better to leave the mirror or vertical reference habits out of there while winching people down and up a cliff.
Radalt: for winching that's ok on sea to keep heigh references in a basically no-references environment, useless in mountains where I have more references I need.
My opinion
Last edited by maeroda; 5th July 2014 at 06:42.